3 Ways to Lose Your Real Estate License

If you think you must be the world’s biggest slime to lose your real estate license, think again. A word or phrase inadvertently used in a property marketing piece, a lack of care with other people’s money, or a brain fart that causes you to leave out a material fact about a listing could land you in deep doo-doo with the real estate powers-that-be.

Although each state’s licensing board sets its own rules with regard to licensees, they are pretty similar.

Think it can’t happen to you? In 2010, 866 agents in California had their licenses suspended, revoked or willingly gave them up rather than have them taken. This doesn’t account for the more than 5,000 open investigations they had running at the time.

Let’s look at just three of the more common ways agents get into hot water with the state licensing board, lose your client’s trust, and potentially lose your real estate license.

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Lose your real estate license – Lie like a rug

We find it rather bizarre that politicians can lie about issues that dramatically affect our daily lives and get away with it. But not real estate agents.

Whether it’s a complete whopper or a slight misrepresentation of the truth, if caught, lying can put your license in jeopardy. And being too busy to keep track of the truth is no excuse.

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Misrepresentation (a form of lying) is the most common reason agents get taken to court, according to Laurie K. Janik at magazine.realtor. The second most common reason has to do with disclosure.

“Misrepresentation is the misstating of some material feature of the property;” Janik explains, while “failure to disclose is just flat out not revealing some important feature of the property.”

She goes on to say that misrepresentations can be “innocent, negligent and fraudulent.” You may be found negligent if your failure to disclose something was due to ignorance. Worse is the fraudulent misrepresentation: purposefully not disclosing something you should.

Sure, you’re going to rely on statements from the seller, but when relaying these facts, attribute them to the seller. For example, Janik suggests “According to the seller, the roof is three years old.”

She suggests other ways to limit your liability as well:

Use those seller disclosure forms and ensure that the sellers, not you, fill them out.
Document all information about the property that the seller provides.
Encourage parties to the sale to consult other professionals, such as contractors, engineers and attorneys, when appropriate.
Avoid giving your opinion such as “This home is sure to appreciate in value.” Janik calls these “predictions,” and warns that they are “recipes for disaster.”

Finally, don’t forget that disclosure also applies to your relationship to the buyer or seller. If you are a principal in the transaction, you must disclose that fact.

Lose your real estate license – Get funny with money

Other people’s money is just that – other people’s money. It’s not yours to play with, borrow, throw in your personal checking account out of convenience, or mishandle in any way.

Even “sloppy bookkeeping” can get you into trouble, according to Paul Beakeley at magazine.realtor. Modern tech can make it easy to fudge the number 0 be sure that you don’t.

Avoid the temptation to pocket — or even the possibility of inadvertently mishandling — client money by depositing it in escrow with the title company or in your broker’s trust account.

Lose your real estate license – Become a criminal

Not all states consider a criminal conviction as grounds for real estate license revocation. If you are convicted of robbery, embezzlement, rape, or murder in Texas, though, you’ll lose your license.

Alaska tacks on some non-violent convictions such as fraud, extortion, robbery, and others.

Nevada, on the other hand, is a bit more lenient (they will hold hearings before shredding your license). If found guilty of something as “simple” as making a material misrepresentation, agents are fined (up to $10,000) or they’ll have their licenses suspended or revoked. Depending on the severity of the “crime,” licensees may have to pay the fine AND lose the license.

Don’t lie, don’t play with other people’s money, and don’t be felonious. And never, ever, have “relationships” inside a client’s home after doing drugs.

Just as there must be “50 ways to leave your lover,” there are probably just as many ways to lose your real estate license. Learn more about what not to do at NAR’s website.

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