March 6, 2009

Dear Friends,

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation made another great stride forward in enhancing the licensing process and helping people achieve their career aspirations faster. The Division of Real Estate recently completed a pilot program with Florida State University to pre-certify the educational requirement for graduates based on university degree requirements. Now, college graduates hoping to enter the real estate profession as an appraiser can look forward to an accelerated licensure process that eliminates the need to submit college transcripts as part of the application.

Certified residential or certified general appraiser applicants are required to send in college transcripts, which have to be evaluated to ensure that federal pre-license education standards are met. By working with universities and colleges, the division intends to approve educational curriculum and process applications without transcripts based on graduation from an approved program. This will significantly reduce the time it takes to become licensed as a real estate appraiser in Florida for those who graduated from the pre-certified programs.

This partnership with Florida State University is just the first; the division plans on working with the University of Florida in the very near future. This program will continue to expand and curriculums will be reviewed at all universities and colleges that have full real estate degrees.

I am proud of our Division of Real Estate staff for taking the initiative to reach out to Florida's colleges and universities to devise ways of licensing professionals faster without jeopardizing education standards. It is exactly this type of creative, proactive outreach that enables DBPR to continue to make progress in enhancing processes that support Florida’s business community.

Sincerely,

Charles W. Drago
Secretary

Department of Business and
Professional Regulation
1940 North Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Customer Contact Center:
850.487.1395
www.MyFloridaLicense.com