District of Columbia Real Estate Law, Rules, and Commission Regulations
Who regulates whom
The Real Estate Commission is the center of this domain. It is an occupational licensing body housed in the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP, successor to DCRA). Its authority comes from statute - principally DC Code Title 42, which governs real property and real estate licensing - and it exercises that authority through rules published in the DCMR and through case-by-case discipline. Keep the layers straight: the Council enacts statutes, the Commission adopts regulations and decides licensing and disciplinary matters, and contested cases are heard by the Office of Administrative Hearings rather than by the Commission in open session.
Sanctions and jurisdiction
Know the menu of sanctions - reprimand, probation with conditions, fines, suspension, revocation, denial - and the grounds that trigger them: fraud or misrepresentation, undisclosed dual compensation, commingling or conversion of escrow funds, failure to supervise, unlicensed activity, and failure to disclose material facts. Jurisdiction follows conduct connected to District property or District consumers, and reaches unlicensed persons, whom the Commission can order to stop.
A frequent trap: items that ask the Commission to "award the buyer $10,000." It cannot. The Commission regulates licenses; money damages come from civil court, and consumer claims may also run under the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act. Another trap: importing Maryland or Virginia rules (attorney-conducted closings, different agency statutes, different tax rates) into a DC item.
Rule of thumb: when a stem asks what the licensee should do first, prefer the answer that discloses in writing and documents, and that refers legal, tax, and structural questions to the appropriate professional - not the answer where the licensee gives legal advice or acts unilaterally.