Re/Max
Reviews and Complaints

The real-estate industry is no longer only battling with the Competition Bureau. It is now fighting amongst itself, with one of the country’s largest firms starting a campaign against part-time agents.

Michael Polzler, head of Re/Max Ontario-Atlantic Canada, launched a new offensive this week with an advertising blitz in the greater Toronto area that says: “Warning! Don’t use a part-time agent.”

The campaign follows a letter Mr. Polzler paid to have printed in The Real Estate Magazine, an industry publication. In the letter, he declares it’s time to “take back the industry” and calls for the creation of new requirements for agents such as increased education, a one-year apprenticeship program and a referral program that would allow inactive realtors to transfer clientele to full-time professionals for a fee.

“I don’t believe part-time agents can do the job, ” he said in an interview. “Many consumers use part-time agents without ever knowing it. If an agent doesn’t do at least one deal per quarter, they are not active in the business, excluding the obvious people like managers.

“Someone who has a non-real-estate, full-time job should not be allowed to handle the largest financial transaction most people make in their lifetime. You have taxi drivers with real-estate licences and that’s not cool, ” Mr. Polzler said.

Re/Max Ontario-Atlantic Canada’s campaign for more professionalism in the industry comes as the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) continues a legal battle with the Competition Bureau.

The government watchdog has launched a complaint with the Competition Tribunal over what it says are anti-competitive practices. The case revolves around the Multiple Listing Service system owned by CREA and responsible for about 90% of the transactions in Canada.

Last week, CREA passed new rules that will allow consumers to decide how much they use an agent on a deal and allow them to conduct parts of a transaction without using an agent at all. But the case is still proceeding because the bureau maintains the new MLS rules can be changed by the local boards or CREA itself.

Phil Soper, chief executive of Brookfield Real Estate Services, which operates Royal LePage and La Capitale, wondered whether Re/Max’s proposals would further antagonize the bureau.

“It flies in the face in the face of concerns about competition. We are an industry that is full of diversity. There are many models in which our profession is practiced. To state that lower fee-charging realtors who adopt a different model have no place is similar to saying only high-priced lawyers should exist. You can’t say people shouldn’t have the opportunity to hire somebody who is less experienced.”

Some in the industry suggest Mr. Polzler’s proposed business model is an attempt to squeeze out smaller agents as well as being a marketing campaign for full-service brokers. The industry faces consolidation in anticipation of CREA’s new rules.

But Mr. Polzler says he’s been talking about non-producing agents for a year. He gives the example of Toronto, where 20% of realtors with the Toronto Real Estate Board didn’t complete a deal in 2009. Some brokerages have 70% of agents doing less than a deal a quarter, he added.

“Nobody is suggesting these people not be licenced, ” said Mr. Polzler. Part-timers could stay in the industry, but on the referral basis, he suggested.

Don Lawby, chief executive of Century 21 Canada, conceded the numbers of agents in Canada does look odd on the surface. There are 98, 000 agents or about one agent for every 336 people, including children and people who aren’t home buyers.

“There are some people who get a licence and just elect to keep it active without practicing, ” Mr. Lawby said, adding the qualification for being a realtor should be having a licence and knowledge about the market.

“That could include part-time people, ” said Mr. Lawby. “I’m sure there are part-time people who perform in a better fashion than some full-time people.”

Since there is no way to remove my complaint from this website...I am formally withdrawling my complaint. After speaking again with the realtor, she apparently was not aware of the situation. She had'nt been to the house in a few months, and it was'nt her that did that. Someone else must have done it. Regardless, my advise to anyone would be...don't ever try to sell a house you live 800 miles away from! Too much stress

I hired a realtor to sell my 2 inherited homes in MI ( I live in Illinois). After receiving a picture of 2 eyehooks holding a lockbox( with NO keys in it)--as the only thing ' securing' my home, I called the realtor and asked her what happened to my 2 GOOD EXPENSIVE padlocks I had put on the door!? She got extremely flustered and ' could'nt remember' anything about it except that she could'nt get in the house and does'nt know where my locks are! Well, I had someone go in, with very little pressure on her ' eye hooks', to pull them out of the outer frame--and the door opened! And there lay my 2 locks. STILL locked, with part of the wood from the door frame STILL ATTACHED! And the old lockbox lying there broken open. She apparantely Kicked the door in--destroying the inner door frame! I had to pay someone to replace the door frame AND door! Then.. the other house... she sent the clients ALONE to the property to look at the house--giving them the code to the lockbox..the neighbors watched them. I sent someone over there to check on the house, and the lockbox was open, keys on the ground, door left open etc... and all the copper piping in the basement was gone! This woman should be stripped of her license! I'm so fed up I don't know what to do!

