Looking at my neighbors vehicle yesterday, I noticed a magnetic sign on the side and focused in to see a franchise RE logo with this person's name on it. I have not spoken to this person since Sept 1988 since he was charged and convicted for indecent liberties with a child. Now he has a temporary salesperson license and a department of corrections number. I am struggling here and ask for advice to stay out of it or make the waves. I don't know if I can live with myself if I should keep quiet and he does this again to someone else. The RE Commission should have known of this on his application and if they did, I assume they did, who in their right mind would issue a license, temporary or not to this person? I am leaning to speaking with the current broker as I will not have anything to do with this person nor will I entertain doing business with him or the blue logo franchise, mls or not.

Will you please weigh in your opinions for me so I might make this a clear headed decision?

Do what you think is right.

In California only certian types of sexual offenders have to register, or are publically viewable on registries.

My husband is a police officer and has informed me of quite a few sex offenders that are Realtors in my old market area.

I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable driving around and going to vacant houses if my client was a sex offender, so I imaging it would go both ways as a Realtor as well.

Do they ask about convictions on your license application? They do in Ohio; any convictions other than minor traffic violations have to be reported on the license application. That kinda blows me away. In Ohio, the application process actually states that applicant is a decent, upstanding citizen (not in those exact words)

Contact your real estate commission and inquire about their requirements to get a license if you have a criminal history of that kind. Take it from there, including contacting your political representatives if need be.

I dont' understand how selling homes has to do with being a sex offender. Sex offenders aren't any different than any other kind of offender. I think that's descrimination.

If you don't wan't anyone with a past criminal history to sell real estate, then it should be worded that way.

Because the drug dealer turned Realtor has just about as much as temptation to sell drugs as a sex offender has of commiting a sex offense. It's a behaviour that they both have to overcome. Whether you personally find one worst than the other, the law obviously shouldn't.

I would check, discretly with the Broker.

As to openmls, most states have a morality clause as well as disclosure to any past criminal convictions.

A sex offender is not someone who got a speeding ticket. It is a person with some serious mental defficiences, similar to a drug dealer.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

While getting my ears lowered last week, the topic of the latest Ramsey suspect or non-suspect came up. Small town barber shops have always been a venue of opinions and at this shop they are sometimes expressed on the outside BB sign.

My barber being former city law enforcement and a current volunteer fireman discussed this with me as his wife is a former REALTOR retired. One of his customers ahead of me asked the name of the company again who hired this convicted sex offender.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, this customer is the father of the co-owner of the brokerage house who partner hired the deviant. The customer is former county fire chief and he was opined that a mistake occured either at the state level and/or on the RE application as may not have been properly noted by applicant. He was going to check in to it and speak with his offspring.

While there is no cracker barrel inside this barber shop, it has shown me it is a place where somethings do get done discreetly.

Whether it is discrimination or self policing would really depend on what your definition of discrimination is openmls. There is no 2nd chance here for a convicted sex offender to show a house and place the public at risk with his past and potentially current deviant behavior.

My ex BIL spend years in prison for attempted murder of his wife (my sister) and of a police officer. Since his release, he's been enjoying a successful career as a Realtor in NV.

He advertises himself as the "honest Realtor" and since child support payments have been court-enforced, he's decided to scale back on his earnings.

I always check my states registry. Mainly because I have small children and I would want to be able to tell them to be extra careful.

"Sex offenders aren't any different than any other kind of offender. I think that's descrimination."

I wish I could be so open minded, but as a father, my mind narrows on this. IL comes with pictures and I was shocked to find out the used car dealer I had been dealing with the last few weeks is a convicted serial rapist. Very dangerous.

My family doesnt rent to people who show up on the registry. They always go on the net when they get an application. Are they legal? I dont really know.

That's one of the stupidest statements I have ever seen on this forum.

The term "sex offender" could mean a lot of things such as an 18 year old who had consenting sex with a 16 year old.

Sex offenders aren't necessarily all horrible people who should be wiped off the face of the earth. And sadly, in some states sex offenders get harsher sentences then murderers on average. That's a pretty stupid state of affairs, where we punish a child molester worse than a murderer.

That's a pretty stupid state of affairs, where we punish a child molester worse than a murderer.

I agree completely. The should get the same penalty. But also think that 18 with a 16 year old has gotten out of hand.

I believe anyone on the sex offender registy should NEVER be issued a license. A supra lockbox clipped on the door or my residence keypad code 24 hours a day could be every bit as deadly as anything I know.

Yes, its discrimation. But its practical, no one wants their home freely accessible to Sex offender. Anyone for turning in all their lockboxes?

It appears as if jflynn does not have any children! Child molesters ARE WORSE THAN MURDERS! For one thing murders don't go on to create other murders! Child molesters do. Now before you get your panties in a bunch NOT ALL CHILDREN THAT HAVE BEEN MOLESTED GROW UP TO MOLEST but a higher percent than the non-molested population do. Also a person that purposely hunts his/her prey(child) and stalks them over a long period of time and REPEATEDLY VIOLATES AN INNOCENT VICTIM is FAR worse than some drunken idiot that gets in a bar fight with another drunken idiot and shoots them. However, I feel NO ONE convicted OF ANY FELONY should be allowed to be a realtor!

In California no one convicted of a felony CAN be a Realtor.

Are you saying in Missouri it is different? That's scary!

I have two children I love dearly. I also used to be a forensic psychometrician (guy who does psychological testing for the courts) involved heavily in the testing and classification of sex offenders. I know far more about the subject than you might think, knowledge based on science and statistics as opposed to your emotional opinions.

And as for your logic, if I were forced to make a choice I'd rather have my children be molested than killed. If you think being dead is better than being the victim of a sex crime then that's your choice although it's not rational. Sex offenders create victims. Murderers create dead people.