Each month the Texas Real Estate Commission will post their enforcement actions. Every now and then one just pops up and you have to ask "WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE THEY THINKING?"
This takes the cake for someone with nerves of steel and common sense of mush.
A contract was executed for a sale of a property where the Seller agreed to pay a maximum of $6,500 in closing cost. The actual amount of the closing cost was $5,327.67, a savings to the seller of $1,147.33.
At the closing the listing Broker gets their hands on the contract and inserts into the contract that the Seller would pay the listing Broker a "Bonus" of $1,147.33. Not a bonus of $1,000 or $1,100 but $1,147.33. The listing Broker then informed the Seller they could not close unless the "Bonus" was paid.
The Seller paid because they needed to close. The Seller filed a complaint and to say the least the Texas Real Estate Commission was not pleased. The listing Broker now has a blotch on their record and was required to give the money back to the seller. The Commission will be looking to hold Brokers and Agents accountable if they try similar schemes in the future.
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1 comment:
Thank you for the information. What I find even more amazing was that the broker was only reprimanded and nothing more.
From the May Texas Real Estate Commission monthly meetings:
Winter, Charlene E. (Richardson)
License# 369362
Agreed reprimand of broker license, entered May 7, 2008; engaging in conduct that is dishonest or in bad faith or that demonstrates
untrustworthiness by forcing a seller to pay a “bonus” toward her commission at the
closing table, which constituted the difference between the maximum amount of closing
costs the seller was willing to pay and the actual closing costs, in violation of §1101.652
(b)(2) of the Texas Occupations Code
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