Cal. Business and Professions Code § 10131.1

(a) A real estate broker within the meaning of this part is also a person who engages as a principal in the business of making loans or buying from, selling to, or exchanging with the public, real property sales contracts or promissory notes secured directly or collaterally by liens on real property, or who makes agreements with the public for the collection of payments or for the performance of services in connection with real property sales contracts or promissory notes secured directly or collaterally by liens on real property. (b) As used in this section: (1) “In the business” means any of the following: (A) The acquisition for resale to the public, and not as an investment, of eight or more real property sales contracts or promissory notes secured directly or collaterally by liens on real property during a calendar year. (B) The sale to or exchange with the public of eight or more real property sales contracts or promissory notes secured directly or collaterally by liens on real property during a calendar year. However, no transaction negotiated through a real estate licensee shall be considered in determining whether a person is a real estate broker within the meaning of this section. (C) The making of eight or more loans in a calendar year from the person’s own funds to the public when those loans are held or resold and are secured directly or collaterally by a lien on residential real property consisting of a single dwelling unit in a condominium or cooperative or on any parcel containing only residential buildings if the total number of units on the parcel is four or less. However, no transaction negotiated through a real estate broker who meets the criteria of subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 10232 shall be considered in determining whether a person is a real estate broker within the meaning of this section. (2) “Sale,” “resale,” and “exchange” include every disposition of any interest in a real property sales contract or promissory note secured directly or collaterally by a lien on real property, except the original issuance of a promissory note by a borrower or a real property sales contract by a vendor, either of which is to be secured directly by a lien on real property owned by the borrower or vendor. (3) “Own funds” means either of the following: (A) Cash, corporate capital, or warehouse credit lines at commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, industrial loan companies, or other sources that are liability items on the person’s financial statements, whether secured or unsecured. (B) Cash, corporate capital, or warehouse credit lines at commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, industrial loan companies, or other sources that are liability items on the financial statement of an affiliate of the person, whether secured or unsecured. (4) “Own funds” does not include funds provided by a third party to fund a loan on condition that the third party will subsequently purchase or accept an assignment of the loan.