Reporting Realtor for Ethics Violations

[Anonymous]

That seems hard to believe. Most professional associations have zero tolerance for theft.

[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.

If what you are saying is true, that would be an actual crime and not an ethics violation that would go to the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If what you are saying is true, that would be an actual crime and not an ethics violation that would go to the board.

I am the former title company owner. It may technically be a crime but if you think the police will do anything about that you are mistaken. It’s too complicated for the police. Technically we wrote the 2 checks. Needs to be way more black and white for the police to do anything.

[Anonymous]

If this was in maryland google guarantee fund

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I wrote a "scathing" review of my buyers agent on zillow. She was horrible and again and again failed us. She showed up for 5 minutes at our closing and so many things were not covered. She was looking out for the seller of the house we were buying along with their agent. She was horrible and should not be in the business. I was not afraid of being sued. She did so many things wrong it would have been humiliating for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did you specifically prohibit inspections? What were you hiding?

Not op. You really are clueless and haven't bought a house in this area in 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!”

The buyers were in default but I assume going to court to force them to complete the transaction would hurt op. This really sucks and I would broadcast this everywhere.

[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.

That’s it!? Three hours later of ethics training?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I wrote a "scathing" review of my buyers agent on zillow. She was horrible and again and again failed us. She showed up for 5 minutes at our closing and so many things were not covered. She was looking out for the seller of the house we were buying along with their agent. She was horrible and should not be in the business. I was not afraid of being sued. She did so many things wrong it would have been humiliating for her.

That's why you need your own agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That’s it!? Three hours later of ethics training?

Former title company owner here. As a whole they are horribly unethical people who never experience real consequences. There are of course exceptions but they are exceptions. In decades of practice I would say that at least once a week an agent would call us because their buyer or seller wanted to back out and they wanted our advice on what they could tell them to make them complete the transaction and the agent could get their commission. So much for any concept of fiduciary duty.

Agents almost always in my experience are always concerned about their own pocket at all times, to the detriment of their own clients.

[Anonymous]

I submitted an ethics complaint about a realtor in a small market outside the DMV. It was truly egregious. The local board of realtors hired an “independent expert” (i.e. old local lawyer) to opine that the rules and law said y when they clearly said x. They used that to rule against me.