Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation is vigilantly cracking down on unlicensed real estate activity in the state of Florida. It is a felony to sell real estate in the state of Florida without an active Real Estate license which is issued by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
There are eight services of real estate that you have to be licensed in order to do:
- Advertise real estate services,
- Buy,
- Appraise,
- Rent or provide rental information or lists,
- Sell,
- Auction,
- Lease,
- Exchange
There are exemptions to this law. The only unlicensed persons that are exempt are the following:
1. A salaried employee of a builder selling that builder's new homes.
2. A salaried employee working in a rental office as long as they do not earn a commission.
3. People who rent lots in a mobile home park.
4. Salaried managers of condos who rent those units out and do not earn a commission.
5. Certified Public Accountants when performing duties within their professional duties.
6. Attorneys who are acting in the normal course of their client/attorney relationship. In the state of Florida a BAR license does not entitle an attorney to compensation of real estate sales.
7. An employee of the school board or any governmental agency as long as they only earn a salary and as long as it is in their work capacity of their governmental agency.
8. A homeowner selling their own property that they have title for. A property owner does not need a license to sell, rent, lease, exchange or buy his own real estate.
9. Corporations, trusts, joint ventures and partnerships and their salaried employees may sell, rent, lease, exchange or buy their own real estate.
10. A partner in any of the entities does not need a license in order to sell or buy real estate as long as it is only their own share of the real estate.
11. Hotel and motel clerks who rent lodging.
12. Court appointed people who act in a certain limited capacity.
13. A person who is given a power of attorney for signing documents in regards to a specific transaction of real estate.
14. Owner of time shares if they own their own time share may buy and sell their own timeshare.
15. State certified and licensed appraisers for doing appraisals.
16. Radio and Television announcers if the services are incidental to their employment.
17. Federally regulated banks and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission selling business enterprises to accredited investors.
18. Apartment owners or property management companies for the purpose of paying finder's fee of no more than $50 to a tenant for a rental referral.
In the early 1920's Florida enacted laws and established a state real estate commission and was given the responsibility to make sure that real estate sales-persons were licensed.
Please report unlicensed activity to MyFlorida.com
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Florida Department Of Business Regulation Is Cracking Down on Unlicensed Real Estate Activity! -was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.
Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Florida Department Of Business Regulation Is Cracking Down On Unlicensed Real Estate Activity!.*
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
Nestor and Katerina,
I think a lot of the "get rich quick" real estate gurus are advising people to go out and procure properties to flip. In doing so they don't realize they're violating the law.
Good....let's add some more credibility to who works in our industry.
Katerina --- I get the sense that you know of people practicing without a license -- you are right, this kind of behavior needs to be reported.
Mama Liz
Katrina- Those rules are to protect the public. It is important that we police our industry for everyone's benefit.
Brian- Oh, I have had words with some of these companies. They weasel around with how they don't need a license but they do!
Dick and Dixie- yes, that what those rules are for and we need to keep our eyes open because it is so prevalent here in FL for these flipper companies to take advantage of homeowners in trouble.
Liz- Yep, I do know these flipper companies, these short sale companies and these loan modification scammers who end up trying to sell the properties. NOw there is a new horrific thing- they buy the notes from the bank, which is not a real estate related activity for licensing purposes, but they buy these notes from the bank with the full intention of foreclosing on the people in the house- then they sell the homes without a license. What a scam. I know that if they own the property they are exempt but I think it stinks.
Larry- It is not so much our own industry folks as it is the ones outside of our industry that think they can go around selling real estate that does not exist, make their commissions and then get a get out of jail free card.