Looks like the business card printing stores in New York will get a fresh influx of orders, largely from real estate brokers. The Real Estate Board of New York will soon impose a ban on the titles that these agents carry.
For a long time now, well-performing real estate agents have been given top corporate titles such as "Senior Vice Presidents", "Vice Presidents", "Executive Vice Presidents" etc. The custom has been a continuing trend among property firms and the titles are used as recognition of extraordinary services.
However, the usage of these titles went a little out of control in the emerging property market. According to a random review conducted on 214 brokerage firms by the Epoch Times, it was revealed that around 109 brokers carry top managerial titles.
This led the Real Estate Board of New York to send a query to the New York Department of State regarding the usage of these titles. In response, the state sent a letter to the board prohibiting the practice reports The New York Observer.
In the letter, the State proscribed the usage of such titles calling them "misleading and dishonest". It also stated that brokers do not have the right of holding voting stock or being appointed an officer in a Limited Liability Corporation or a partnership firm.
"If an agent advertises falsely that he or she holds a corporate title, it would be considered 'dishonest' and 'misleading' because doing so would lead the public to believe that the brokerage entity has appointed or elected the agent as an officer or to a comparable management position," Whitney A. Clark, an associate attorney with the DOS wrote to the Epoch Times.
However, officials of the board said that the state had left some questions unanswered. Apparently, there are some independent contractors who do not belong to any brokerage as such. Can they take up the fancy titles? What about the employees of the firm, who are not brokers but are just a part of the brokerage?
In response to the unanswered questions, a spokesperson for the State said:
"Once we hear directly from [the Real Estate Board], we will be more than happy to clarify our position to them on any questions they may have in regards to illegal titles in the real-estate brokerage business."
The titles are not the only issue here. A comment in the New York Observer stated that some people were posing as real estate brokers even when they had not qualified the 'property broker test'.
Check out the requirements and the procedure of becoming a real estate agent, here.
