All Forum Posts by: Steve Maloney

Hard to understand the motivations of the buyer's agent here. One obvious step you can take is to lodge a complaint with this broker regarding the unprofessional treatment. If that does no good, you could take this issue to your real estate board for possible censure and/ or fine. In the end, if this is how they treat potential buyer's you wouldn't want to  live through a full-on transaction with them-that would be a nightmare.

I can say that in CA, if you're the "procuring cause", meaning they wouldn't have known about the property outside of your assistance, you showed them the property and can document that showing, you could still be awarded a commission from the other broker. Depending on the size of the deal it could be worth the hassle but usually it's not. If you've been an agent for any time, this will happen to you - part of the job unfortunately. 

Looks like you've gotten plenty of feedback on your question so I'll just add a quick comment. One time, a while ago, I asked myself the same question. I decided to go ahead and get my Broker license. In CA, if you want to have access to the MLS you need to be either a RE Agent who's "hung" their license with a broker or be a broker.

The upshot is this, to get access to the MLS in the bay area requires you join a local board. To join a board you must either be an independent Broker or be someone who is working for a Broker.

Don't listen to anyone who says that internet sites are better than the MLS, they're not. The MLS offers so much in terms of historical data, search capability, property analysis - its just nuts. You want to know the complete buy/sell history on a property, not problem. You want to go deep in terms of comparing properties, its all there.

You simply can't/ won't find an internet site that can replicate the amount of date the MLS has - its not available.

My recommendation, budget about $2k, knuckle down and get a good online real estate license provider, (I did Allied Schools) and bite the bullet. At the end of the process, you'll be rewarded with access to the holy grail of real estate information your competitors won't have.

Good luck

Interesting. That should be very strong incentive for them to shut up and pay. Have you thought of using a management company to screen applicants for you? That way if the tenant doesn't work out, they are the ones on the hook to evict them and get another tenant for you. It could avoid a lot of hassles for you in the future.

Did you serve them with an Unlawful Detainer order? A 3-Day Pay or Quit?
Not sure how it works in your state, but in CA, the first step in evicting a non-paying tenant is to serve a 3 day notice, followed by filing and serving an Unlawful Detainer with a court of jurisdiction. If they leave the property prior to the hearing, the matter needs to be amended to a Small Claims action, depending on the amount being suit for. As for that, it's probably spelled out in your lease agreement. Technically, the lease agreement binds the tenant to pay you the monthly rent for as long as the term is in effect. So if you agreed the lease payment would be $1,000/month, then they owe you $10,000 ($12,000 less the two months paid) plus whatever costs you incur to bring the property back to the condition it was in when you handed the keys over to them. Small Claims court usually limits the amount of damages to some fairly small amount, ($5k in CA). You should check with your court to find out. In order to sue for more than this amount, in California at least, you'd have to file a Civil case against the tenants in Superior Court and that would involve an attorney as you can't take that action on your own. You may want to talk with an attorney anyway, someone who specializes in evictions. In any case, be prepared for a long legal process if you decide to go after them in court.
A better path may be to first education yourself about what you could do to them financially in court and then propose a settlement. It would pay them to avoid having a judgment against them as that will for sure ruin their credit rating, assuming it's not already in the toilet.