A critical step in the licensure of all real estate brokers is the assessment of an applicant’s character and fitness. The Commission must ensure that applicants possess the character and fitness necessary to protect the public interest and promote public confidence in the real estate brokerage business.
All broker, firm, and real estate instructor applications with an identified character and fitness issue will be referred to the Commission’s Regulatory Affairs Division for a comprehensive character and fitness review as the last step in the license application process. In its review, the Commission regularly focuses on three areas: criminal conduct, occupational license discipline, and financial responsibility.
Criminal Conduct
Criminal convictions are the most common reason that an application is flagged for character and fitness review. The Commission may deny an application based on criminal history only if the Commission finds that the applicant’s criminal history is directly related to the duties and responsibilities of a licensed broker or the conviction is for a crime that is violent or sexual in nature. N.C.G.S. § 93B-8.1(b).
Occupational License Discipline
Applicants must disclose if they are licnesed as a real estate broker in another state, or hold any other occupational licnese. It is also the applicant’s duty to disclose any previous occupational license discipline and any pending investigation by an occupational licensing body. The applicant should also disclose any previous discipline by the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. Disciplinary action taken against their licnese may be considered as part of the character and fitness review.
Financial Responsibility
The duties and responsibilities of a licensed real estate broker include finding an appropriately priced property for a buyer-client, providing a buyer with information about financing, assisting a seller in pricing property for competitive sale, and receiving, holding and accounting for client funds. An applicant’s past and current financial responsibility helps the Commission determine whether an applicant will be able to fulfill their responsibilities with competence. Applicants are required to disclose all judgments and liens filed against the applicant. Their own financial responsibility or lack thereof reflects on whether or not they will deal honestly and responsibly with their customers’ and clients’ financial matters related to real estate.
In each of the cases described above, the Commission considers all of the evidence presented by the applicant, including evidence of rehabilitation, restitution, and character letters in support of the applicant’s licensure. The Commission will weigh the level and seriousness of the character issue, the time that has passed, and the applicant’s age at the time to decide whether licensure is appropriate.