Spring 2025

The 2025 Oregon Legislature passed two bills that together produce the most significant changes to Oregon real estate license law in roughly seven years. Both bills are scheduled to take effect January 1, 2026, after a multi-month administrative rulemaking process at the Oregon Real Estate Agency (OREA) that ran from mid-2025 through late fall.

HB 3137 creates a new statutory designation: the managing principal broker, defined as an individual who is already a principal real estate broker and who has registered or assumed responsibility for a business name. Each registered business name (RBN) has exactly one managing principal broker, who bears ultimate responsibility for all professional real estate activity conducted under that RBN, including all associated brokers and branch offices. The bill also formalizes the definition of a real estate team and requires the managing principal broker to approve team formation. HB 2373 creates a new, narrower license category: the timeshare sales agent license. Beginning January 1, 2026, anyone who sells or offers to sell timeshares in Oregon must hold a broker license, principal broker license, or this new timeshare sales agent license; timeshare-only agents are limited to timeshare sales and must be supervised by a managing principal broker.

OREA spent summer and fall 2025 working through the administrative rulemaking required to implement both bills. For Oregon practitioners, the practical takeaway is twofold: every brokerage must designate a managing principal broker before January 1, 2026, and any firm with timeshare sales activity should map its agents to the new licensing structure. The OREA Commissioner's Column on HB 3137 and the Stoel Rives client alert walk practitioners through the structural changes.