# CA Real Estate Licenses - DRE Register Lookup (`j0401/ca-dre`) Actor

California real estate license register (DRE, public data, 429k+ license rows): salespersons, brokers, and the corporations/officers behind them. Search by name, county or license type, or look up one license number for its full licensee profile (their own licenses + the companies they act for).

- **URL**: https://apify.com/j0401/ca-dre.md
- **Developed by:** [Wenhao Yang](https://apify.com/j0401) (community)
- **Categories:**
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 california real estate license records

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## CA Real Estate Licenses - California DRE Salesperson, Broker & Corporate Register

The California Dept. of Real Estate (DRE) publishes its **entire current license register** as open data - every licensed salesperson, broker, and the corporations / responsible officers behind them - refreshed **daily** and served as the state's own public CSV. This actor turns that register into a **charged-per-record lookup and screening tool**.

**Built for:** real-estate due diligence - verifying that an agent actually holds a current California license, screening agents / brokers / brokers-of-record, corporate-officer research, mortgage & title-industry onboarding checks, and state / county market sizing.

### What it covers

**429,753 license rows** (current register, daily refresh):

| Type | What it is | Rows |
|---|---|---|
| `Salesperson` | licensed real-estate salesperson | 290,375 |
| `Broker` | licensed broker | 90,933 |
| `Corporation` | licensed corporate entity | 24,219 |
| `Officer` | a broker's responsible-officer registration for a corporation | 24,226 |

Every row carries the person's / company's name, license number, **status**, original-issue / effective / expiration dates, mailing address, city, **county**, ZIP, state, a restricted-license flag and the DRE's own officer cross-links. Dates come through as clean ISO (`YYYY-MM-DD`).

> **How the register is structured** - a license number identifies a **person**, not a single license. A broker who is also the responsible officer of several companies has several rows under that one number: their own `Broker` row plus one `Officer` row per company, with each corporate entity's row carrying a `relatedLicenseNumber` pointing back at the person. That cross-link is what makes **one lookup return a full licensee profile** - an agent's own licenses *and* the companies they act for.
>
> Status is `Licensed` or `Licensed NBA` (no business address). This is the state's **current-register** export - a license that lapses or is revoked drops off the list rather than flipping to an "expired" status.

### Typical questions

- "Is this salesperson's license **current** in California, and who is their employing broker?"
- "**Look up a license number** and see the full licensee - their own broker / officer rows plus the companies they act for."
- "Show every **broker in Orange County**."
- "Which brokers of record are licensed under **this corporate name**?"
- "How many **salespersons vs. brokers** by county, across the state?"
- "Find licensed agents with a **restricted** license (restricted\_flag Y)."
- "Screen a name across the whole register - person and company."

### Inputs

| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| `licenseNumber` | exact number -> **full licensee profile** (their own rows + the corporate entities they act for) |
| `name` | last / first name substring, case-insensitive (entity rows match on the company name) |
| `licenseType` | Salesperson / Broker / Corporation / Officer |
| `county` / `city` | location filters (county is populated on ~100% of rows) |
| `status` | Licensed / Licensed NBA (blank = both) |
| `restricted` | Y = restricted license only (blank = both) |
| `aggregate` / `groupBy` | one summary row per group with a count - license type / county / status / restricted |
| `maxResults` | cap records (default 200) |

**Default run = a tiny aggregate** (license-type mix) - fast and safe for the daily auto-test, never a surprise full dump. For records, add a `name` / `licenseType` / `county` filter or a `licenseNumber` profile.

### Low cost

**From $0.001 per record** - billed only for the rows you use, with a per-run charge cap so a broad query can't surprise-bill.

The state's register is a **72 MB flat CSV** with no query server behind it - there is no way to ask the source for "just Orange County brokers". Rather than make every lookup pay for a full-register download, the register is **mirrored daily and diffed**, and each run queries the mirror in a single pass. That mirror is what lets a 429,753-row register behave like a live lookup at per-record pricing. Every pull is integrity-checked against the register's known shape (total count, per-type floors, the exact status vocabulary, key-column coverage), so a degraded or schema-changed source **fails loudly** instead of returning bad rows.

### Source

- [DRE License Data Files](https://www.dre.ca.gov/DataQuality/licenseeInfoDataFile.html) - the official daily public data file this actor reads.
- License data is DRE's own published register; it reflects the state's record as of the daily refresh.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

profile = one licensee's full file (needs licenseNumber). aggregate = one row per group. Leave blank to auto-route: licenseNumber -> profile, otherwise search (or aggregate when aggregate=true).

## `licenseNumber` (type: `string`):

Exact DRE license number, e.g. "01794680" or "00840324". In the DRE register a number identifies a PERSON, not a single license. With this set, returns the full licensee profile: the person's own Salesperson / Broker / Officer rows PLUS the Corporation / Officer rows of the businesses they act for.

## `name` (type: `string`):

Last or first name, substring, case-insensitive. E.g. "Reyes" or "Bryan Industrial". (Entity rows carry the company name here.)

## `licenseType` (type: `string`):

The kind of license row. Blank = all. A broker search returns Broker rows; an entity search (Corporation / Officer) returns the companies and their officers.

## `county` (type: `string`):

County name, substring, case-insensitive (e.g. "Los Angeles", "Orange").

## `city` (type: `string`):

City name, substring, case-insensitive (e.g. "San Francisco").

## `status` (type: `string`):

License status. Blank = both. The DRE current register has only two statuses: Licensed and Licensed NBA (no business address) - there is no expired/revoked here.

## `restricted` (type: `string`):

restricted\_flag. Leave blank to return both. Restricted = the licensee carries a restriction (Y, ~2.3k rows).

## `aggregate` (type: `boolean`):

When on, returns one summary record per group (license type / county / status / restricted) with count, instead of individual license rows.

## `groupBy` (type: `string`):

licType -> salesperson / broker / corporation / officer counts; county -> geographic mix; status -> licensed vs licensed-NBA.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Cap the number of records pushed (0 = a reasonable ceiling of 200). A profile is the licensee's rows across their own + related licenses (a few to a few dozen).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "aggregate": false,
  "groupBy": "licType",
  "maxResults": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `recordsUrl` (type: `string`):

California real estate license records - as JSON

## `datasetUrl` (type: `string`):

No description

## `runUrl` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("j0401/ca-dre").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("j0401/ca-dre").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call j0401/ca-dre --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,j0401/ca-dre"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/7lqQqDSCw8WbozyXs/builds/DPl6MfXxBBH2Z4Bnv/openapi.json