Superintendent of Real Estate and Professional Licensing planning for 2005
By Douglas Wu

Anne Morehead Petit, superintendent of the Ohio Department of Commerce's Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing, is planning to implement a web-based licensing system for licensing real estate agents and mandatory licensing of real estate appraisers in 2005.

Petit said the web-based licensing system will allow licensed real estate agents to keep track of their continuing education requirements, license renewals and their associated fees.

"It will be a much more friendly system for not only our licensees," Petit said.

In addition to implementing the web-based system for real estate agents in the state, Petit is also planning on working with state legislators and Gov. Bob Taft to implement mandatory licensing for real estate appraisers in the state. Currently, real estate appraisers only need to be licensed when dealing with federal government related transactions.

Petit became superintendent of the division August 26, 2002. She supervises a staff of 53 people in the licensing of real estate brokers, real estate agents, and general and residential appraisers.

"We were in a season of change in the real estate industry, trying to get the three-year license renewals implemented. We're still not quite there yet," Petit said. "Your education is due every three years but you still have to renew our license every year." That will be resolved with the new web-based system.

Just in the real estate section alone, three people process licensing education for real estate agent and real estate brokers tracking continuing education credits of licensees, three people handle license renewals, two people handle new applicants needing examinations and six people conduct investigations, and audit real estate brokerage firms.

In Ohio there are 47,000 real estate licensees, 4,600 regulated real estate appraisers and 2,600 registered cemeteries.

"One of the other accomplishments, though, with regard to reminding licensees when their renewals are due is that we wait and if we had not had a renewal from a salesperson within 30 days before their expiration date, we put into place a process by which we send their broker a courtesy reminder," Petit said.

As superintendent, one of Pettit’s biggest accomplishments so far has been the passage of Senate Bill 106, a new real estate agency law designed to protect both the sellers and purchasers of real estate. The bill consolidated several important pieces of paperwork into a form that is easily understood by the purchasers and sellers of real estate.

"We were very proud we were able to work closely with the Ohio Association of Realtors to make that happen," Petit said.

In 2004 the office introduced mediation as a way to settle disputes in real estate transactions.

Petit said the advantage of mediation to settle disputes is in terms of time and cost. Before mediation can take place, both parties have to agree to mediation and the decisions are binding and confidential.

In 2004 46 cases were settled by mediation and 109 cases were assigned to investigators, Petit said.

If a complainant does not choose mediation, they also have the option of taking their cases to civil court to settle their disputes with their real estates agents and real estate brokers.

Petit became superintendent of Ohio Department of Commerce's Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing after holding several other positions in state and local government.

Then after Taft became governor, Petit became the director of Constituent Inquires. She handled communications, such as letters, between residents and the governor. Petit also organized public events where the governor would be in attendance. Among the many events she organized, she organized bill signings, the laying in state of former Gov. James Rhodes, state events following 9/11 and a parade and reception in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Peace Corps.

Petit looks back on the events following 9/11 with sadness though she is proud of the way Ohioans responded in the aftermath of the tragedy.

The state service the day after 9/11 was called, "Service of Healing."

"It was to help Ohioans put their feelings in perspective and bring everybody together in their mourning and sadness, but remind everyone that we are one and that we would stand strong in our togetherness," Petit said.

The next year on the day of the first anniversary of the tragedy she organized, "Tribute to the American Spirit."

Prior to 1995 she was the director of the Hancock County Board of Elections. In 1995 she started to work in the campaign finance division of the secretary of state's office. Gov. Taft was the secretary of state at that time.

"That was really my niche, campaign finance law," Petit said.

"Secretary Taft was very concerned and very interested in doing everything that we could to ensure that election law and campaign finance law was at its best," she said. "We worked with the legislature and made some changes."

Her next position was as grants administrator for the Office of Criminal Justice Services serving under John Bender, director of the office at that time. Bender is now a common pleas judge in the county.

As grants administer, Petit oversaw the distribution of $45 million in federal block grants funds to a number of programs to fight crime, assist the victims of crime and to help the families of those who were killed in the line of duty.

Prior to serving the public, she worked in the banking industry for 12 years. She worked as a manager and real estate lender with the former Diamond Savings & Loan in Findlay. In that position she helped residents and business obtain mortgages and loans and worked with area realtors, appraisers and title agencies. Petit later served as Compliance Administrator of Med-American National bank in Toledo in which she oversaw the bank's regulatory compliance.

Petit resides in Franklin County with her husband, Don, and has a grown daughter and a son who is a senior in high school.