Texas REALTORS® Score a Great Victory!
I am sure many of you may already know, but just in case you missed it. All Texas REALTORS® and TREPAC investors won a great victory at the Capitol during the 82nd Texas legislature. What victory you may be asking??? Thanks to your investments, and the efforts of TREPAC, a new law was recently passed that exempts real estate brokerage activities from liability under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. If you didn’t already know TREPAC is the Texas Real Estate Political Action Committee. 
This new law potentially saves you thousands of dollars in attorney fees, court costs, and higher insurance premiums....not to mention a few sleepless nights too. I can certainly relate to paying those high deductibles on my E & O from a lawsuit that was filed against me and my broker about three years ago. At the time, I wasn’t sure I was going to survive in this industry, but I was fortunate that after two years of depositions and meetings with lawyers, all those Deceptive Trade Practice Act charges were finally dropped against me and my broker.
If you want some numbers, one Texas REALTOR® in San Antonio(but it was not me) recently racked up over $100,000 in attorney fees fighting a meritless lawsuit. Others have found that their E & O providers were unwilling to fight DTPA claims and are advised to settle out of court for $5,000 to $10,000, which by the way, is the exact amount of their E & O deductible. Kind of makes you wonder?? The deductible was what I was paying on when all the charges were dropped against us two years ago. Thanks to our Agent Leadership Council(ALC), all my legal fees and debts were forgiven when the lawsuit was dropped. However, many agents are not always that fortunate.
It’s time to celebrate this hard fought victory for Texas Real Estate agents. I encourage all my fellow REALTORS® to support and invest in TREPAC. I know I will continue to do so.
If you want to help fend off the future threats to your business and keep TREPAC strong, please contribute today at TREPAC’s website, or remember to pay that extra amount when it time to pay your annual Board, and State memberships. It will be money well spent.
(Images provided by TREPAC)
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