Naughty Agent Part V: When Realtors Cross the Line

The Naughty Agent series in this podcast discusses cases of disciplinary action taken against real estate agents in Ontario.

In this episode the first case involves an agent who responded to a Kijiji ad from a woman looking for a place to rent. The agent made sexually suggestive remarks to the woman, charged her $700 to strengthen her rental application, and advised her to falsify documents. The deal fell through, leaving the woman without a place to live.

The second case involves an agent who double-ended a property sale, representing both the buyer and the seller. The buyer discovered significant electrical issues after moving in, which cost them $8,000 to fix. The Agent failed to disclose that renovations were done without permits.

A third case involves an agent who falsified signatures on an agreement of purchase and sale and submitted it for financing to a lender.

Guest: Doug Downs, Stories and Strategies
Website

Listen For
2:04 The Case of Misconduct Involving False Documentation and Inappropriate Behaviour
17:19 Failure to Disclose Information on Property Renovations
27:24 Fraudulent Agreement of Purchase of Sale

RECO Disciplines

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Recorded in Sep 2023

Transcript

Desmond Brown (00:01):

In Ontario, our local real estate boards and regulator have rules to keep us agents in line. Most of us don't need to know the rules because we run good, honest businesses. Businesses where we make sure our clients and everyone else we deal with are treated properly. However, like any business, there are some who cross the line and when they do, it's the public who suffers. I'm Desmond Brown and today on Sold in the 6ix, it's our latest episode of Naughty Agent. It is where we look at cases and disciplinary action taken against agents that have made it to our regulator, the Real Estate Council of Ontario. We also call it RECO. I usually do not engage it with my team member Jennifer Scaife, but because of illness, she can't make it today. So I have a special guest filling in my producer, Doug Downs. Doug, welcome to Sold in the 6ix.

Doug Downs (01:16):

I'm excited to be back. Des, I love these

Desmond Brown (01:19):

Fun. I know you do. I know you love these and I am really excited to have you.

Doug Downs (01:24):

I'm a voyeur at heart, so if somebody's behaving badly or no one's gotten big time hurt, I love to look at this stuff

Desmond Brown (01:34):

And I think it's going to be really cool to have you because you are not a real estate agent.

Doug Downs (01:39):

No.

Desmond Brown (01:40):

You would be a member of the public and I'm always curious as to what someone like you might think after hearing some of these cases.

Doug Downs (01:49):

My recommendation for fines will start at a million dollars and work their way up. I think it's time we clamp down.

Desmond Brown (01:56):

Yeah, me too. Okay, you're going to start getting your license out there. And Doug's joining us from Calgary today.

Doug Downs (02:03):

Right, right.

Desmond Brown (02:04):

Okay. So Doug, let's take a look at case number one. So a member of the public puts an ad in Kijiji saying that she's looking for a place to live, a place to rent. So real estate ad. Well real estate agent sees the ad, contacts the person and offers to represent her. In the end, this woman is the complainant. So the real estate agent offers to look, I'll help find you a place, and the way it works as agents, we have access to some rentals that are on our MLS system. And when we do find a place for someone, we have compensated a half month's rent. So if it's, in this case, the case we're going to be talking about, the rent is 2150 per month, we'll get half of that. So just over a thousand dollars, $1,075 for that. So this person agrees to meet the agent and the agent sets up a few rental properties to show her through our MLS system.

(03:07):

So the agent through the whole process is also in contact with this potential renter through phone calls and text messages. And while in communication with the woman, the agent makes several sexually suggestive remarks to her. I mean, this is thrown in the case. We don't get into how deep this was, but it's enough to kind of make your stomach turn Anyway. So now the agent charges the woman $700. Now we're not supposed to charge people anything, but the agent charges the woman $700 in exchange for strengthening her rental application. So what he advises her to do is create a false job letter, her produce false pay stubs. Oh boy. And he also advises her on how to update her job information to falsify her credit score. Isn't this the beauty of an agent to work with?

