Thread: Broker shanked me!

So recently I moved to a new firm and in the process I had one transaction with the old firm still in escrow. When I first opened escrow I hired the in house transaction coordinator($300) to handle the file. I had been planning on leaving the company once the deal closed but two days before the deal closed I had to move to my new firm or I was going to lose a great opportunity to snag a great listing and I didn't want to list it with the old company.

I left the old firm on good terms, They told me they would assign a new agent to my open file which I informed them that the only thing left to do was for my client to go sign his loan docs. I had even contacted my client and scheduled his signing appointment with the title company. So after the deal closed I got a check and the broker charged me $300 for the coordinator fee then he charged me another $500 to close the file (ie... stick it in a file cabnet) When I inquired as to why he charged me this fee, he said it was standard when an agent leaves his firm and $500 was the minimum.

To make a long story short, he screwed me out of $500 for no reason at all. The DRE can't enforce any action to make him give me the money. So if I took him to small claims it would probably only drain me of my time and more money. Anyone have any thoughts - Aside from throwing dog poo on his front porch...lol...jk!

The other funny part about this was that he assigned the transaction coordinator to be the agent who took over the file so she made an extra $500 for a job I had already paid her to do!

There's probably nothing you can do, but don't dwell on it. It's a lot of money and you know that it was wrong. But what comes around goes around! I'm a firm believer in that. Take the high road. It will always pay off. Good luck in your new company.

Sounds like leaving this broker was the right thing, no itegrity.

a lot of chop shops out there

Hopefully you can make more on the new listing with the new broker.

Great example of what I have been trying to impress on new agents about chosing the right company 1st, or changing b4 you have deals working.

Basically you are screwed - but what's $500 bucks anyway?
I once got 'shanked' for an $18k commission when leaving companies and had another try to do my wife for $40k!!!
Thankfully by this time i had plenty of good attorneys on hand

I'd go with the doggy thing just to make you feel better & then move on - just make a ton of money at the new place to make the old broker sick that he lost you!

Dont feel bad i lost 20,000 that last company i left. Stay away from Select Realty Source ( Titan Real services in Dallas Texas

Been there. I left an agency aver 8 months ago and had 7 "pre-construction" transactions on the table. I just could not stay any longer and deal with poor management and a shrinking paycheck.

After leaving I had to service all the files, which I did not mind since I wanted to make sure they were property taken care of. Well the broker took an additional 20% from the 55% leaving 35% for me.

When asked why he deserved the additional 20%, he told me to read the Independant Contractor Agreement. It said he "may" charge an additional 20% if he has to service the file or assign it to an agent to service it. No such assignment or servicing took place.

I actually went to the closing with my clients to make sure they would close with no problem. All I got was screamed at by the former broker telling me that I had NO business doing that.

Whata jerk. Stay with the larger firms, but that still does not guarantee an ethical or just employer.

Agent Beware...

Don't sign an agreement without having an attorney review it and tell you all the negative things that WILL happen of you leave with open contracts.

-Craig

We need to start some kind of black list to help out all the new agents

It goes to show you that you need to do your due diligence when choosing a place to hang your license. Read the contract carefully and ask questions about if you were to leave, what happens. If they something that is not in the contract, request that it be added. Broker's repsonsibility is to their company and to protect their needs, you need to do the same for yourself.