16.11-16.12

If there should be disputes between the parties regarding escrow money, the sponsoring broker

"shall continue to hold the deposit.

If a licensee refers a client to a service in which the licensee has greater than _ percent interest (title, legal, mortgage), the interest must be disclosed.

1

Compensation and Business Practice (Article __)

10

Each sponsoring broker shall reconcile, within __ days after receipt of the monthly bank statement, each escrow account maintained by the sponsoring broker except where there has been no transactional activity during the previous month. Such reconciliation shall include a written work sheet comparing the balances as shown on the bank statement, the journal, and the ledger, respectively, in order to insure agreement between the escrow account and the journal and the ledger entries with respect to such escrow account. Each reconciliation shall be kept for at least _ years from the last day of the month covered by the reconciliation.

10, 5

Section __-__ Disclosure of compensation is a significant issue. The Act holds that clients must be made aware of compensation, source of compensation, and the sponsoring broker's policy on sharing commission with cooperating sponsoring brokers.

10-10

Section __-__ - It is illegal to compensate unlicensed persons or anyone being held in violation of the Act.

10-15

Section __-__ also states that a licensee "may offer cash, gifts, prizes, awards, coupons, merchandise, rebates or chances to win a game of chance, if not prohibited by any other law" to consumers as a legitimate approach to garnering business

10-15

Advertising Regulations (Section __-__)

10-30

Section __-_ A licensee may not receive compensation from anyone other than her sponsoring broker. In turn, sponsoring brokers may compensate only licensees whom they personally sponsor (including licensed personal assistants). The one exception is a former licensee now working for another sponsoring broker but who is due a commission from work completed while still at the first firm.

10-5 a

Handling Client Funds (Section __-__)

20-20

If the Department requests to view or audit escrow records, they must be supplied within __ hours of the request to the Department personnel

24

Escrow records must be maintained for _ years. The escrow records for the immediate prior _ years shall be maintained in the office location, and the balance of the records can be maintained at another location.

5,2

An Internet ad must include proper identification licensee name, company name, company location, and geographic location of property. E-correspondence, bulletin boards, or e-commerce discussion groups require licensee name, company name, and company location. Links to listing information from other Internet sites are permitted without approval unless the Web site owner requires approval for links to be added. Any such link must not "mislead or deceive the public as to the ownership of any listing information." As with other advertising, Internet sites are to be updated periodically and kept current

Ads prepared for the Internet must adhere to the following:

"advertising a property that is subject to an exclusive listing agreement with a sponsoring broker other than the licensee's own without the permission of and identifying that listing sponsoring broker," and "failing to remove advertising of a listed property within a reasonable time, given the nature of the advertising, after the earlier of the closing of a sale on the listed property or the expiration or termination of the listing agreement."

In Internet advertising situations, the rules do not allow :

Each sponsoring broker who accepts earnest money shall maintain, in her office or place of business, a bookkeeping system in accordance with sound accounting principles, and such system shall consist of at least the following escrow records.

Journal.

_______ must be maintained for each escrow account. The _______ shall show the chronological sequence in which funds are received and disbursed. For funds received, the ________ shall include: the date the funds were received, the name of the person on whose behalf the funds are delivered to that sponsoring broker, the amount of the funds delivered. For fund disbursement, the _______ shall include: the date, the payee, the check number, the amount disbursed. A running balance shall be shown after each entry (receipt or disbursement).

Journal.

A licensee must:

NEVER advertise in only her name, ALWAYS include the firm's name, NEVER advertise another sponsoring broker's listings without permission, and ALWAYS keep advertisements up-to-date and clear.

These employees can legally perform only limited tasks (typing, filing, answering phones).

Unlicensed assistants

_____ ads are prohibited. _____ ads are defined as advertisements relating to the sale or lease of any real estate, other real estate activities, or the hiring of other licensees that :Do not indicate the brokerage firm name, Do not indicate that the advertiser is a licensee Offer only a box number, street address, or telephone number for responses. Managing brokers must advertise as managing brokers. In addition, pursuant to Section 10-40, every brokerage company or entity, other than a sole proprietorship with no other sponsored licensees, must adopt a company or office policy covering certain topics including advertising,

blind

Selling or leasing your own property or a property in which you have an interest means you, as a licensee, must use the term "______-owned" or "_____-owned" in all advertising and on listing sheets.

broker owned or agent owned

__________ or use of the escrow funds for personal or business purposes, is also prohibited.

conversion

Licensees advertising via the Internet or other forms of electronic media are forbidden to:

employ deceptive or misleading URLs or domain names, frame the Web site of another real estate brokerage or multiple listing service without permission or with the intent or effect of deceiving the consumer, and use keywords or other such tools to mislead consumers or deceptively guide or engage Internet traffic.