(04:15):

So we're not over yet. Alright, just the beginning. Okay. So they go out and they look at properties and they find one, and the woman puts in an offer, what's the first and last month's deposit? So like I said, in this case, the rent was 2150, so the first and last deposit was $4,300. So they submit the offer with the deposit and they also submit all of the falsified information. They send it onto the listing agent who is representing the landlord. It's all accepted. And the tenant is scheduled to move in, let's say on the date February 25th. And on that date, she's supposed to supply the landlord with post dated checks so she can receive her keys to the unit. So closing comes up this February 25th, and unfortunately the tenant is out of town, so can't be there to give the post data checks to get her key to move into the unit. So she arranges for a friend to do that. So the friend bypasses her agent and calls the listing agent and says, I'm going to meet you for the unit and when can we meet? So they set up a time to meet when the person or the friend shows up and meets the listing agent. The listing agent says, are you such and such? And he says, no, no, I'm doing this for my friend. He says, I can't give you the keys. I don't know who you makes. And plus we

Doug Downs (05:57):

Don't have a power. Makes sense.

Desmond Brown (05:59):

Yeah. Right, you don't have a power of attorney from this potential tenant or who finished off the deal with us. And the person who was there for the tenant did not show up with the post-dated checks that was required in this deal.

Doug Downs (06:16):

So

Desmond Brown (06:18):

Of course the listing agent turns the friend away and contacts the agent who was supposedly representing this tenant

(06:28):

And says, what the heck's going on here? This person shows up. You didn't tell me anything about this. There's no power of attorney. I can't give this person the key. And there were no post data checks. So the agent says, oh, no problem, no problem. Can you give me a couple of days on this? I'd like to amend the agreement a couple more days so I could get all the checks together and we will present it to you and there'll be no problem at all. So the agent says, no, speaks to his client. The client says, no, we are not going to extend this. We're not going to amend this agreement. The deal is now null and void. Okay. So the deal's dead. Meanwhile, the tenant returns from out of town and she thinks that she has a place to live.

Doug Downs (07:17):

Oh boy. Now she has nowhere to go.

Desmond Brown (07:19):

She has nowhere to go. So she gets back into town, has to rent a hotel.

Doug Downs (07:25):

Her friend should have told her though, her friend should have, Hey, hey, I couldn't close the deal. Her friend should have told her the one that was supposed to bring the checks.

Desmond Brown (07:34):

So lack of communication.

Doug Downs (07:36):

Big time all

Desmond Brown (07:37):

Around here. Yeah,

Doug Downs (07:38):

Big time. Yeah. Yeah.

Desmond Brown (07:40):

So she asked the agency what happened and her agent tells her, I'm not sure, maybe you should contact the landlord's agent. Okay. So this is his client. He's telling his client to go and contact

Doug Downs (07:55):

The other agent. That's his job. That is precisely his function here.

Desmond Brown (07:59):

Yeah, exactly.

Doug Downs (08:00):

Yeah.

Desmond Brown (08:01):

And anyway, the woman files a complaint with RECO and she also tells the agent who is representing her that she has filed a complaint with RECO and she wants her $700 back at least. And he says, yeah, sure. He says, sure, you can have the money back, but only if you sign this letter. And the letter that he gives her says something to the effect of, dear, to whomever, it may concern, I release my agent from any wrongdoing related to the allegations detailed in the RECO complaint. So she feels she's under duress to get her money back. So she signs it gets her money back, then she files an additional complaint with RECO against her agent about the latest shenanigans.

Doug Downs (08:54):

Okay. So to recapture, is there more to this one or does it do more?

