AUSTIN, TX - The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board is pleased to announce the appointment of David Mentesana, of Dallas, as a new member of the Appraisal Management Company Advisory Committee. Mr. Mentesana replacing Tony Pistilli, and his term will expire on January 31, 2020.
Many of you know that the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) and the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board (TALCB) is currently undergoing a review by the staff of the Sunset Advisory Commission. But what is a Sunset review and why is it necessary?
In the mid-1970s, many states, including Texas, established Sunset laws as a method to introduce an additional level of accountability for state agencies. Here’s a breakdown of how the process works in Texas:
In early April, the Texas Real Estate Commission publicly apologized to Texans for the unacceptable quality of our customer service efforts and we promised to take a number of steps to do better. This is a progress report on what we have done so far and what additional steps remain to be implemented to restore and improve our service.
The Board held its regular quarterly meeting earlier than usual on April 23rd at our HQ in Austin. We did this in order to ensure we considered whether to adopt the new Appraiser Qualification Board’s criteria for education and experience that went into effect at the federal level on May 1, 2018.
The Appraisal Qualifications Board (AQB) adopted changes to the education and experience criteria for real property appraisers with an effective date of May 1, 2018, and the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board adopted rules to implement these changes in Texas to coincide with the AQB effective date. Under the new criteria, no college-level education is required to obtain a Licensed Residential appraiser credential.
The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board takes pride in providing high quality education and licensing services, and effective consumer protection across Texas. In recent months, there have been significant issues with the quality of customer service we are providing to consumers and to our license holders. I take personal responsibility for addressing these issues. I want you to know that I – along with the entire Texas Licencing and Certification Board staff – recognize your frustrations, and we are committed to solving these issues.
Have you submitted documents for review? Every Monday we will post the received date of the documents that we are currently processing.
At its meeting on February 9, the Board approved for adoption an amendment to rule 153.21 that, once implemented, will allow an experienced Supervisory Appraiser to supervise up to five Appraiser Trainees at one time under certain conditions. Current rules allow a qualified Supervisory Appraiser to supervise up to three Appraiser Trainees at one time.
The Board held its regular quarterly business meeting on Friday February 9th , and we offered appraiser continuing education (ACE) hours for attendance, so we had a number of extra license holders join us that day. The Board members elected Martha Gayle Reid Lynch as Vice-Chair and Earl “Buster” Renfrow as Secretary for the next 12 months.
Join us for our Agency’s 2nd annual Texas Residential Realty Summit. This annual conference focuses on current issues affecting the successful closing of single family residential transactions transaction from an interdisciplinary perspective.