Unless a person is licensed or otherwise required to be licensed under this chapter, the term real estate broker does not include:

(a) a licensed practicing attorney if the attorney complies in all respects with the trust account provisions of this chapter;

(b) a receiver, trustee, administrator, guardian, executor, or other person appointed by or acting under the judgment or order of any court;

(c) any person owning and operating a cemetery and selling lots therein solely for use as burial plots;

(d) any custodian, janitor, or employee of the owner or manager of a residential building who leases residential units in the building;

(e) any bank, trust company, savings association, industrial loan and thrift company, regulated lender under chapter 56, public utility, or land mortgage or farm loan association organized under the laws of this state or the United States, when engaged in the transaction of business within the scope of its corporate powers as provided by law;

(f) public officers while performing their official duties;

(g) employees of persons enumerated in clauses (b), (e), and (f), when engaged in the specific performance of their duties;

(h) any person who acts as an auctioneer bonded in conformity with section 330.02, when that person is engaged in the specific performance of duties as an auctioneer, and when that person has been employed to auction real estate by a person licensed under this chapter or when the auctioneer has engaged a licensed attorney to supervise the real estate transaction;

(i) any person who acquires real estate for the purpose of engaging in and does engage in, or who is engaged in the business of constructing residential, commercial or industrial buildings for the purpose of resale if no more than 25 such transactions occur in any 12-month period and the person complies with section 82.75;

(j) any person who is licensed as a securities broker-dealer or is licensed as a securities agent representing a broker-dealer pursuant to chapter 80A and who offers to sell or sells an interest or estate in real estate which is a security as defined in section 80A.41(30), and is registered or exempt from registration or part of a transaction exempt from registration pursuant to chapter 80A, when acting solely as an incident to the sale of these securities;

(k) any person who offers to sell or sells a business opportunity which is a franchise registered pursuant to chapter 80C, when acting solely to sell the franchise;

(l) any person who contracts with or solicits on behalf of a provider a contract with a resident or prospective resident to provide continuing care in a facility, pursuant to the Continuing Care Facility Disclosure and Rehabilitation Act (chapter 80D), when acting solely as incident to the contract;

(m) any broker-dealer or agent of a broker-dealer when participating in a transaction in which all or part of a business opportunity or business, including any interest therein, is conveyed or acquired pursuant to an asset purchase, merger, exchange of securities, or other business combination, if the agent or broker-dealer is licensed pursuant to chapter 80A;

(n) an accountant acting incident to the practice of the accounting profession if the accountant complies in all respects with the trust account provisions of this chapter.

History: 1973 c 410 s 2; 1975 c 38 s 1; 1976 c 2 s 37; 1976 c 197 s 1; 1976 c 230 s 1; 1976 c 239 s 19; 1980 c 516 s 20; 1981 c 135 s 13; 1983 c 252 s 15; 1983 c 284 s 13; 1984 c 653 s 1; 1986 c 444; 1989 c 347 s 4; 1991 c 311 s 1; 1995 c 68 s 1; 1995 c 202 art 1 s 25; 1998 c 343 art 2 s 3; 2004 c 203 art 2 s 61; 2006 c 196 art 1 s 52; art 2 s 2; 2008 c 256 s 22