ReMax of Valencia real estate company is now the home of broker Susan Kline who previously worked for Prudential California Realty. Susan Kline has been sued for fraud, negligence, violation of civil codes protecting tenants and more when she was the property manager working for OneWest Bank/IndyMac Mortgage Services, Inc. and Detusche Bank National Trust Co. The case involved illegal eviction attempts by the parties along with illegal actions perpetrated by Field Asset Services of Austin, Texas and Monster Mowers of Lancaster, CA, a trash out service company owned by Matthew Jay Cohick. Visit http://onewestbankfraud.com for more information on this story and many more outlining the illegal actions mortgage services are taking against American citizens.

Does ReMax of Valencia condone the actions of its agents?

Agent Allison West with Remax Advantage in Redlands CA and her recommended loan agent Virgil Kyle (now dba Virgil Kyle LLC in Aliso Viejo)guided me into a very bad real estate experience, I trusted her in selling my home and with the $80, 000 equity she recommended a condo and arranged a home inspection, that clearly was designed to mislead an inexperienced buyer. The condo ended up with a leaky roof and a leaky dishwasher that caused a horrific mold problem that cost me thousands of dollars to clean up, because the home warranty was also shady. Virgil Kyle's loan was indeed a very bad loan (an option ARM) that eventually ended up in a foreclosure. It was a very dark chapter in my life, but I doubt, that Allison and Kyle see it that way, I trusted them to look out for my best interest. I am still in disbelief, that everything turned out so devastating. Allison and Virgil ensured me that I had a Home warranty insurance, but when I called, it was a wrong company and business. It took me several phone calls just to find out who the company actually was.

And of course, once I located them, they came out, and of course the claim was denied, because mold is not covered under the policy.

Was I a victim of some unfortunate circumstances, or was I deliberately misinformed and taken advantage of?

I feel it was the latter and I am very disappointed in the the service I received from people that I entrusted with one of the most important decisions in my life when I needed expert help the most. I think the $20, 000 in real estate commission was not well earned.

I hire this realtor to manage my property, soon he took over he broke the contract, refused to answer my calls, charge me repairs unecessary, and always send me rent payment late and less money every month with not explaination, he is making treat that he is going to take my house if i keep filling complaint against him, i am trying to terminate contract with the realtor and he refuses. Please to anybody do not used this company or the Realtor they are crooks..

My property manager recently placed a "For Rent" sign outside a house that I own on the west side of Los Angeles. The sign was replaced while my manager was on vacation for a few days with a "For SALE" sign from REMAX, listing The Williamson Team as the real estate agents. I called them and they denied knowledge of this, but said that they had lost a sign. REMAX has cost me income from this misplaced sign, plus the cost of having to replace the "For Rent" sign that was taken.

Some friends and I rented home from Remax of the Poconos at Timber Trails/Lake Naomi, and they were a little unethical when it came to the deposit return.

They gave us a an instruction packet with the incorrect checkout time (NOON), which resulted in their cleaning service coming before we were gone. Because of this, they deducted a cleaning penalty from our deposit. The reason I was given was because our contract said 10am. While this may be true, the fact remains that they gave us the wrong information, and none of us thought to cross-reference the contract during our stay, because we were told that their info packet would have everything we needed.

We did contact them, but it let only to unprofessional/very not nice replies - the highlights of which included non-responses at first, then them admitting that they messed up but said that they're shouldn't be accountable; and finally them implying that we shouldn't be upset, because they only took a small amount from us. In the end we were penalized $35, which is not a big amount, but as with most things it's the principle. No amount of money is acceptable to wrongly take from people.

As renters, we leave ourselves pretty vulnerable with regards to paying everything upfront, and we can only trust that the realty agents will be honorable about it. This was definitely not the case with Re/Max of the Poconos. It was only $35 for us, but I'm sure there are many other clerical errors that they can make that could result in higher fines. I would highly caution against doing business with these folks.

This is a women that has abosolutely no regard for any other human being, and only cares about her commission. We have a land lord who was aboslutely incredible, but I don't think she realized who she was doing business with. The realitor our land lord chose, Cindy King, is a pitbull at best...There was no written notification for intent to sale, or 24 hour written notice of showing the home. She accused us of being unwilling to work with them on showing the house. When in fact my wife stayed home from work one day to be available to show the home, and the people didn't show up. Because we wanted to help our land lord, we allowed them to reschedule for the next morning, so then I had to miss work to be home for this. Cindy's problem is she looks at tenants as not important. I understand that this house is owned by someone else and they have the right to sale it. However this is and has been my families home for 2 years. Our son took his first steps here, and we brought our daughter home from the hospital to this house. To come in, on 3 days notice and demand full reign of how things were going to work was off putting and completely disrespectful of the situation at hand. Especially when we had already paid February's rent when we were notified this was all happening. There needs to be some sort of laws giving tenants the opportunity to move before they are put in the position to have strangers walk through there home consistantly. Realitors also need to realize that these homes they are trying to sale having people living there, that have feelings and memories that are precious. Handling things delicately would have gotten her a lot further with us.

