Maine Real Estate Commission Proposed Rule Changes - Who's asking for them?

Follow the following link to see the proposed changes in red: 

http://www.maine.gov/pfr/professionallicensing/documents/REC%20Rulemaking%20Pkg.pdf

Maine Real Estate Commission - Purpose

The Real Estate Commission was established to protect the public through the regulation of the real estate industry in Maine. It is charged with the duty of supervising real estate licensees in a manner to ensure that they meet standards which will promote public understanding and confidence in the business of real estate brokerage.

The primary responsibilities of the Commission are to license qualified applicants as real estate agencies, real estate brokers, real estate associate brokers, and sales agents, to investigate alleged violations of the law, impose sanctions, and prescribe curricula and standards for real estate education programs.

 This Was Last Updated: March 10, 2009

My questions are these:

•1.                  Are the current changes being proposed because we have not had prior standards in the past under both chapters 400 and 410 that not only did not promote the public understanding and confidence in the business of real estate brokerage, but do not work currently?

•2.                  Are these proposed changes being based on a significant amount of documented consumer complaints that can be produced?

•3.                  How many complaints have been filed recently by the public, not licensed real estate agents, regarding how a title company/escrow agent disperses funds after a closing to an agency or it's affiliated licensee's when the agency has authorized permission to do so?   

•4.                  Regarding domain names and web sites, in today's world of modern technology with an infinite number of potential web sites available to upload a photo of a property too for a client, how can we serve the publics best interest in promoting a property for sale, when many of these sites are unable to allow an agent to include the agencies contact information with the photo upload?  At this point, when a client is expecting an agent to promote the property on something such as facebook, are we to tell them that this commission prohibits us from doing so because we can't promote the agency?  Is that serving the public in it's best interest in the millennium?

 •5.                  Finally, I believe that some of these proposed changes are a distraction from the primary focus of the commission as defined as it's purpose and that many of these changes would have a significant impact financially on agents and agencies when most are struggling to survive during these extremely difficult economic times.  Make sure that what is being proposed and considered is because of a public outcry for change and regulation, not personal professional restrictions being imposed from within the leadership of the agency.