The company responded with a statement saying, “MV Realty has always been committed to transparency in all of our business transactions, and we are confident that any inquiry will confirm that our team has operated in full compliance with the law.”
Instead, when the disabled Navy veteran opted to use a different realtor a year later, the company sued him for violating his contract. Dorin said he paid MV Realty more than $9,000 to avoid holding up his sale. The company ended up making even more than the realtors who actually handled the sale. “They’re holding her hostage, and this is paying the ransom to get out,” said Rebecca Broich, a Georgia realtor who agreed to forego her own commission so the woman could afford to pay MV Realty’s penalty.two years ago when Eleanor Gardner signed a contract she did not understand. She says an MV Realty representative came to her house and offered to pay her to join its Homeowner Benefit Program. Gardner says he explained she could also collect $100 more for every person she referred.
MV Realty declined multiple requests for an on-camera interview but, in an email, MV Realty Communications and Public Relations Director Diana London wrote, “We do enforce our agreements when homeowners violate their contracts. But we make sure that homeowners clearly understand the terms of the agreement before signing.”MV Realty gave Feliciano $650 to list her home if she ever sold it.
After she ultimately decided to hire another realtor, MV Realty filed court papers demanding she pay a 3% penalty. She provided the reporters with a trove of internal training materials from the company that documents the sales tactics, now also cited in the Florida lawsuit. “I think our job is to maybe put in some protections so people who might be in a difficult time in their life financially are making long-term decisions that don’t come back to bite them later on,” Mullet said.
“There are always con artists ready to pounce,” Brown said. “And when we see people taking advantage of homeowners or renters, we spring into action.” “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck. There are times when individuals may have a document that they form or title as a memorandum, but it has the same legal validity of a lien,” said Montgomery County, Ohio Recorder Brandon McClain, adding that he’d never heard of a 40-year exclusive listing agent agreement before. WHIO found more than three dozen had been filed in his county.
MV Realty insists it follows all state laws and that its Homeowner Benefit Agreement is not a listing agreement, just a contract to potentially have a listing agreement for the next 40 years. Another Pittsburgh-area resident named Keith asked not to have his last name disclosed, but said he received $546 to sign MV Realty’s Homeowner Benefit Agreement.
Get em JesseKIRO7 ! 👏👏
Great example of why local journalism is so important. Well done. 👏👏
JesseKIRO7 so is this loan sharking?