Aug. 5, 2008
You can't get a real estate license these days until you provide your fingerprints for a DPS criminal background check. Current agents and brokers who want to renew their licenses also must submit their prints.
The requirement — something I wrote about on this site six months ago — was actually an idea put forward by Texas REALTORS® themselves. Though some REALTORS® objected to getting fingerprinted, many saw the added protection as a plus for consumers and for the real estate industry itself.
Real estate licensees have always been subject to criminal background checks. Fingerprinting, though, pulls in criminal records from other states that otherwise would go undetected.
Now that the law has been in effect since Jan. 1, 2008, it's worth a look at how things are going.
About 60,000 real estate licensees have been fingerprinted so far, according to Tim Irvine, administrator of the Texas Real Estate Commission. That number will grow as more licenses come up for renewal. Eventually, all current licensees will have fingerprints on file that will be used for background checks at all future renewals.
So what have the DPS checks turned up so far on those 60,000 renewing and new real estate-license applicants? No too much. Irvine reports that a few dozen have revealed something the licensee hadn't previously disclosed. To be clear, not every infraction in one's past will prohibit a person from receiving a license. As Irvine explains, the real estate commission looks at how long ago the activity took place and how it relates to the type of license being requested.
Though not many infractions have popped up, even a few catches are worthwhile. More importantly, think about the deterrence the new requirement provides. If you had a felony conviction for embezzlement in California, would you apply for a real estate license in Texas, knowing that the DPS now runs a background check in Texas and other states?
You can't prove a negative. There's no way to know if — or how many — people with criminal backgrounds in other states are choosing not to apply for or renew real estate licenses. You can be certain of this, though: No one with a criminal history can slip through simply because a conviction was handed down in Denver rather than Dallas. And you don't need any statistics to show that that is a good thing indeed.