Receipts must be made, and a duplicate kept by the sponsoring broker for any ______ monies received

escrow

The sponsoring broker must "maintain and deposit in a special account, separate and apart from personal and other business accounts, all _______ monies belonging to others entrusted to a licensee while acting as a real estate agent, escrow agent, or temporary custodian of the funds of others."

escrow

If there should be disputes between the parties regarding escrow money, the sponsoring broker "shall continue to hold the deposit. The Sponsoring Broker must wait:

for all parties to signal agreement on the escrow disposition by signing a definite agreement; otherwise she should not disburse funds until such an agreement is reached or a court decision is reached or deemed abandoned and transferred to the Office of the State Treasurer to be handled as unclaimed pursuant to the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act.

If the real estate firm's sign is used in the yard, and the firm's services are being used, then having the "agent-owned" or "broker-owned" notation on the sign itself is/ is not necessary.

is not

______ shall be maintained for each transaction. The ______ shall show the receipt and the disbursement of funds affecting a single particular transaction such as between buyer and seller, or landlord and tenant, or the respective parties to any other relationship. For Funds received, the ______ shall include: the names of all parties to a transaction, the amount of such funds received by the sponsoring broker, the date of such receipt. For fund disbursement, the ______ shall show : the date, the payee, the check number, the amount disbursed. The ______ shall segregate one transaction from another transaction. There shall be a separate _______ or separate section of each ______, as the sponsoring broker shall elect, for each of the various kinds of real estate transactions. If the _______ is computer generated, the sponsoring broker must maintain hard copies: of the bank deposit slips, bank disbursement slips, other bank receipts These hard copies are to be retained to account for the data on the _______.

ledger

Ads prepared by licensees should at least include :

licensee name, company name (as registered with the Department) and company city/state, and the city or area of the advertised property.

Each sponsoring broker shall maintain a master escrow account ___ identifying all escrow bank account numbers and the name and address of the bank where the escrow accounts are located. The master escrow account ___ must specifically include all bank account numbers opened for the individual transactions, even if such account numbers fall under another umbrella account number.

log

Earnest money and security deposits must be deposited within _ business day of contract or lease acceptance or, if a holiday, the ____ available business day. The escrow must be in a federally insured depository.

one, next

This same pattern applies to compensation. "Any person who is a licensed personal assistant for another licensee may only be compensated in her capacity as a personal assistant by the __________ broker for that licensed personal assistant" (Section __-_c).

sponsoring 10-5c

Licensees should immediately provide any earnest money checks to their _________ ______ for proper deposit in a special account.

sponsoring broker

A licensee must : ALWAYS disclose "agent-owned" Place "agent-owned" on the home sign if FSBO t/f

true

A sponsoring broker must include her business name and franchise affiliation in all advertisements. t/f

true

Additionally, it is perfectly legal to share commission compensation with a principal to a given transaction. t/f

true

Advertising must contain all the information necessary to communicate to the public in an accurate, direct, and readily comprehensible manner. t/f

true

Finally, it is possible and permitted by the Department to list your own personal real estate with a firm other than the one at which you work if you so desire and if your sponsoring broker approves. t/f

true

Funds from sellers or buyers always go through the sponsoring broker. She is the only one who issues compensation to brokers, managing brokers, leasing agents, or licensed personal assistants working under her. t/f

true

However, all written materials (listing sheets, ads, Internet ads) still must carry the "broker-owned" or "agent-owned" notation. The Illinois Real Estate License Act of 2000 provides that no matter how one lists an agent-owned property by owner or through a real estate firm the agent must take care not to confuse the public. t/f

true

If a licensee advertises to personally purchase or lease real estate, disclosure of licensee status is required. t/f

true

If compensation is being issued to an agent from both buyer and seller in one transaction, this must be disclosed. Any third-party compensation must also be disclosed. t/f

true

It now is legal for a sponsoring broker to pay a corporation set up by the licensee, rather than the licensee directly, if desired. t/f

true

Licensees must disclose to consumers their intent to share or sell consumer information that has been collected via the Internet or any other means of electronic communication. This disclosure must be conspicuous and timely. t/f

true

Licensees must not place their own names under the heading "Real Estate" in a telephone directory or otherwise advertise their services to the public through any media without also listing the business name of the sponsoring broker with whom they are affiliated. This rule is consistent throughout all advertising media. t/f

true

No licensee may pay a referral fee to an unlicensed person who is not a principal to the transaction. A licensee may not request a referral fee unless reasonable cause for payment of the fee exists (a contractual referral fee arrangement). t/f

true

Sponsoring brokers may directly compensate other sponsoring brokers (as in a cooperative commission arrangement for the listing broker to pay commission to the firm with the buyer). t/f

true

The Act does not limit the number of escrow accounts one sponsoring broker may maintain. t/f

true

The Act states that the sponsoring broker's escrow account is to be noninterest bearing, "unless the character of the deposit is such that payment of interest thereon is otherwise required by law or unless the principals to the transaction specifically require, in writing, that the deposit be placed in an interest-bearing account and who the recipient of the interest is." true / false

true

To sue for commission in Illinois, one must be a licensed real estate sponsoring broker. t/f

true