Investigation Reveals Convicted Real Estate Professionals Still Licensed

Though the ""California Department of Real Estate"":http://www.dre.ca.gov/ motto is ""Providing Service, Protecting You,"" the site has a major flaw when it comes to protecting consumers.

""The Sacramento Bee"":http://www.sacbee.com/index.html ran the names of more than 250 people who had been charged with a real-estate related crime in the past year through the Department of Real Estate's licensee database.

What they found was shocking.

[IMAGE] [COLUMN_BREAK]

The newspaper reported last week that nearly 50 real estate professionals who have been charged with some sort of real estate-related offense or sued by the state for fraud are not only still licensed but have nothing regarding their infractions listed on their records with the department.

Though some of the real estate professionals had even pleaded guilty to their charges, their standing remained good on the state Web site.

According to the Bee, a representative for the department said the department cannot use the arrest or indictment as the basis to revoke someone's license, and must wait for a conviction.

He also said that sometimes revoking a license is deemed pointless if the accused agent is going to be doing jail time.

Some agents and brokers who are not facing jail time for their offenses are still licensed on the site, but the Bee reported that the department had revoked 528 licenses from 2008 to 2009 and 484 from 2009 to 2010.