The information provided below is intended to assist brokers in obtaining a real estate branch office license in the State of Nebraska. Please be sure to read the branch office information section below before completing an application form. Select on each item below to see additional details.
In order to obtain a branch office license in the State of Nebraska the following must apply:
- Be a self-employed/designated broker
- The designated broker may manage the branch office or have a branch office manager that is an associate broker of the designated broker
- Complete the Branch Office Application and Submit the Application Fee using the Licensee Portal
- If a separate trust account is to be used for the branch office, a consent to examine trust account form must be completed and submitted with the application.
Real Estate Branch Office Application Form - Submit form online on the Licensee Portal
Review Fee Schedule for current Branch Office Application Fee
Neb. Rev. Stat. 81-885.19 - If a broker maintains more than one place of business within the state, he or she shall obtain a branch office license for each branch office so maintained by him or her. The commission shall issue a branch office license upon the payment of an annual fee to be established by the commission of not more than fifty dollars per license. The broker or an associate broker shall be the manager of a branch office.
Neb. Rev. Stat. 81-885.21(5) - In the event a branch office maintains a separate trust account, a separate bookkeeping system shall be maintained in the branch office.
Title 299, Chapter 2.012 - A branch office is any location, other than the main office of a real estate business, where: 1) one or more licensees spend a substantial amount of time transacting real estate business requiring a license; and 2) such licensee(s) advertises that they can be contacted for real estate business purposes; and 3) such licensee(s) maintains what would, in the normal business context, be considered a business office. Nothing in this Section should be construed to include the advertising of a home phone number and address by a licensee in the alphabetical listing of subscribers section, or white pages, of the telephone directory to come within the branch office definition. A model home utilized as an office on a temporary basis would not be considered a branch office.
NREC Policy and Interpretation -
#8 - Branch Office Definition of "Temporary Basis" NAC 299 Chapter 2-011 refers to a "Model Home" utilized as an office on a "temporary basis" as not being considered a branch office. "Temporary basis" will be interpreted as two to three years. Adopted April 21, 1992
#12 - Trust Account Records Location Matter Brokers with branch offices who maintain a centralized bookkeeping system will be allowed to maintain transactions files at the branch offices in which the transaction occurred. Dependent on the examiner's judgment, the broker would be responsible for supplying the files to the examiner at the centralized location with a reasonable, non-audit risk, time-frame or the broker would be responsible for providing photocopies of documents needed from the centralized location which the examiner would need at the other location. Adopted June 16-17, 1992