Commissioner Judy Lowe Reports (March, 2013) – Arizona Real
Estate Department (ADRE)
When she began 3 ½ years ago there were 92, 000 licensees in
ARIZONA
Today, there are 87,000 licensees
57,000 are classed as Active
20,000 are classed as Inactive
10,000 are classed as “Grace Period” --- They may remain in
this classification until either they re-activate or secure their proper
24-hour renewal to be moved back to Inactive.
It was interesting that the “Grace Period” group, she
reported, is growing between 700-900 members per month, at this time.
Also of interest is the fact that the ADRE is adding approximately 450 new licensees per month. She is urging the experienced Active Agents to please assist the new licensees as Mentors.
The ADRE works daily to “protect the buying and selling
public” and “supervise all licensees” as their job. Much of their task is answering the
complaints that come in from the public and licensees. The complaints are currently running between
50-75 per month. She described them in
the following categories (and in this order) as follows:
1. Property
Management Complaints … mostly is having to do with accounting practices (Trust
Accounts). The ADRE did 107 audits in
2012 and found 22 offices with violations ($3.4 Million deficiencies)
2. Disclosures
of various types (REO Properties, Short Sales, etc.)
3. Home
Inspection information as delivered to the buyers/sellers
4. Owner/Agents
… disclosure of ownership (or lack thereof)
5. Questions
asking if the buyer’s offer was actually presented to the seller?
6. Agents
running a business on-the-side (is it real estate related: E.g.: Property Management for a friend---not
place with the Designated Broker.
Commercial real estate sales---not placed with the Designated Broker,
etc.)
7. Was
there escrow money being paid “outside-of-escrow?”
8. Finally,
she reported that the calls to the ADRE average approximately 8,000 per
month. To help in this overwhelming
number of calls that Department has installed a new Message Center, as is
asking the real estate licensees to e-mail to the Message Center, expecting a
reply within approximately 24 hours.
Our Commissioner is doing a great job with a limited
staff. Let’s do all we can to assist her
in this challenging task.
C Dale Hillard, CRB, CRS, GRI, SFR
Designated Broker
West USA Realty
