How to find out if your real estate broker is licensed

“I went to the main office to have them recommend someone to rent my property, and immediately the lady wrote this gal’s name down,” said Margaret, who asked us to keep her last name private.

Margaret needed help renting out her condo at Sunrise Country Club in Rancho Mirage back in 2012.

The club, she claims, recommended Susan Small, who ran “Behind the Scenes Property Management.”

“She said she would come by and put it on her website and then she said sometime I’ll be sending a photographer,” Margaret told News Channel 3.

The condo got rented, but when it came time for payment Margaret says Small charged not only commission but a fee of hundreds of dollars for advertising the property online.

That raised a red flag for Margaret, who also works in real estate and says listing the property never carries an extra fee.

“That’s when I got suspicious and that’s when I called to find out if she was licensed and she wasn’t licensed,” Margaret said.

The Califonia Bureau of Real Estate requires a license to engage in property management services including soliciting listings, negotiating rental agreements, and collecting rent.

“Ignorance is no excuse but I didn’t think I needed to have it,” Small told us.

“If someone’s not licensed they shouldn’t be coming to your door,” said Mark Marchand, interim CEO of the California Desert Association of Realtors.

Marchand says prospective home renters, sellers and buyers should do their homework and never do business with someone without a license because there isn’t a lot of recourse if something happens to your assets if you do.

“You wouldn’t go to a doctor who didn’t have their medical license. You wouldn’t go to an attorney who wasn’t a member of the bar.”

To check on a real estate agent, realtor or broker you can call the Bureau of Real Estate directly.

Or, you can check for their license or any complaints against them online. here’s how:

Visit DRE.CA.GOV and click on the “Consumers” tab. Under this tab you can verify a license and look up disciplinary actions against agents.

When we checked, Susan Small and her business come up multiple times on this page of unlicensed real estate activities.

“You have to be careful as in any transaction but once again this is your house. A house is the largest transaction you’ll ever make,” Marchand said.

Small spoke openly to us about operating her business without a license, saying it was an honest mistake. She said she got some bad advice from someone else who rented properties.

“I didn’t believe I needed a license,” she said. “But when I got my first cease and refrain order from the Bureau of Real Estate I immediately went to a real estate attorney.”

The attorney advised her to associate with a licensed broker, which she did. But the broker, a friend of hers, did not supervise the rental agreements.

“Did you make her as aware as you should have of transactions that were happening?” News Channel 3 asked Small.

“I just, you know, I went on with business as usual and she didn’t inquire and I just went along with my business.”

That, small says, was her mistake. She continued to receive “desist and refrain” orders from the Bureau of Real Estate, but her Rancho Mirage-based business kept growing.

Margaret says the final straw for her was when Small took clients who rented her condo and moved them to someone else’s property. She filed a formal complaint against Small.

“I was counting on that money in the fall. My husband was ill and it was a shock. I said how can you act like that?” Margaret said.

Small finally passed her real estate license exam in April 2014, several years after starting her business. She filled out an application for a license but none was issued.

“I got a notice they decided they wouldn’t license me,” Small said. “I had to go to court.”

Last December, a judge barred her from conducting any real estate business for the next two years. It was a hard lesson learned for Small who now regrets waiting so long to get her license.

“I have known all these customers for years, I have a word-of-mouth business and how do you tell someone I broke a real estate law and they took away my business?” Small said.

A broker at Dune Palm Realty in La Quinta has taken over her clients’ properties for the time being, according to Small.

Margaret hopes her own experience teaches others to not just get the asking price, but also ask for a license.

“Some people feel I don’t need a license, but when it comes down to something going wrong, you’re in trouble,” Margaret said.