Cole still hanging around real estate
| Wednesday, Dec 10 2008 04:03 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:39 PM
Images
David Crisp and Carl Cole
Carl Cole, left, speaks with his attorney, Glenn Kottcamp, before the start of his hearing in August.
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As the clock ticks down on former Bakersfield real estate broker Carl Cole’s deadline to legally challenge his license revocation, Cole continues to work at a real estate agency in Thousand Oaks under the name of one of his defunct companies, Points West Group.
But Points West, which has one active listing for a house in Oxnard, is not properly registered with the state Department of Real Estate, said spokesman Tom Pool.
When asked if the department was looking into the matter, Pool said he “cannot comment on that.”
As of Wednesday, Cole, 61, is described as an “administrative assistant” on his Web site, www.yourecoteam.com.
The supervising broker is a former employee of Crisp & Cole Real Estate, the flamed-out partnership of Cole and former sales agent David Crisp, 29.
The Department of Real Estate revoked Cole’s license Nov. 14. Points West Group also entered “revoked” status then, where it officially remains.
Regulators say Cole, Crisp and several staffers committed mortgage fraud in 2005 and 2006. Crisp’s license was revoked in October. Two former employees also lost licenses this year and a third was placed on probation.
Cole asked the Department of Real Estate to reconsider the revocation, but officials denied his request last month.
The next step involves a challenge in the court system.
“Literally, he needs a court order” to get his license back, Pool said.
Cole, reached Tuesday at the Points West number, said he planned to file the court papers. He hung up before answering any more questions.
Cole’s lawyer, Glenn Kottcamp of Fresno, said Wednesday the deadline for the so-called “writ” has been extended from Dec. 15 to early January, though he expects to file well before the deadline.
In the meantime, Points West is operating without proper authorization, Pool said.
The broker listed on the Web site, Justin Miller, hasn’t registered Points West under his license.
Miller, broker for Action Real Estate in Bakersfield, said Wednesday he plans to fold Points West into Action Real Estate and had talked to someone at the department Tuesday about registering the name.
Pool called the claim “irrelevant,” likening it to driving without a license and telling a cop you’d talked to someone at the DMV about getting a license.
Miller “absolutely” should have registered Points West before any business, continuing or otherwise, was carried out, Pool said.
He added there was “nothing remotely affiliated with anything over in Ventura County” under Miller’s license.
Miller said he stepped in recently to help close out deals Cole had started at Points West, where Cole can no longer legally show homes, drum up listings or negotiate sales or loans.
Miller has no plans to keep Cole on as administrative assistant after the coastal agency is closed or rolled into Action Real Estate, he said.
“He’s got to find something else to do,” Miller said of Cole’s real estate career.
An ongoing Californiantally shows at least 139 Crisp & Cole-related properties with loans totaling more than $82 million have foreclosed, defaulted or been sold “short.” Most are single-family homes in the Bakersfield area.
In September 2007, federal agents raided 13 local business and homes tied to Crisp & Cole operations. No charges have been filed in the federal investigation.