On February 4, 2009, the original listing agreement for my house included a hot tub, valued at $8, 000.00.
On or about February 27, 2009, I discovered that the MLS property listing (R132568A) shown on the RE/MAX website did not show the hot tub or indicate the hot tub as part of the listing. At this time, I called RE/MAX and notified them that the hot tub was not shown as part of the listing. I spoke to RE/MAX agent TINA COVEY and she assured me that the hot tub was part of the property listing.
On February 27, 2009, I received an Email from RE/MAX (via TINA COVEY’s Email) that indicated “I added hot tub under exterior features. It was already noted in agent remarks with above ground pool.”
On January 8, 2010, I received an Email from TINA COVEY listing questions from a potential buyer. One of the questions asked was whether the hot tub was to remain with the property. I responded to TINA COVEY that the hot tub was part of the original listing.
On January 10, 2010, at 11:44 am, I received a telephone call from TINA COVEY. She stated that somebody asked her to take the hot tub off the listing. She admitted that she deceived me by removing the hot tub from the listing without my knowledge. She further stated that if I could not trust her then I should fire her.
On January 10, 2010, I received an Email from TINA COVEY with a new listing which includes the hot tub. However, the current listing on the RE/MAX website still showed no hot tub and no indication of a hot tub as part of the listing. It was not even listed in the exterior features at this point.
It is clear that the RE/MAX agent intentionally was trying to avoid listing the hot tub so that it could be deceptively removed from the property and not be part of the original sale.

My wife and I found a lovely home that we were really excited about. We went through the all the necessary paperwork with offer and counteroffers. We came to agreement with seller and went as far as having a formal inspection. My wife and were very excited about the premise of actually being able to move into this home. So we were in negotiations with seller just waiting on his end of the paper work. Unbeknown to us an associate of the seller was coming to look at the property. So in the time we were waiting for seller to return our paper work (which we were in negotiations with) sold the home out from under us with no warning what so ever. Not sure if that is legal and even if it is, it seems very shady. I am very angry and miffed and the idea that this can happen. Re-Max what a joke. Your realtor has tarnished your reputation with me and anyone with whom I associate with. I will not be using any of your services realtors basically anything having to do with Re-Max in the future. So thank you Re-Max for using discretion with hire and keeping upstanding employees.(this is sarcasm of course).

Mark stevenson owner/broker of townsville real estate trading as remax excellence was an unlicensed financil adviser for storm financial which went bankrupt the losses total $3 billion mark stevenson conned his elderly clients some suffering from dementia into using equity in their homes to invest in the share market mark would have his elderly clients sign loan applications he would later falsify clients income details to obtain margin loans to purchase shares

mark stevenson owner of remax excellence was an unlicensed financial adviser with storm financial which went bankrupt with losses of $3 billion mark stevenson conned his many elderly clients some suffering from dementia in to using the equity in their homes to invest in the share market mark would have his elderly clients sign loan applications and he would later falsify clients income details to obtain margin loans to purchase shares

mark stevenson principle of remax townsville was an unlicensed financial adviser for storm financial storm went bust with losses set to top more than $3 billion mark conned investors many of them were elderly in to using the equity in their homes to obtain equity loans to buy shares mark falsified the income details to obtain loans many elderly investors were on pensions and had no way of obtaining equity loans had their true incomes been known to the banks

I rented from Re/Max in Wilmington, NC through an Agent named Karen and when we moved into the house it was disgusting. Nothing was cleaned like we were advised it would be. lights were blown and not all lighting fixtures had bulbs. So I took pictures of the place just in case. After a few months of dealing with there problems and not getting the help we needed for things to be taken care of we (roommate) decided to leave and move to a better place. Our deposit was taken away for a water bill that was so called not paid (we have proof of payment) and they power washed the house and redid the paint job all on our deposit. We asked for a paint job prior to moving in and the outside of the house was nasty. VERY crooked if you ask me.. Going through a legal battle now.. BE AWARE!

I am a Realtor with RE/MAX Coastal properties in Wilmnington NC, . I did a referral with Kenneth Faustin in Aruba. My clients went down there and bought a condo from his office. Closed the deal aug. 2008 and to date I have not recieved my commission check. My Broker sent emials to him and he kept saying he was sending the money per wiring instructions we sent.. Never came ...Now he is gone from Remax and the buyers agent he gave my buyers too has RE/MAX and she got paid on the deal. She will not pay me the referral either. This is Bad practice in Aruba.. Please note that I called the international RE/MAX and because it is out of the States they could not do anything about this issue... Janice Hanna RE/MAX Coastal Properties

Mr. Ballagh has a sour method to practicing real estate. After a contract was placed and agreed upon on a house he was selling, he pulled out to take a better offer. It put a single mom and 3 kids out of a home and placed a few more dollars in HIS pocket. He has no regard for morals.