As a result of Senate Bill 1461 (Negrete McLeod), effective July 1, 2009, California real estate licensees will have to have their license number displayed on “all solicitation materials intended to be the first point of contact with consumers…”.

This includes “business cards, stationery, advertising flyers, and other materials designed to solicit the creation of a professional relationship between the licensee and a consumer… .” It will not include “an advertisement in print or electronic media and ‘for sale’ signs.”

There are various reasons a person might want to know an agent’s license number. For one thing, it is against the law to pay an unlicensed person for performing real estate services.

SB 1461 also requires that the agent’s license number must appear “on real property purchase agreements” when the person is acting as an agent in the transaction. This will generally be easy to do, as the standard purchase agreement that is produced by the California Association of Realtors® (CAR) already contains a place for such information, even though it is not currently mandatory.

Requiring that the agent’s license number be on the contract will make it easier on escrow companies to fulfill their duty to make sure that they don’t issue commission checks to unlicensed persons.

All agents must order new business cards with their DRE License # by July 1, 2009. Please also include your license # on any advertising and flyers, and also make sure page 3 of your 1003 in Calyx Point has your license # listed when you fill out a 1003 loan application and page #8 of the Residential Purchase Agreement on all purchase contracts have your license # listed.