California’s Real Estate Regulator Published September’s Enforcement List. Almost All of It Is About Other People’s Money.

Most of what a seller reads about real estate regulation is licensing. The other half of the job surfaced this week. On November 3, 2026 the California Department of Real Estate announced 39 enforcement actions taken in September, and described enforcement as how it investigates complaints, disciplines licensees who violate the law and removes bad actors from the marketplace (DRE, November 3, 2026).

Read the cases and a pattern shows up that has nothing to do with marketing or negotiation. It is custody: whose name is on the account, and who is allowed to sign. This is general information, not legal or tax advice — your own escrow officer and your own counsel answer for your transaction.

What the regulator put out this week

• ·39 enforcement actions taken in September 2026, announced November 3 (DRE, November 3, 2026)
• ·One case in that release began with a DRE audit of a brokerage, which found record-keeping failures and an unlicensed, unbonded person permitted to withdraw from a client trust account (same release)
• ·Every month of actions is searchable by date in DRE’s Summary of Enforcement Actions, and published discipline sits on DRE’s Disciplinary Actions page

Where money is allowed to sit in a California sale

California does not leave this to preference. A broker who receives funds belonging to someone else has three lawful destinations and a deadline. Business and Professions Code section 10145 and Commissioner’s Regulation 2832 require the funds to go to the owner of the funds, into a neutral escrow depository, or into a trust account maintained by the broker — no later than three business days after the broker or the broker’s salesperson receives them (Bus. & Prof. Code § 10145; DRE, Trust Funds).

A neutral escrow depository is an escrow business independent of the parties to the transaction, which is the whole point of the word neutral (DRE Reference Book, chapter 21). In an ordinary sale the buyer’s deposit is wired to the escrow holder named in the purchase contract, on whatever deadline that contract sets — so read that line rather than assume it.

Who is allowed to take it out

• ·Withdrawals from an individual broker’s trust account require that broker’s signature, or the signature of a person the broker has authorized in writing (Bus. & Prof. Code § 10145)
• ·An unlicensed employee may be a signatory only where the broker carries fidelity bond or insurance coverage at least equal to the maximum amount of trust funds that employee can reach (same section)
• ·Handing out signing authority does not hand out the responsibility: liability for the handling of trust funds stays with the broker, or the corporate broker’s designated officer (same section)
• ·DRE’s own audit guidance lists an unlicensed signatory without adequate fidelity bond coverage among the violations it commonly finds (DRE, Common Violations Found in Audits)

The Bay Area version of the same arithmetic

The rules are statewide, so only the size of the number changes between Redding, Fresno, Bakersfield and Berkeley. On C.A.R.’s third-quarter 2026 statewide median of $894,630 for an existing single-family home (C.A.R., November 2026), a contract calling for a 3% deposit puts about $26,800 into someone else’s custody before escrow closes.

Take the Bay Area as the concrete case. On the $1,920,000 third-quarter median the National Association of Realtors reported for the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metro (NAR, October 29, 2026), that same 3% is about $57,600. Not a reason for alarm — a reason to know the account it lands in.

Five minutes before you sign

• ·Look the license up yourself at dre.ca.gov, not from a screenshot, a profile or a link someone sends you
• ·Check the same name against DRE’s Summary of Enforcement Actions and Disciplinary Actions — discipline is public record
• ·Read who your escrow holder is and when your contract says the deposit has to be there
• ·Never act on wiring instructions that arrive by email or text, and call back on a number you looked up yourself — see the wire fraud playbook for California sellers
• ·Keep your paperwork in one place from day one — start with the disclosures you will actually need

The number on your side of the table

Custody rules decide whether your money is safe. They do not decide what your sale costs you — that is a contract you sign, and it is the largest number on the page.

A percentage commission is charged against the price of the home, not against the care taken with the money inside the sale. On a $1,000,000 California home, a traditional listing-side commission of about 3% runs roughly $30,000. Realonomie lists your home on the same MLS every agent uses, with a licensed California broker, for $999 at MLS launch — non-refundable, covering photography, signage, the dedicated property page and marketing — plus $5,000 paid from escrow only if the home actually closes. On that $1,000,000 home that is $5,999 in total against roughly $30,000: $24K+ you keep. Above the first million the closing fee adds $2,500 for each additional million, so a sale at the $1,920,000 San Jose metro median would be $999 up front plus $7,500 at close. The full fee schedule shows every tier.

Verify our broker’s license in the same database we are telling you to use on everyone else.