Reporting Realtor for Ethics Violations

[Anonymous]

I am curious if there's another side to the story.

[Anonymous]

Is this person with L&F? We had a very similar situation. She brought in multiple "inspectors" without our permission when we weren't there e.g. BEYOND the normal house inspection - think inspecting a chimney or AC to find issues in order to ask for a price reduction.

Not L&F but I guess it makes me feel better to hear its a tactic that some people will try.

For all the "let them default" people we had the home sale contingency to close on our next house. Thats why I think they were so brazen in trying to mess with the sale and throw it into risk. And why its a question of ethics now versus just letting them default and going after their EMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Is this person with L&F? We had a very similar situation. She brought in multiple "inspectors" without our permission when we weren't there e.g. BEYOND the normal house inspection - think inspecting a chimney or AC to find issues in order to ask for a price reduction.

Not L&F but I guess it makes me feel better to hear its a tactic that some people will try.

For all the "let them default" people we had the home sale contingency to close on our next house. Thats why I think they were so brazen in trying to mess with the sale and throw it into risk. And why its a question of ethics now versus just letting them default and going after their EMD.

So did you give in to the 10k demand? And where is your realtor in all of this? Why are they letting these shenanigans happen?

[Anonymous]

Ask your realtor to report. They witnessed it and are a part of the licensing organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just finished a terrible real estate transaction with a truly unethical buyer's agent. We were thinking of reporting her for ethics violations. Has anyone ever gone that route or is it one of those things were you just let it go. If you did file a complaint did anything good come from it???

Normally I'd let it go but it was really egregious - She waited until after we had signed our closing docs (but before her clients had) to demand a 10K price drop, tried to break into our house when she thought we weren't home with a "contractor" she'd found on the internet to prove her fake claims for the extra money. Tried to sneak said contractor into the buyers final walk-through even though its explicitly a violation of the contract to do so. Went radio silent for days on end prior to closing when there was time to negotiate and then had her clients refuse to sign at the signing table unless we agreed to give them money.

If she did that at closing in front of third party witnesses, just tell her to do what she wants and thank her clients for their earnest money if they decide not to close. All contingencies have already been waived, so there would be no real dispute. I'd keep the money and re-list.

^^this. the sellers already accepted the offer and closed the transaction on their end. buyers are in default. buyers agent is a snake though - she probably knows the sellers at that point just want to close, not relist. but that’s exactly what I would do: “thank u for the earnest money, next!”

[Anonymous]

Other side drove a hard bargain. You could have called their bluff, but didn't. That was your decision, and may have been the correct one. Move on.

[Anonymous]

Why did you specifically prohibit inspections? What were you hiding?

[Anonymous]

Ugh, sounds awful. I am convinced of requiring a higher dollar amount for earnest money. Would $25k deter that kind of activity??? I can imagine $5k wouldn’t do anything…

[Anonymous]

Why did you specifically prohibit inspections? What were you hiding?

Lol - We had 3 different inspectors in - 2 of there choosing, 1 of ours. None of them found the proof of the problem they so desperately wanted to exist so they tried to sneak in with a 4th guy who I'm sure had been prepped in advance on what he was supposed to find.

[Anonymous]

Write a scathing Zillow review and also email the broker.

[Anonymous]

If you write a public review - you must be very factual.
I worked with a services provider and someone who typically worked for the "other side" wrote a google review that was really inappropriate. The review was reported to both "Google" and the employer. I am not saying you should not do this - I am just saying think carefully about what you are reporting in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Write a scathing Zillow review and also email the broker.

Yeah, it'll be a terrible review: "Larla was a terrible buyer's agent. She played hardball and got me to drop $10K right at closing. Whatever you do, don't hire her as a buyer's agent as she might play hardball for you."

[Anonymous]

I need to know what you mean by "tried to break into your home" There is more to this storyline than what you're divulging.

[Anonymous]

I used to own a large title company. Let me assure you that by realtor standards this is nothing and reporting her will have virtually zero effect.

About 15 years ago we used to remit agent commissions via check. We FedEx the check to the brokers office. We got a call from the broker stating that they never received it. We provided the FedEx signature at which point they acknowledged that it was lost and asked us to reissue. We put a stop payment on it and reissued it. A lot of people don’t know that stop payments are only good for six months so we also had the broker sign an indemnification agreement agreeing that if the original check was ever cashed that they would upon demand immediately reimburse us and if they didn’t cover attorneys fees. Literally 6 months and 2 days later they cashed the original check and then refused to return the funds to us. I sued and won.

Then I filed an ethics complaint. The broker was required to complete 3 hours of ethics training within the next 12 months as punishment, which time the broker can use for her otherwise mandatory continuing education.

That was actual theft. That is how serious realtors take ethics. And how serious their punishments are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to own a large title company. Let me assure you that by realtor standards this is nothing and reporting her will have virtually zero effect.

About 15 years ago we used to remit agent commissions via check. We FedEx the check to the brokers office. We got a call from the broker stating that they never received it. We provided the FedEx signature at which point they acknowledged that it was lost and asked us to reissue. We put a stop payment on it and reissued it. A lot of people don’t know that stop payments are only good for six months so we also had the broker sign an indemnification agreement agreeing that if the original check was ever cashed that they would upon demand immediately reimburse us and if they didn’t cover attorneys fees. Literally 6 months and 2 days later they cashed the original check and then refused to return the funds to us. I sued and won.

Then I filed an ethics complaint. The broker was required to complete 3 hours of ethics training within the next 12 months as punishment, which time the broker can use for her otherwise mandatory continuing education.

That was actual theft. That is how serious realtors take ethics. And how serious their punishments are.

Damn!