Fall 2025

The Washington Real Estate Commission voted on August 21, 2025 to approve the updated 2026-2027 Core Curriculum for the state's real estate licensing courses. The Education Subcommittee — led by Commissioner Shelley Schmitz — produced the new draft after multiple public listening sessions held in May and June 2025 and additional written feedback from several industry groups. The Commission's vote was unanimous among the commissioners present, with the final draft scheduled for completion in October 2025.

The most notable substantive addition: explicit instruction on transaction coordinators. The new curriculum incorporates the relevant statutory anchors that govern when a transaction coordinator's work crosses into licensed brokerage activity — specifically RCW 18.85.011(17)(a)-(h) (real estate services) and RCW 18.86.020 (agency relationships). The Transaction Coordinator Subcommittee also recommended that DOL and Washington Realtors collaborate on educational training videos on the same topic.

For approved pre-license course providers, the new curriculum sets the content map for instruction beginning in 2026. For practicing brokers, it signals where the Commission expects working knowledge to be sharpest: agency-law application around the use of non-licensed transaction coordinators is a current enforcement concern. Broker firms using transaction coordinators should review their workflows against the cited RCWs. The full discussion is in the August 21, 2025 Commission meeting transcript; for ongoing updates, monitor the Real Estate Commission page.

House Bill 1552 raises the per-license fee on Washington real estate brokers from $10 to $20, with the additional revenue dedicated to funding the Washington Center for Real Estate Research. The bill also indexes the fee for inflation in future cycles. The Real Estate Commission held a special meeting on July 28, 2025 to approve the increase, and the Department of Licensing's operating system, forms, and website were updated to reflect the new fee shortly after.

Operational support staff reported at the Commission's August 21, 2025 meeting that rulemaking on the change was expected to become effective around mid-September 2025. After that effective date, every license issuance and renewal carries the $20 fee. The Research Center, housed at the University of Washington and previously funded on a smaller and less predictable basis, will use the dedicated stream to expand its statewide housing market reports, census data analysis, and annual income reports — tools that brokerages and individual licensees can use for market-trend education and CMA work.

For brokers, the practical takeaway is a modest cost increase at renewal plus better-funded statewide market research over time. The full discussion of the implementation appears in the August 21, 2025 Real Estate Commission meeting transcript on the DOL site; the Real Estate Commission page indexes all the agendas, audio, and transcripts for past and upcoming meetings.

The compliance deadline for HB 1110's middle housing requirements arrived in mid-2025. Most Tier A and Tier B cities — the larger jurisdictions covered by the 2023 law — finalized comprehensive plan updates in late 2024 and adopted implementing zoning ordinances by summer 2025. As of fall 2025, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, cottage housing, and stacked flats are legal on lots across most of urban Washington that were single-family-only for decades.

Practical impact on day-to-day brokerage practice is now visible. Buyer-side, due-diligence questions on what a lot can support — utility hookups, setback regimes, accessory dwelling unit allowances, parking requirements under the new ordinance — are routine on any single-family purchase, not just intentional development plays. Listing-side, comparative market analysis on parcels with strong redevelopment optionality now needs to factor in the entitlement potential, not just the existing structure. Buyer agents working with first-time homebuyers should know which cottage and stacked-flat developments qualify under each city's adopted ordinance, since these new product types are competing with the same buyer pool as traditional condos.

The local rules vary jurisdiction by jurisdiction within the statewide framework. Seattle's ordinance, for example, differs from Bellevue's in setback handling and design review thresholds; King County's unincorporated areas adopted a separate code. The Washington REALTORS guide — 7 Things Real Estate Agents Need to Know About Middle Housing - NOW! — is the practical orientation; the MAKERS architecture overview has the city-by-city tier map.