Desmond Brown (08:59):

Well, basically he's found guilty of violating all kinds of sections of our code of ethics and providing false documents and so on. And I'll tell you what, the

Doug Downs (09:06):

Sign, the whole $700 collection sounds like that is against the rules outlined by RECO. Also the falsified information. There's a major ethical infraction there that I think RECO would take that particularly both would be very serious. The sexual innuendo, boy, I don't want to say too much other than it's a shame that she stayed with him. It's a shame she didn't. And that can be hard. It can be hard to recognize it for what it is and call it out for what it is at the time. But she stayed in business with him through that period. So I don't know how to calculate that

Desmond Brown (09:49):

Well, sure. And maybe she was looking elsewhere for units to live in as well or had other agents helping her along the way. We don't know if she was signed to an agreement with him or whatever, but yeah, for some reason

Doug Downs (10:02):

She, did she give him the 700 before or after this?

Desmond Brown (10:07):

I'm not sure. It doesn't lay it out here in the

Doug Downs (10:09):

Complaint. Right, right. Sure. I think this one's going to be fairly hefty. I think you're up in that 40 or $50,000 range. I think this is a major, major infraction by this agent collecting this

Desmond Brown (10:23):

Money. I would agree with you.

Doug Downs (10:25):

Yeah.

Desmond Brown (10:26):

That's the type of fine that I would levy and I would revoke the license. And the other disturbing part of this is what about the landlord? You're trying to get a good tenant for your property. You're going through real estate agents because real estate agents are supposed to be ethical and professional and to do all of their due diligence to make sure that the new tenant that you are going to be putting in your unit is actually legit.

Doug Downs (10:57):

The landlord has lost at least a month's rent here. Yeah,

Desmond Brown (11:00):

At

Doug Downs (11:00):

Least a month. It's whatever the rent was, 21, 2200. It's a $2,000 hit to the landlord. Yeah,

Desmond Brown (11:07):

Exactly. And then you put it back on the market and go through the whole process again. Well, anyway, the fine dug was $30,000 and this is going to be a half month. But when you consider it's going to be a half month commission on this, like a half month's rent commission on this $1,075, it's a pretty hefty fine for, it's

Doug Downs (11:27):

A little light

Desmond Brown (11:28):

The of money you're going to be,

Doug Downs (11:30):

And it's all pre-calculated. I see an mo here. I see a modus opera operandi that, I'm not going to say the agent has operated before, but it sounds like they knew what they were doing and had a plan going into this. And typically that means this isn't the first time they've done this kind of thing.

Desmond Brown (11:49):

No, it's the

Doug Downs (11:49):

First time they've been caught.

Desmond Brown (11:52):

It's the first, it's usually the case with almost every crime, isn't it?

Doug Downs (11:56):

I would say on RECO, this one's a little light. A little light should have been heavier. I

Desmond Brown (12:00):

Would say it's a little light now as an agent, that's me who deals with a lot of leases as well. When I represent my landlord, I make sure that when an employment letter comes in and the references are stated, double check, we call them, we double check. And it has happened, Doug, where I've called an employer for a potential tenant who was brought to me from another agent and they had no idea who the person was. It was a falsified document as well, a falsified employment letter. And we caught it. And we also do our own credit checks as well, just to be sure. But when I told this other agent, I said, by the way, your client does not work at this place where she says she works. He was shocked because the client came to him through a referral from an old client as well. So he was shocked. And he says, Desmond, thanks very much for telling me it. I've dropped her and I'm so sorry for the inconvenience and please send your apologies to your client as well.

Doug Downs (13:07):

I think, I dunno about falsifying, I worked here, but I didn't really. But I think torquing and stretching on resumes and letters like this, I think it's exceptionally common these days. I think it's all built up a lot.

Desmond Brown (13:23):

I have degrees. It

Doug Downs (13:24):

Really is like degrees that aren't there at all. People claiming they have university degrees and awards that they say they won, all that stuff. And I think it gets excused. Or the excuse you make up for yourself is, well, I'm competing against all these others who are also falsifying their resumes and their background history. So I am a hero. I must also twist mine just a little bit because I know I'm capable of it. I think that's the excuse people make.

