| The problem of license law violations in real estate brokerage firms across the nation has been a persistent issue for decades. License law violations not only affect the image of real estate agents, but also affect the quality of service rendered to consumers. In response, many states have enacted additional licensing laws requiring specific requirements for continuing education, yet there is little academic research to determine if these increased educational requirements have had an effect on reducing violations.; The purpose of this study was to determine and assess the relationship between Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) and License Law Violations (LLV) in the real estate profession across the United States. This quantitative study used an ex post facto design. Quantitative data were collected from the public information contained in Digest of Real Estate License Laws and Current Issues for the past five calendar years from 2000-2004. All hypotheses were tested using Spearman correlation analysis (at a 0.05 significance level).; The major findings in this study revealed that in each calendar year from 2000-2004, there were no significant correlations between continuing education hours or frequency and violations. However, when all data were combined, an increase in continuing education was significantly correlated with an increase in violations, whereas, it was anticipated that an increase would result in a decrease in violations. There is also a strong direct relationship between continuing education frequency and registered complaints.; Based on these results, it seems the current scheduling of continuing education requirements does not significantly reduce the number of violations. As a result, it is recommended that states focus on the content of the courses, instead of hours and frequency. It is further recommended that real estate organizations consider testing agents to monitor the success of continuing education.; This study encourages states and real estate organizations to consider alternatives for reducing violations and increasing professionalism of real estate agents. The findings also have implications for policy makers, managers, and leaders in other licensed professions to analyze their continuing education approaches and ensure the required education is resulting in improvements. |
