Over 886 California licensees had their Real Estate license revoked, suspended or they simply surrendered their licenses while facing accusations in the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2010 by the California Department of Real Estate. The DRE is the state department that issues real estate licenses and protects consumers through enforcement of the Real Estate Law.
The DRE reported last week that there has been a 60% rise over the past three years for disciplinary actions. During the past two fiscal years the DRE took 1,712 actions, a 36% increase over the 1,258 actions taken in fiscal years 06/07 and 07/08 and most likely this trend will continue considering that the DRE has almost 5,400 open investigations underway right now.
Sadly, the housing market down turn has uncovered a large amount of abusive practices which has caused disciplinary actions to rise considerably. Jeff Davi, DRE Commissioner, said, "Until recently, loan modification scams were the most problematic, but now we are uncovering schemes that center on short sales. The DRE will continue to vigorously pursue and revoke the licensees of errant operators and get them out of the real estate business."
DRE also maintains a searchable licensing database for consumers on its web site that shows if a real estate agent or company has a valid real estate license and whether the license has had any disciplinary actions taken against it or has been revoked. The DRE also provides a monthly composite of all of the disciplinary actions taken by the Department and they recommend that consumers use this site before engaging the services of a real estate agent or broker.
Furthermore, the DRE regularly issues Consumer Alerts that warn consumers about scams that DRE has uncovered. Just recently, the DRE issued alerts on loan modification scams and short sale frauds which can be found on the DRE's website and can be used to provide useful information on how to avoid becoming a victim and how and where to file a complaint to the DRE.
For more information about DRE and its various programs, visit www.dre.ca.gov.