Desmond Brown (13:58):

I know there's always an excuse. There's always an

Doug Downs (14:01):

Excuse. RECO needed tougher boxing gloves on this one. The bigger hammer. They needed a bigger hammer

Desmond Brown (14:08):

And I wish they would, I wish they'd come down a lot harder on these agents. Anyway,

Doug Downs (14:15):

I guess I don't know the particulars about the agent too. There could be more to the story that I'm not aware of that a $30,000 hit for this agent is significant and will take a long time to pay back. I don't know. But in general, it sounds a tad on the light side.

Desmond Brown (14:33):

And the other thing though is that this agent can't be that busy doing sales because if they're responding to

Doug Downs (14:41):

A thousand dollars is not a big payday.

Desmond Brown (14:43):

Responding to a kei ad for somebody looking for a place to rent,

Doug Downs (14:50):

Not to be callous, but a thousand dollars for a successful agent is a good day's work. It's a day's worth

Desmond Brown (15:01):

To me.

Doug Downs (15:04):

And there are lots of people who would love to make $500 a day. I'm not downplaying that.

Desmond Brown (15:09):

Yeah, no. But then when you take a look at it too, when it comes to leases, leases take a lot of work finding, especially in this market where the rental vacancy rate is so low, low, it's so low. So to actually finally find something and get an offer in for one of your clients is quite an accomplishment. And then after you do that, then you've got to go through all the due diligence and everything else and the calls. It's a lot of work and so on. A lot of work. Yeah, it is a lot of work for the money that you get. And I know some people out there saying, I'd like to make your money, but still it does take a little bit more than selling a house, believe it or not.

Doug Downs (15:48):

Yeah. No, I don't think a thousand dollars is a big payday.

Desmond Brown (15:53):

Anyway, here we go. The public, this woman not looked after very well. And again, an agent that who knows what he was thinking other than,

Doug Downs (16:08):

I hope she's all right. A found a place to live and the whole sexual inappropriateness. I hope she's fine through that too.

Desmond Brown (16:18):

Yeah, yeah, me too. Okay, so that's the first one, Doug. Not a bad one to get going into it. And environment and our environment right now, like I said, as agents, we're doing a lot of leases and people hire us because they trust us and we're professional and this type of behavior is ridiculous. Absolutely. It's rogue. Yeah. Okay, second case we have here. So an agent has a property listed for sale and finds the buyer for it as well. So we call this double ending. This agent represented both the buyer and the seller. So in the agreement of purchasing sale, there are two conditions. The first one's a condition on financing, and the second is a condition on a home inspection. So the financing condition is fulfilled and the buyer also has the home inspector go through. And after the inspection is completed, the buyer's satisfied that the property's good and waives that condition as well. So now we have a firm and binding deal.

(17:19):

Closing date comes, the new owner moves in and finds out that there are significant electrical issues. So the new owner brings in the electrical safety authority, which we also call the ESA, and the inspector finds that there are several violations of the Ontario Electrical Safety Code that need to be corrected immediately. This is an urgent matter now because these concerns pose a significant safety risk. So in short, to rectify all of this, the new owner has it done and it costs them $8,000 to have the electrical fixed. Plus there were some problems with plumbing and they had to have that fixed as well. So it cost them, it didn't say in the case how much more it cost, but it did cost them some extra money. Now my first thing is like, why didn't the home inspector find these problems?

Doug Downs (18:22):

And they always have that clause in their contract. If there is stuff wrong here, don't blame me. I've just done the best I can. They always have that clause in their contract, though.

Desmond Brown (18:32):

I know they do, but I guess maybe I'm spoiled because the home inspectors that I use, and we had John Berry on this podcast as well, they're excellent.

Doug Downs (18:41):

If it's a big deal,

Desmond Brown (18:42):

They're excellent,

Doug Downs (18:43):

Like a major electrical problem, they'll typically find it.

