Michelle Napoli is editor of TIC Monthly.

The National Association of Realtors' request to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an exemption that would allow real estate licensees to be compensated for advising clients on the real estate aspects of securitized TIC investments is "imminent," Blaine Walker told the audience gathered for a broker-dealer's forum on Sunday. "We're hopeful it's soon," said Walker, chair of the NAR's TIC task force and a member of the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials' TIC task force who has been a party to exemption request discussions with the SEC.

According to Walker, the request outlines the following requirements for such an exemption: the licensee has to be a commercial real estate professional with demonstrable commercial real estate background; the broker has to enter into an agreement with the investor, which would allow the actual payment of the property broker's fee by the TIC sponsor; the real estate broker would be able to opine only on the real estate aspects of the transaction and cannot advise the client on any securities aspects of the investment; the real estate broker cannot advertise that he or she is a securities TIC specialist; and TICs cannot be the main focus of their business. As pondered by the NAR's request, Walker said, a securities broker would still have to be involved in the sale of a securitized TIC and indeed both kinds of licensees would work together on securitized transactions where the client also sought the advice of a property broker.

A clear majority of the audience indicated by a showing of hands that they expected the exemption will be a positive development for them and the industry. The BD forum was one of the first discussions to take place during this year's Tenant-in-Common Association annual conference, which continued through Tuesday in Las Vegas, and the exemption was a topic that garnered attention at other conference sessions, too.