It seems our friends across the pond may need to take similar steps to those of California.

The BBC recently completed an 8-month investigative piece on the world of realtors in England, or estate agents as they are termed over there.

The story is a shocking journey through secret kick-backs, fraudulent mortgages and fake passports. And that’s to say nothing about the ruthless competition.

With housing values as they are, each and every listing represents a lucrative outcome for the agent representing it. With compensation almost purely commission-based, it means more and more people chase the dream. As the article indicates it can also produce a horrible situation of lies, fraud and untrustworthiness.

Go and read the piece, and be shocked.

The Walk Through, a very good real estate blog from the New York Times, points to a move by the California Association of Realtors to get tougher on the licensing requirements for Realtors.

You can read the full article over at the Sacramento Business Journal.

Our basic reason for being is that as house prices go up, so do the number of realtors. Almost exactly in unison. Where prices have gone up the most, so have the number of realtors in that area.

Anything to toughen the standards of accreditation is a great thing for home owners and a great thing for those fantastic realtors out there who help their clients achieve fantastic returns when selling and great bargains when buying.

This weekend’s edition of the New York Times promises to be a good one. 200 pages of real estate, according to cross-town rival The New York Observer.

Of particular interest to Homethinking users will be an article from the Freakonomics duo of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, who also are doing a press tour on the topic of real estate agents. Be sure to check out the schedule of TV appearances.