Maryland Real Estate License Law, Regulations, and Commission Operations
What the Commission does
The Maryland Real Estate Commission (MREC) sits within the Maryland Department of Labor's Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing. It licenses brokers, associate brokers and salespersons, approves prelicensing and continuing-education providers, writes regulations in COMAR 09.03.01, and investigates and adjudicates complaints. This domain tests who may lawfully perform brokerage work, what must be reported, and what discipline looks like.
License structure
- A salesperson must be affiliated with a licensed broker and can be paid only through that broker.
- An associate broker holds a broker license but practices under another broker's supervision.
- A broker registers a brokerage and answers for the acts of licensees in that office.
- Renewal requires continuing education each term, including mandated fair housing and ethics hours.
- Practicing on an inactive, expired or unaffiliated license is independently a violation.
Commission operations
MREC may dismiss a complaint or impose a reprimand, suspension, revocation or civil penalty. It can subpoena records, and failure to cooperate is itself grounds for discipline.
Worked example
A salesperson with an inactive license refers a buyer to another firm and accepts a $500 referral fee from that firm's broker, arguing that a referral is not brokerage. Analysis: referring real estate business for compensation is licensed activity; her license is inactive; and she was paid by someone other than her employing broker. Three separate violations. The fee, if payable at all, belongs to her broker.
Traps that cost marks
Assuming a salesperson can invoice a client; treating an associate broker as free of supervision; forgetting that CE mandates are specific, not generic.