Going to jail for managing without license?

[Curtis N.]

In Virginia, a property manager must have a brokers license. What happens if your clients are okay with the fact that you don't have ANY license? Do they throw you in jail for managing someone else's property?! Seriously though, what's the risk to the PM for operating without the license? I was asked by a friend to manage his property when he's out of the country for an extended period. He has a very expensive home in Arlington and trusts me to care for it more than some actual PM. I told him I would do it as a favor for very little money but now that I'm starting to think about all the rules, I'm having second thoughts. I already have an LLC that's under my umbrella liability policy that I'm using for my own management so that is there but from the license standpoint, I got nothin'. I know that I can just outsource to a broker but A) that defeats the point if someone else actually ends up managing it - he doesn't want that and B) I'm not charging him enough to cover outsourcing. I was considering doing a workaround like me actually signing a lease with him and then sub-leasing it out while passing him the collected rent minus my fee as my actual rent. However, his employer is going to reimburse him for his PM fees because of the job move, but in order for that to happen, they need invoices from a company stating the fees so this method wouldn't really work for that. Thoughts??