Licensing Law and Commission Rules (Nebraska Real Estate License Act)
The regulatory framework
The Nebraska Real Estate Commission administers the License Act: licensing, education approval, investigations, and discipline. Know the license tiers - salesperson, associate broker, broker, and the designated broker who supervises a licensed entity - plus the prelicense education, examination, experience, renewal, and continuing education requirements in the current statute. Verify current hour and cycle requirements from the Commission before relying on a memorized number; they are periodically amended.
Conduct rules that show up in questions.
- Trust funds. Deposits belong in a trust account, never commingled with operating funds; conversion (using trust money for the broker's own purposes) is among the most serious violations. Records must be maintained and available for inspection.
- Compensation. Commissions may be paid only to a licensed broker or a licensed party to the transaction - never to unlicensed persons for brokerage activity, including referral fees to unlicensed finders.
- Advertising. Ads must identify the brokerage; licensees must not advertise property without authority or imply a service they are not licensed to provide.
- Unlicensed assistants. They may answer the phone, schedule appointments, and deliver documents; they may not negotiate, discuss terms or commissions, or conduct showings in a way that calls for judgment about the property.
- Supervision. The designated broker is responsible for the acts of affiliated licensees.
- Discipline. Censure, probation, fines, suspension, revocation, and cease-and-desist orders for unlicensed activity; due process rights attach to hearings.
Worked example
A buyer's cousin, unlicensed, brings a buyer to a licensee's listing and asks for a 25% referral cut. Paying it violates the Act. The licensee may pay only a cooperating licensed broker (with the proper agreement), or the buyer may be credited through the transaction in a lawful manner approved by the lender.
Rule of thumb: when in doubt, the answer is 'disclose it in writing and let the designated broker approve it.'