Manuel Flores, acting director of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, told IAR members Wednesday that the state agency is working to address issues brought up by members.

“I believe we have made a tremendous amount of progress in strengthening our partnership,” Flores told REALTORS® gathered at the Public Policy Meetings in East Peoria. Flores spoke at a Business Issues and License Law Forum.

Flores told the audience that the agency was working to address shortcomings and that the agency had not always “been as engaged as we needed to be.”

“We are working hand in hand with IAR to address issues and concerns,” Flores said. “I believe we have made progress there.”

Joining Flores was Jill Johnson, real estate coordinator for the agency. She shared problem areas her staff was finding as they worked to police state standards. Among the issues:

• Unlicensed practice: Johnson said some brokers have practiced after letting licenses lapse. In some cases, brokers are not keeping abreast of issues that might be affecting them due to their managing brokers’ failure to follow policy.
• Failure to fully fill out forms: Blanks left on forms continue to pop up, even in some cases fundamental information such as prices.

Johnson also noted it was important for brokers to make sure they were not violating confidentiality agreements by posting information on social media.