I’ve mentioned before a friend of mine who’s a broker in Phoenix; we talk perhaps once a month. Several weeks ago he told me about a conversation he’d had with someone in my office that stunned me, and I’m not easily stunned. I asked “are you sure?” three times, then asked him to please put it in an email, which he did. He’s now said he’s willing to be deposed. Here’s the email he sent:
Hi Jeff,
I wanted to let you know that I had a conversation with a fellow agent of yours, [redacted], two weeks ago. She had called me because my client’s are moving to Oregon and happened to look at one of her listings. She was asking if I thought their house was priced right and how long it would take to sell it. I told her I was from Tigard and knew you.
She said you were very pushy, arrogant and a jerk. I told her that she must be talking about someone else and I described you. She said no it definitely was you and that she would never do her business the way you do and that you are a little unethical in your business practices.
I felt you might want to know what she was saying about you.
‘Arrogant’ in the postmodern twenty-first century refers to anyone who actually believes what he says and says it. Guilty. If by ‘pushy’ this person meant someone who insists people to follow through on promises, guilty again. ‘Jerk’ is so manifestly subjective that it’s meaningless.
But ‘unethical’? That’s slander.
Now: This person is a mega-producer, in business for twenty five years. I’ve been in the business a little over three. I did a few open houses for her up until a year ago – I learned email to her was a decidedly foreign concept – but we’ve never been on opposite sides of a transaction. By both reputation and public record this is her SOP: the climb to the top has been with cleats on the backs of others; I suspect everyone reading this knows someone just like her. I can only assume her reaction, even in the ear of someone who’d introduced himself as my friend, was to keep him from referring me to his clients so she could have the whole transaction. (I’ve since been referred.)
Predictably, when I asked the managing broker my options, he asked that I just talk to her and settle it between ourselves. (I did; she denies everything, again predictably.) He wanted – wants – nothing to do with it. I have another 120 days to file an ethics complaint, but after she heard who the complaint was against, the head of the grievance committee thought it better if it take it to my … managing broker. This is who the status quo is in business to protect.
So instead of an ethics complaint, here’s my submission for UNCHAINED melody. We will make a difference. We have to.
[Redacted], this is for you:
Ann Cummings says:
Jeff – I’m glad ‘the times, they are a’changin’….. it’s a real shame that the Chair of your local Grievance Committee gave you that response. In my opinion, that person should not be Chair if she’s giving out that kind of response to a member of the board she serves. Your board’s Grivance Committee is there to serve ALL of the members in your board, not just certain ones and they certainly should not be afraid of those such as this ‘mega-producer’ you described, nor are they there to ‘protect’ someone like her either.
If you get to the point where you feel you won’t get a fair hearing, assuming it makes it through your Grievance Committee to an Ethics Hearing, you do have your State Grievance Committee as an option.
Hooray – ‘the times they are a’changin’!!
Go for it Jeff!!
December 5, 2007 — 5:14 am
Chris Johnson says:
You know, I thought positively 4th street…or maybe even don’t think twice…but this isn’t a bad choice.
I find mega producers are the exception rather than the rule.
I also find that letters to clients with skeletons are an interesting–and crazy–response.
When I was 24
http://www.thexbroker.com/?p=317
December 5, 2007 — 7:59 am
Jeff Kempe says:
Ann, in fairness the head of the grievance committee did NOT close the door on a complaint, in fact agreed that it was a violation. She just clearly didn’t want to deal with someone who started her career – true story – suing and putting out of business a brokerage for: slander. People are terrified of her…
December 5, 2007 — 8:39 am
Jeff Kempe says:
Chris …
Loved your story! People eventually get exactly what they’ve earned.
If mega producers are the exception to the rule – and three of the four I know are so intensely self-absorbed they don’t seem to have much time for their clients – then it has to be added that Russell is the exception to the exception. People CAN make it very big in this business and still retain character…
December 5, 2007 — 8:47 am