Branch manager

Key Takeaways

• Every Washington branch office must have a branch manager who is a managing broker authorized by the designated broker (RCW 18.85.241).
• Branch manager is an endorsement the Department of Licensing issues on a managing broker license, not a separate license (WAC 308-124-300).
• A branch manager bears responsibility for the brokers and managing brokers at that branch, and the designated broker remains responsible as well (RCW 18.85.201).
• No branch office license is required where sales activity is limited to one subdivision or tract and a licensed office or branch office sits within 35 miles (RCW 18.85.241).

What It Means

A branch manager runs one satellite location of a real estate firm and the licensees who work out of it. WAC 308-124-300 defines the role tightly: the natural person who holds a managing broker's license and has delegated authority by the designated broker to manage a single physical location of a branch office. The department issues an endorsement for branch managers on top of that license.

Two pieces have to be in place before anyone can hold the role. The first is license level, because Washington reserves supervision of other licensees to the Managing Broker license, so a top-producing broker cannot run a branch. The second is delegation, because the authority flows from the firm's Designated Broker rather than from a title on a business card.

Branch manager used to be its own Washington license type. The 2008 rewrite of the license law, effective July 1, 2010, folded branch manager, associate broker, and designated broker licenses into the single managing broker license and turned branch manager into an endorsement instead.

How It Works in Washington

RCW 18.85.241 is the controlling section. A designated broker applies to the director for authority to establish one or more branch offices under the same name as the firm and pays the prescribed fee. The department issues a duplicate license for each branch showing the location of the firm and that particular branch, and the duplicate must be displayed prominently in the office it was issued for. The statute then states the staffing rule: each branch office shall have a branch manager who is a managing broker authorized by the designated broker to perform the duties of a branch manager.

WAC 308-124-300 supplies the definitions behind that sentence. A Branch Office is a separate physical office of the firm that has a different mailing address from the main firm office and uses the firm's UBI number, and the branch manager is the managing broker with delegated authority over one physical location.

Responsibility is doubled rather than transferred. RCW 18.85.201 keeps responsibility for a firm's brokers, managing brokers, and branch managers with the designated broker, and then adds that a branch manager also bears responsibility for the brokers and managing brokers operating under that branch manager at the branch office. RCW 18.85.275 requires a written agreement when a designated broker delegates supervision of brokers along with trust account and record keeping duties.

One exception is worth memorizing. RCW 18.85.241 does not require a branch office license where real estate sales activity is conducted on and limited to a particular subdivision or tract, if a licensed office or branch office is located within 35 miles of that subdivision or tract.

Example

Cascade Realty runs its main office in Tacoma. Ellen, the designated broker, opens a second office in Puyallup, 12 miles away, with its own street address and mailing address but the firm's UBI number, which makes it a branch office under WAC 308-124-300.

Ellen applies to the director under RCW 18.85.241 and pays the branch office fee. The department issues a duplicate license naming both the Tacoma firm location and the Puyallup branch, and it goes on the wall in Puyallup. Ellen then signs a written delegation naming Rick, a managing broker with four years of licensed experience, as branch manager, and the department adds the branch manager endorsement to his license. Six brokers work out of Puyallup. Rick bears responsibility for those six under RCW 18.85.201, and Ellen still does too. When Cascade later opens a sales trailer on a single 40-lot subdivision 18 miles from Tacoma, no separate branch license is needed, because the activity is limited to that tract and a licensed office sits within 35 miles.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Branch manager is not a Washington license. It is an endorsement on a managing broker license (WAC 308-124-300).
• Naming a branch manager does not move responsibility off the designated broker. RCW 18.85.201 makes both of them responsible for the branch's licensees.
• A broker who has not upgraded to managing broker cannot run a branch, no matter how much production experience that broker has (RCW 18.85.241).
• The 35-mile rule waives the branch office license only for activity on one subdivision or tract, not for a general second office (RCW 18.85.241).