You're All Against Me

In 2002 when the Beltris started their real estate company, The Bloated Ones favorite phrase was "I love to pay my agents". Legally a Real Estate Broker has 10 days after receiving a commission check to pay their agent. With the new banking regulations and checks clearing in 2 or 3 days, the 10 day law is really outdated. Some brokers routinely held paychecks til the 10th day, just because they could. The agent would work with a buyer for 2-3 months, show them 20-25 houses, negotiate a contract, wait another 45 days for a home to to close, go to the closing, give a gift to his buyer, bring the check back to his brokers office, then have to wait an additional 10 days to receive his paycheck. The cash would sit in the brokers operating account doing nothing, not even earning interest, for 5-6 extra days when an agent could be using it to pay his bills, invest it or even piss it away. Mr Beltri had the right idea, paying an agent quickly made for a happy agent, and a happy agent let other agents know how happy they were which led to office growth and more happy agents. Well let me tell you how times have changed. When agents start leaving a company in droves, there's a problem, usually a multitude of problems, but for this post I'll just mention two. The first is The Bloated One is not paying his agents for 15-20 days and beyond. I have not been with the company for 15 months and I still receive bi-weekly calls from agents who haven't been paid in 2 weeks or who want to leave the company and are seeking advice on how to accomplish their goal. Times are tough for everyone in the real estate industry these days, but holding an agents pay to cover other bills, robbing Peter to pay Paul, is just unacceptable. He's getting away with it because if an agent complains and threatens to leave, The Bloated One will not release an agents hard earned listings and will cut an agents pay in half if they have any deals that have not yet closed. So basically an agent is stuck. Now the Beltris have come up with a new trick, if an agent is lucky or plans his departure well and is not owed any money and has no current listings, he could normally offer his resignation and in a day or two pick up his license from the office and begin his next job. Now The Bloated One is telling his departing agents that he can legally hold their license for 5 days before returning it to them or sending it back to the Real Estate Commission. Mr Beltri has gone from being gung ho pro agent to an agents worst nightmare. The Beltris honestly believe that there is a conspiracy theory against them and everyone is out to get them. When the company and I parted ways I would have liked nothing better than to leave quietly, professionally and get on with my life. But he couldn't stop talking about me, making nonsense up, and hurting friends and those around me. Every BS story or word he uttered with my name attached to it got back to me almost immediately. The Beltri's lost their agents respect long before I was dismissed, my last 15 months in their employ was mostly covering for them, making excuses, and soothing hurt feelings. They have continued to hurt my former associates and friends and so I blog, exposing the bloated owners of Beltri Realtors for what they are, selfish, greedy, unfeeling ogres who are only concerned about their faux lifestyle of a big house, dinners out every night and nice cars. More to come...

The Truth

The company I managed, we'll call it Beltri, because both owners wear really large belts and it rhymes with the actual name of the company, is in a tailspin. When I was "downsized" in Dec of '07 things were looking bleak. My office sales fell about 10% but compared to the 35 & 40% losses of most other companies, we were holding our own. Future business was not looking good, as I said, most of my agents were part timers and were looking for other employment just so they could get by. The owners had just ended the relationship with our mortgage company and announced a partnership with one of the most maligned mortgage companies in the business. In the process a good friend was cut loose in the most unproffesional way possible. This would later become business as usual. At our yearly holiday party, numbers were almost as low as everyones spirits. Alcohol solved the spirits problem but when the owner got up and announced "Things are gonna change around here, there's a new sheriff in town" everyone looked around at one another embarrasedly and sobered up on the spot. On the morning of Dec 28 I got a call from my crying secretary saying she had just been let go, I was shocked because just 6 months ago we recruited her from a competing broker and 45 days ago when the owners thought she wasn't showing them enough "respect", they talked to me about letting her go. I, in no uncertain terms let them know she was the best secretary we had ever had and if they fired her they would lose me also. As I finished my conversation and hung up the phone, I knew I would soon begin another chapter in my life. I stormed through the office door and yelled what the **** do you think you are doing. The bloated owner asked me to step into the conference room and talk, I sat down and looked him in the eyes and knew he was a beaten man. He told me he had let my secretary go and he was also returning my license to me, that he and the Mrs decided to take the company in a different direction. I spewed a few choice words in his direction, cursing him for leading on and letting go of a woman with a family who needed the paycheck, and then realized the man couldn't even look me in the eyes, I left and started packing 4 years worth of nonsense. As I walked around the office packing my things, I felt like a heavy load had just been lifted off of my shoulders. My past year had been spent making excuses for the Beltris, trying to expain why we weren't advertising, how come bonuses weren't being paid, why wouldn't the Beltris return any calls. From my own office this was fine, but the calls were coming from the other offices as well. I realised the Beltris had gone into hibernation and weren't even going into their own office. Packing my bags I though it was finally over, no more phone calls, no more covering up, no more making excuses. What a relief!!! As I loaded the last box into my truck, I returned to the office to return my keys, amex, tell him where some important papers were, and to let him know he should really give me an exit interview, that I would let him know exactly what was going on in the company. Again, he never looked at me, I thanked him for the oppurtunity and walked out of the office a happy man. Two days later I stopped by the office to drop off a company jacket and some tee shirts I would never wear again. The man still owed me over $6,000 so I figured I would be civil. Real Estate is a close knit, gossipy type of business, and Mr Beltri was a well connected businessman. I figured he would pay what he had owed me and we would go forward with our respective lives. How wrong I was... For the latest news on my former employer go to http://outrageousagents.com/agentdatabasewp/?p=875

Point Pleasant Area Real Estate is Picking Up

Typically an agent in the Pt Pleasant area can vacation from January to mid February and not lose any business. Come President's Day activity tends to really pick up. This year seems to be about 3 weeks behind schedule. Sellers are hesitant to put their homes on the market and buyers think the home of their dreams will still be on the market in 60 days when they finally get around to making an offer. All indications are pointing to buyer beware, the stock market is giving the consumer more confidence, housing starts are up for Feb. and mortgage rates are still at all time lows. The buyer who finds the perfect home and drags their feet on an offer, may very well be regretting that decision two months from now. A good agent will give a buyer all the information to make a well thought out offer taking into consideration sold comparables, days on market and market conditions at the time of the offer. Many homes are selling 10-15% below their asking prices. I'm not suggesting just throwing a number at a seller to see if they'll bite, but a well presented offer with an attached market analysis may very well sway the seller and lead to favorable negotiations. With a little homework and a hard working agent on their side, buyers wont be telling the " I could've, I should've" stories on their next visit to the beautiful Jersey Shore beaches with their friends and loved ones.