Most states have a Department of Real Estate, where all real estate agents in the state must get licensed at in order to practice in the state. The department will also set forth what you need to do to test and pass the real estate exam. More importantly to you, the site will list all the real estate agents in the state. Before you sign an agreement to work with any real estate agent, you should go to the department of real estate and see if you can find the agent listed on the site. If he or she is not license you know what not to do. If he or she is listed, you can see if there are any complaints filed against them. Real estate agents with past problems with former clients can be an indicator that there could be problems with working with them in the future especially if there were issues with money or fraud.
For those of you who have had problems with their real estate agent, you can also file complaints which will be investigated by the government on your behalf. If they can prove that there were violations of the real estate licensing law, like misleading or defrauding the public, a formal hearing will be held and can result in the revocation or suspension of the agent’s license. That is the extent of their powers. They cannot get your money back but they can stop the agent from working or defrauding others in the future.
