Checking Your Agent’s Official Record

May 19, 2008 | By Kelley Koehler | Filed Under Odds and Ends

I think it’s always important to know who you’re dealing with, especially when you’re making the kind of big decisions that go along with buying and selling and renting real estate.

I was trying to help some of my clients out the other day – they’re investigating renting their home, but my company doesn’t deal in property management. They’d found someone who sounded good, and were wondering if I could look into that person and their company a little more for them. Being new landlords, they weren’t sure what kind of questions to ask, what to expect from a property manager.

First stop was the Arizona Department of Real Estate website. Did you know you can look up anyone with a real estate license in Arizona, see if they’ve got open complaints or judgements against them? And that you need a license to help anyone else buy, sell, or rent their property?

Turns out, this guy is working under an inactive license, and his license is provisional anyway, after having to disclose a couple of felonies when he applied for his license. Oh, and he has 3 open complaints. After having been licensed only since the end of December.

So, you know, that’s not my first choice for a property manager!

The Arizona Department of Real Estate site also has some other good information: the Buyer advisory, frequently asked questions, all kinds of stuff. When you go check your prospective agent’s record, look around a bit.

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