Job seekers need to shun no-name rental services

The Illinois Real Estate License Act (“License Act”) requires brokers to include their name in ads, including ads recruiting new agents or brokers.

Scan Craigslist help wanted ads for real estate and you’ll see a number of ads soliciting job-seekers who want to become apartment leasing agents.

Ads that give no clue as to the advertiser’s identity are common, and those ads spell nothing but trouble for anyone who responds to them. To put it simply, you’re being solicited to work for a lawbreaker.

The firm may be failing to disclose its identity because it’s operating an unlicensed brokerage, which is a misdemeanor or felony under the License Act:

Sec. 20-22. Violations. Any person who is found working or acting as a managing broker, real estate broker, real estate salesperson, or leasing agent or holding himself or herself out as a licensed sponsoring broker, managing broker, real estate broker, real estate salesperson, or leasing agent without being issued a valid existing license is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor and on conviction of a second or subsequent offense the violator shall be guilty of a Class 4 felony.

Note that the screen cap of the ad, above, makes no mention of the fact that a license is required to act as a leasing agent beyond a limited period of time. The firm that placed the ad might not advise its naïve recruits that continued employment can be a crime.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Chicago’s rental services.

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