Document Diligence: Safeguarding Your Transactions
A veteran broker once said, "No one ever failed in this business because of the paperwork." It's true: Real estate is a relationship-based business. However, to protect consumers and yourself, knowing how to manage the paperwork--whether it's cotton bond and ink or bits and bytes--is integral to your role. Maintaining detailed and organized records, even for transactions that don't close, not only satisfies regulatory requirements, it also protects your license. It proves you did what you were supposed to do when you were supposed to do it.
We can't do anything about paper cuts, but if you're ready to become more comfortable selecting and using documents to ensure on-time, accurate, and litigation-free real estate transactions, let's do this.
Course highlights include:
- Typical transaction documents
- Standard clauses, addenda, and contingencies
- How to practice within the scope of your license (but avoid unauthorized practice of law)
- How to field and manage multiple offers
- Managing signatures, notarizations, and identification
- Best practices in transaction management
- Best practices in document retention
- Keeping documents secure, both hard copy and digital
- Wire fraud prevention
State Requirements For Michigan
Michigan State Requirement Details for Real Estate Continuing Education
Renewal Date: Every three years from date of issuance
Hours Required: 18 hours
- 6 hours – Legal Update
- 3 hours – Fair Housing
- 9 hours – Elective
Note: 2 hours of legal education courses involving statutes, rules, and court cases are required in each year of a license cycle.
*Effective 2/13/2024 all real estate professionals must complete one hour of Fair Housing in each year of the license cycle.
For those renewing within the first year of the effective date of the law, if selected for a Continuing Education Audit, the Department will take into consideration the shortened window for you to comply with the new law. For those renewing more than 1 year after the effective date of the law (after February 13, 2025), if selected for a Continuing Education Audit, the Department will use its discretion but would expect that at least one hour of this new training is completed for each license cycle year since the law went into effect.
Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) - Board of Real Estate Brokers and Salespersons
Street Address: 611 W. Ottawa, Lansing MI 48933
Mailing Address: PO Box 30004, Lansing MI 48909
Telephone: 517.241.0199
Fax: 517.241.9416
Street Address: 720 N. Washington Ave., Lansing, MI 48906
Telephone: 844.642.6633