Desmond Brown (18:48):

Yeah. They'll flag it and say, here have ESA investigate further or have an electrician investigate further. I can't give you a complete opinion on this, but I see there are some red flags here. There's some double wiring to circuit, so whatever. And I've had that happen. So anyway, the house that was bought here was also renovated, but they found out later that the renovations, I guess it included, the electrical, were all done without permits. So take a step back. Now, when the agent signed the listing, she had the seller fill out and sign what we call the seller property information statement in SPIS. And in that SPIS, the seller disclosed that the renovations of her home were in fact done without permits.

Doug Downs (19:46):

Gotcha.

Desmond Brown (19:47):

Okay, cool. So it's all disclosed. The seller was not hiding anything, but the agent ended up hiding it because when the agent had a chance to double end this property, which she did, she did not give the buyer a copy of the SPIS, which showed and disclosed that the renovations were done without permits.

Doug Downs (20:13):

And is there an expressed requirement that the SPIS is provided to the purchaser? Is there

Desmond Brown (20:20):

No, but if it's filled out, yes,

Doug Downs (20:22):

It's

Desmond Brown (20:23):

If it's filled out and filled out, yes. A lot of us do not use SPSS for our sellers because people end up going in and the potential buyers will go and bring in their own home inspectors. We will disclose defects as well. And it's usually either verbally or sometimes it's disclosed on paper or in emails and so on. Yes, we're aware of this and so on. But generally speaking, the use of the SPIS in the Toronto market is very, very minimal. I know a couple of companies that do it, but my company, most of the agents I work with in my company don't do it. Most of the agents in my markets do not use them as well. So anyway, the buyer, the new owner of the house files a complaint with RECO and it ends up being obviously successful and the agent is fine.

Doug Downs (21:25):

Okay.

Desmond Brown (21:27):

What would you do in this

Doug Downs (21:30):

Situation?

Desmond Brown (21:30):

What type of fine would you levy

Doug Downs (21:31):

As judge and jury here, just for the episode, I find I'm in the position where I do need to ask some clarifying questions before I hand down my sentence. The practice of disclosure of the SPIS, it sounds like it's a good to do, but not a must to do. In this case, the agent understood that electrical work and plumbing work was not done with certification and therefore may not be to code.

Desmond Brown (22:07):

That's right. Yeah. Because when you have permits for a renovation, there are different permits. There's a plumbing permit, there's an electrical permit, and then an inspector comes in after the work is complete to make sure that it's done properly.

Doug Downs (22:19):

So what would compel the agent is aware of in the case of plumbing, the potential for substantial damage to the house. And in the case of electrical, the potential for life-threatening damage. Right. If something is not done to code, it's extremely serious. And the most common cause of house fires by a mile is bad electrical. What compels the agent who is aware of this, to disclose this to the purchaser, what is in place in Ontario to compel the agent and force them to disclose it? Nothing.

Desmond Brown (23:01):

The rule? No. If an SPIS is filled out by a seller, it must be disclosed to potential buyers.

Doug Downs (23:07):

Okay.

Desmond Brown (23:08):

That simple. Okay. Right. Now, I'm not sure, did the SPIS say that detail, the plumbing detail, the electrical? I don't know, but

Doug Downs (23:16):

It mentioned we didn't do the renovations

Desmond Brown (23:20):

With, yeah, we didn't do the renovations with per, okay,

Doug Downs (23:22):

So this is the infraction that

Desmond Brown (23:23):

Would be a red

Doug Downs (23:24):

Flag. The infraction, therefore, is that the SPIS was not disclosed to the purchaser. That is an infraction.

Desmond Brown (23:31):

That's right. That's right.

Doug Downs (23:33):

See now, morally, I think the hammer should come down hard, but as a judge and jury, because it is an infraction, which an agent could claim to be an oversight, which could happen, I am lesser, I'm down in that 15,000, 10,000, 15,000 range, but morally I'm up higher, significantly higher.

Desmond Brown (24:01):

Yeah. Okay. So realistically, you're right. The fine was $12,000.

