CA DRE Real Estate License Lookup Scraper

Look up California real estate licenses from the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) public license lookup. Search by licensee or brokerage/company name, or jump straight to a license number. Get license status, expiration date, brokerage affiliations, DBAs, and disciplinary history for salespersons, brokers, and corporations. HTTP-only against the public www2.dre.ca.gov license search — no login, no CAPTCHA, no proxy required.

What this actor does

• Two modes: search by licensee/company name, or direct license number lookup
• Covers all three DRE license types: Salesperson, Broker, Corporation
• Filters: license type, license status (18 DRE-defined statuses)
• Rich brokerage data: current DBAs, branch offices, licensed officers, broker associates, affiliated corporations
• Disciplinary transparency: flags any public disciplinary comments/documents on file
• Empty fields are omitted — a field only appears when DRE actually publishes that data for the license

Output per license

• licenseId — DRE license ID
• licenseType — salesperson, broker, or corporation
• name — licensee or company name
• formerNames[] — prior names on file
• mailingAddressLine1, mailingCity, mailingState, mailingZip
• mailingAddressUnreliable — true if DRE flags the mailing address as unreliable
• expirationDate — ISO date the license expires/expired
• licenseStatus — current DRE status (e.g. LICENSED, EXPIRED, REVOKED)
• licenseIssuedDate — ISO date the license was first issued
• licenseIssuedNote — DRE annotation on the issue date, if any (e.g. sourced from secondary records)
• responsibleBroker — the salesperson's current responsible broker (salespersons only)
• mainOffice — main office address (brokers/corporations only)
• currentDbaNames[] — currently active "doing business as" names (brokers/corporations only)
• branches[] — branch office addresses (brokers/corporations only)
• affiliatedCorporations[] — corporations affiliated with a broker (brokers only)
• licensedOfficers[] — {licenseId, name, expirationDate, status} for each corporate officer (corporations only)
• brokerAssociatesCount, brokerAssociates[] — count and sample (up to 50) of {licenseId, name, expirationDate} broker associates (corporations only)
• salespersonsAffiliatedCount, salespersonListUrl — count and DRE URL for affiliated salespersons (corporations only)
• hasDisciplinaryAction — true if DRE lists any public disciplinary comment or document
• disciplinaryComments[] — public disciplinary comments, if any
• disciplinaryDocuments[] — links to DRE disciplinary/formal action PDFs, if any
• sourceUrl — the DRE license detail page
• recordType: "license", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	byName	byName or byLicenseNumber
licenseeName	string	Smith, John	Licensee (Last, First) or company name (mode=byName)
cityFilter	string	–	Narrow by DRE mailing-address city (mode=byName, optional)
licenseNumber	string	01910275	DRE license ID (mode=byLicenseNumber)
licenseType	select	–	salesperson / broker / corporation
licenseStatus	select	–	One of 18 DRE-defined statuses (e.g. expired, licensed, revoked)
maxItems	int	20	Hard cap on emitted license records (1–2000)

Example: search by name

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "licenseeName": "Smith, John",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Example: search by name, restricted to active brokers in one city

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "licenseeName": "Garcia",
  "cityFilter": "Los Angeles",
  "licenseType": "broker",
  "licenseStatus": "licensed",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: direct license number lookup

{
  "mode": "byLicenseNumber",
  "licenseNumber": "01310197"
}

Example: brokerage/corporation lookup

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "licenseeName": "Keller Williams",
  "licenseType": "corporation",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Use cases

• Real estate compliance — verify an agent's or broker's license is active before a transaction
• Recruiting & due diligence — check a candidate's license history and disciplinary record
• Brokerage research — enumerate a franchise's licensed offices, DBAs, and affiliated agents
• Lead validation — confirm a lead's real estate license number resolves to a real, active license
• Legal & investigative research — pull disciplinary documents tied to a license

FAQ

What is the data source? The California Department of Real Estate's public license lookup at www2.dre.ca.gov. This actor is an independent, third-party tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the DRE.

How fresh is the data? Every run queries DRE live — there is no cached or stale data.

Why do some brokers/corporations have empty branches or currentDbaNames? Those fields are only included when DRE's own detail page lists at least one currently active entry. Historical (expired) DBAs are not counted as "current".

Why is licenseStatus filtering sometimes slower on broad name searches? DRE's name search only returns license type on the results list; status, expiration, and disciplinary data live on each license's own detail page. When a licenseStatus filter is set, the actor has to open detail pages for candidates until enough matches are found (or candidates run out), which takes longer for common names.

Does this actor need a login, CAPTCHA solve, or proxy? No. DRE's public lookup requires none of these. The actor uses Apify's free AUTO proxy group only as a courtesy fallback.

What does hasDisciplinaryAction mean? true means DRE's public comment section lists something other than "no disciplinary action" / "no other public comments", or a disciplinary/formal-action PDF is on file. It does not indicate the outcome or severity — check disciplinaryComments and disciplinaryDocuments for details.

Can I look up a corporation's affiliated salespersons? The actor reports the affiliated salesperson count and a salespersonListUrl pointing at DRE's own list page for that corporation; the individual salesperson roster itself is not expanded into separate records.