You met a guy named James Pierce on page one. You should hope that this is the only place you’ll meet him.
He’s an investigator for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the state agency which licenses ... well, duh, businesses and professions. He specializes in real estate. He has peers who specialize in other professions. Construction, for one.
For all its faults, and DBPR has many due to an enormous workload, a politicized leadership and not enough people, its investigative service has maintained a quality that we should appreciate. As you read what he’s saying, appreciate it — he’s out there to catch the baddies among us, not harass the working stiff.
Professions get bad names because of the few. If a trial lawyer is an ambulance chaser, so are all trial lawyers. If a roofer bilks a little old lady, that’s what all roofers do. If a Realtor dips into an escrow fund, can the rest of us be trusted?
The investigator’s job is difficult. He has to prove things which have been alleged, and he usually faces a winding trail that may branch off into numerous dead ends. He does not walk into pleasant situations. His work life is one of conflict.
Sadly, he gets precious little help from the licensees.
Part of our license fees pay for the investigative services. Holding a license is a statement that we are qualified, and the issuing authority — DBPR — is obligated, in turn, to protect those who uphold the stipulations of that license.
Sadly, most of us either don’t understand our role in this matter or choose to let someone else do it. We should feel obligated to help the investigators in every way.
If we know of a violation, we should do something about it. If we see unlicensed activity, and this is a particularly severe problem in the construction industry, we should do something about it.
But, too many of us don’t. Some of us may justifiably plead ignorance. DBPR does nothing to encourage us, and associations don’t consider this part of their mission (even though they profit from schools and CE classes which talk about it.)
It is simply stated: a person violating his licensure provisions, or a person without a license, is directly taking money from the pockets of the good guys.
A corollary: if a good guy ignores a violator or an unlicensed practitioner, he is no longer a good guy. He’s in collusion with the bad guy, so he’s a bad guy, too. Maybe not to the state, but to those of us who are properly licensed and try to do things the proper way.
And a footnote: I don’t mean to imply that we’re riddled with crooks. I reviewed the last five months of disciplinary actions recorded in real estate and construction, and found only a few. Two real estate brokers from the area among maybe 100 around the state, two contractors among maybe 200. Either we’re clean, or we’re clever up here.
A conclusion: either keep up the good work, or start looking harder.
— Fred Seely is the editor of Realty/Builder
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