Closing wire fraud is a scam in which a criminal sends fake payment instructions that look like they come from someone in your home purchase, and the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau all tell you to confirm a payment change through a second channel you already trust, such as a phone number you saved earlier, before you send money. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says the scam targets "all participants in real estate transactions," which it lists as buyers, sellers, real estate attorneys, title companies and agents. On an email that asks you to wire closing costs to a different account, the FTC says: "Don't do it," and gives the reason in three words: it's a scam.

This guide is written for anyone with a closing coming up, including people shopping for homes for sale in Rockford. Gambino Realtors is a Rockford brokerage that has been in business since 1923,...

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A real estate yard sign in Illinois has to carry the sponsoring broker's business name, and a sponsored agent cannot put up a sign or run an ad under their own name alone. That comes straight from Section 10-30 of the Real Estate License Act of 2000, which also bans blind advertisements, meaning any ad that leaves off the broker's complete business name. The Act's text says nothing about how big a sign must be or what hours an open house may run, so the sign rules you will actually feel come from three layers: the Act, the IDFPR rules, and the city or village that issues sign permits.

If you are a new agent still choosing a brokerage, that name on the sign is the name you will wear in public for as long as you stay, which is one more reason to read how to choose your first brokerage before you sign anything. Gambino Realtors has been in business since 1923...

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Illinois law lets a sponsoring broker pay an agent's commission to a business entity that the agent solely owns, and that entity does not need a real estate license. The rule is in Section 10-20(e) of the Real Estate License Act of 2000 (225 ILCS 454), and it applies only when the entity was formed for the purpose of receiving the compensation the licensee earned. Nothing in that subsection forces you to form one. If you want to know how to choose your first brokerage, that decision comes first, because the sponsoring broker is the one who decides how your pay is handled and what the written agreement says.

This guide covers the state side only. It walks through what the License Act says about paying an entity, what the Illinois Limited Liability Company Act and the Business Corporation Act require to register one, and what the state expects of it every year...

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The Real Estate License Act of 2000 sets no commission-dispute procedure that this guide could find, so a fight between a sponsored agent and a broker runs through the written agreement between them, and Section 10-20 of the Real Estate License Act of 2000 requires that agreement to exist. The Act says the agreement must cover compensation and the termination process, and Section 10-5 limits who may pay whom. Gambino Realtors has been in business since 1923 and is based in Rockford, and when you weigh how to choose your first brokerage, the paper that decides a commission fight is the first thing to read.

This guide stays with what the statutes and one national code actually say. It covers the Act, the Illinois Uniform Arbitration Act, the Illinois time limits for suing on a contract, and the arbitration article in the National Association of REALTORS Code...

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REALTOR® is a federally registered collective membership mark owned by the National Association of REALTORS®, and only members of that association may use it. An Illinois real estate license is a different thing. The state issues the license, and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation enforces it. The association grants membership, and membership comes with a limited license to use the word. A person can hold the first without the second, and the rules for each are written in separate places.

That difference matters most when you are picking a first brokerage. If you are weighing offices and reading their ads, our guide to how to choose your first brokerage covers the questions to ask. This article covers one narrow piece of it: what the word REALTOR® means, who is allowed to use it, and where the rules come from. Gambino Realto...

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