Melissa

If you go to my website, under the section for R.W. Price Realty, you'll find this:

"We help people buy and sell property without relying on the doublespeak, bullshit, and smokey mirrors that are so common in the industry."

I hesitated to put it that way, but the phone calls from prospective clients who say, "I called you because I don't like bullshit either," have reassured me.

Yesterday, the North Carolina Real Estate Commission cleared me of the following charges that a prospective buyer of a multi-family property filed earlier this year:

-falsifying listing information

-willful omission of material facts

-discrimination based on race

-Federal fair housing violations

The buyer, represented by another broker at one of the big boxes, was pissed because they lost a large deposit by failing to close on the property.

Let's call that other broker "Melissa."

When Melissa called me, I strongly felt the deal would go sideways.

She talked a big game like she'd been in the business for decades. But she'd not been in it long enough to know that I could extrapolate from her production, license numbers, and words that she didn't know shit from Shinola.

Still, her offer was incredible for my client. The non-refundable deposit was so high that we didn't care one way or the other if her client closed on the property.

It would be a profitable experience either way.

At the same time, an agent named Terrence called me. Like Melissa, I could tell he was new. As it turns out, he was fresh from real estate school and had yet to complete a transaction.

There was a stark difference in the conversations. Where Melissa tried to bullshit me, Terrence was open and honest.

"I've never done this before," he said.

He'd called me ready to make an offer that also included a non-refundable deposit, but it took all of 5 minutes for him to understand that the property was a terrible fit for his client and that he was in over his head.

"Thank you," he said, "I think we were about to make a big mistake."

He was, but he was humble enough to realize it.

Melissa was making a big mistake, too, but she didn't care. With the big deposit on the table, I felt she wasn't giving her client all the information he needed.

The egg was yet to hatch, but she was too busy counting the chickens to care.

I knew the shit was hitting the fan when I got a call from her broker-in-charge, "Our client is not closing and seeks to recover his deposit."

Sorry, ma'am, that's not happening.

Such was the series of events that led to Melissa's client filing those charges against me.

However, I could easily demonstrate that I'd done nothing wrong by sending the Real Estate Commission copies of our email and text exchanges.

I'd given her all the information.

I had not falsified the listing.

I didn't give a rat's ass about the color of the buyer's skin.

But that flow of information had stopped with Melissa.

Her client never got it.

He was bullshitted, to be sure, but by his agent.

Not me.

Melissa no longer works at that big box brokerage - she was fired before the charges against me were even filed.

And while I wish that were the end of the story, it's not.

Today, Melissa works for the largest big-box brokerage on the planet. She's still out there, still representing clients, and not enough time has passed for her to receive meaningful training.

And here's the thing, ya'll.

There's a lot of "Melissas" out there.

I know; I deal with them every single day.

Be careful if you find yourself walking around in a field of houses.

There's a lot of bullshit in them.