Before soliciting business for a brokerage office operating under a fictitious business name, the broker is not required to:
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record the fictitious name with the recorder’s office in the county where their main office is located.
Recording the fictitious business name with the county recorder's office in the county where the main office is located IS required under California Business and Professions Code Section 17900, making this a genuine legal obligation before soliciting business under a DBA.
publish the “doing business as” (DBA) in a newspaper of general circulation.
Publishing the DBA in a newspaper of general circulation IS required under California Business and Professions Code Section 17910, which mandates publication once a week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper in the county where the principal place of business is located — this is a real requirement, not something the broker can skip.
have a broker’s license issued by the Department of Real Estate (DRE) with that name.
b. publish the “doing business as” (DBA) in a newspaper of general circulation. c. have a broker’s license issued by the Department of Real Estate (DRE) with that name. d. publish an office policy manual under the fictitious business name.
This answer option bundles multiple items together and is structured as a combined distractor; since both publishing the DBA (B) and having a DRE-issued license in that name (C) are referenced, and only C is truly 'not required,' selecting this compound option would be partially incorrect and is designed to confuse test-takers who are unsure about the DRE licensing component.
Why is this correct?
Answer C is correct because the California DRE does not issue a broker's license under a fictitious business name — the license is issued to the individual licensed broker, and operating under a DBA is governed by general California business law, not by a separate DRE license in that name. The broker must comply with Business and Professions Code Section 17900 by recording the fictitious name with the county recorder and publishing it in a newspaper of general circulation, but there is no DRE requirement to obtain a license specifically issued in the fictitious business name. This is a nuanced distinction: the broker's existing license authorizes the activity, while the DBA registration and publication fulfill the consumer-protection transparency requirements.
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