Licensees Do the Darndest Things

Of the 7,000 case files opened every year by California's Department of Real Estate, more than half are resolved without any disciplinary action -- but some of the others are eye-openers, according to Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi.Of the 3,000 that are subject to disciplinary action, only one in four result in criminal charges, Mr. Davi said at the California Association of Mortgage Brokers Annual Convention in San Diego. But some of those cases are doozies, he said. "We get some amazing cases," said Mr. Davi, a Monterey realty broker appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last October to oversee the state's 428,000 real estate and mortgage licensees. "It's amazing what people do in this business." He told of one case in which an agent transposed a house number and ended up selling the wrong house. Then, to cover up the fiasco, the agent's husband, a mortgage broker, falsified tax returns so the buyer could purchase another house. On top of that, the couple forgot to pay the mortgage on the first house, which ended up in foreclosure. The department yanked both their licenses.