Code of Ethics Training Requirement Will Be Three Years After 2021

At its November 11, 2019 meeting, NAR’s Board of Directors approved a change to NAR’s Code of Ethics training requirement.

Since 2001, REALTORS® have been required to take Code of Ethics training to retain their membership. Originally, the training was required every four years, but in 2017, NAR changed the requirement to every two years. A presidential advisory group (PAG), appointed in 2019, made several recommendations to the NAR Leadership Team. One of its recommendations was to extend the requirement to every three years in order to give members more time to fit it into their continuing education schedule and to give local Associations adequate time between cycles to administer the program.

The current Cycle 6 deadline is extended from Dec. 31, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2021. The next cycle (Cycle 7) will begin Jan. 1, 2022, and end Dec. 31, 2024.

The Leadership Team sought feedback from several committees before bringing the proposal before the board of directors.

Separately, the Leadership Team approved several recommendations of the PAG that didn’t require a board vote:

• That the learning objectives for the existing member Code of Ethics training be revised to include content on professional conduct, courtesies, business etiquette and real-life scenarios

• That NAR establish Code of Ethics training equivalency options that members can take to satisfy the Code of Ethics training requirement and that the Commitment to Excellence (C2EX) endorsement be an equivalency option

• That only courses and equivalencies provided by a local, state or national REALTOR® Association can satisfy the Code of Ethics training requirement.

• That an implementation team be appointed to develop a microsite that compiles all available options for fulfilling the Code of Ethics training requirement, including C2EX ethics modules, NAR-approved online courses and links to Association-approved courses.