Doug Downs (24:06):

But

Desmond Brown (24:06):

What you said there is something about what you said here. I think maybe because there was a home inspection clause that the agent figured, okay, if there's anything that isn't right with the property, it's going to come out in the home inspection. But it still doesn't cover the fact that it was already disclosed by the seller that the renovations were done without a permit,

Doug Downs (24:37):

Double checks.

Desmond Brown (24:39):

They did not pass that information on. A

Doug Downs (24:41):

Home inspector can't be held liable for what they don't discover. They're just an incompetent home inspector. That's

Desmond Brown (24:51):

All. Yeah, exactly. And if you need a home inspector, anybody out there listening, I have a good one, a couple of great home inspectors. I have a couple of great ones, John Ari and a couple of others that are fantastic. Just fantastic.

Doug Downs (25:01):

Got to go with the good ones.

Desmond Brown (25:02):

And they will not leave you. They will not leave you

Doug Downs (25:05):

Alert. Yeah. Get a referral. Yeah, get a referral for a good one. Obviously there's bad home inspectors that, well, I don't know all the ins and outs here, but if it's a major electrical infraction, things substantially not to code, you would hope that a home, they should be able to see. I guess they can't dig into the walls, right? They can't evaporate into my walls and look at the pipes and look at the wiring. But

Desmond Brown (25:32):

Yeah, there are ways that they, I've had these home inspectors uncover extensive knob and tube and properties without opening up walls. So

Doug Downs (25:41):

Let me ask a question. So here you have people who bought a home and had to spend, was it 8,000 to get all the fixes done?

Desmond Brown (25:49):

8,000 just for the electrical?

Doug Downs (25:50):

Just for the electrical. And then who knows, on the plumbing, you have a $12,000 penalty. Where does that $12,000 go? Sorry, as Joe Public here, I'd kind of like to see it go to the homeowner.

Desmond Brown (26:06):

Does it go to the widows and orphans fund?

Doug Downs (26:07):

Where does it go? Does it go to RECO?

Desmond Brown (26:09):

I know it goes to RECO.

Doug Downs (26:11):

What does RECO do with the money? Does this CEO bonus pay or something? It runs their operations,

Desmond Brown (26:20):

Obviously it, yeah, it runs, it goes towards their high rent or their wide mortgage cost for their building.

Doug Downs (26:27):

I don't know. Right. You can see where I'm going though, as Joe Public here.

Desmond Brown (26:30):

Yeah, no, I do get it. Yeah. If it should actually go back to the, it should actually go back to the person who suffered the loss. But who knows, maybe this buyer went another step and went for a claim in the Well, right.

Doug Downs (26:43):

It could be a civil,

Desmond Brown (26:44):

We don't know. But this is not outlined in the RECO. RECO case.

Doug Downs (26:47):

Absolutely. If someone wanted to get the names here, we're not going to offer names. They can get the names.

Desmond Brown (26:53):

They're all there. Yep. You go to the RECOh website and the names of all the names of the agents that are in there, not at the

Doug Downs (27:00):

Complaint. And there's a link in the show notes. I'm not saying. I'm just saying.

Desmond Brown (27:04):

I know. Yeah, I know. And I've seen some of my colleagues. I've seen people I know actually in these cases. So I just don't want my name in there, and I'm doing my best not to do that.

Doug Downs (27:14):

Yes.

Desmond Brown (27:15):

I don't operate like that anyway, so I don't have anything to worry about.

Doug Downs (27:18):

Well, there's one agent not going to Mexico for holiday. Yeah.

Desmond Brown (27:24):

Okay. Anyway, Doug, we have time just for a really fast one here. And this one here, I don't know where to go with this one. I'm not really sure what the agent was thinking, but it's a serious case and I'm just very curious about it. So all I can think of is that it has to do with the fraud. So there's a property listed on the MLS and an agent sees this property listed on the MLS and then puts an offer together on the property. So an agreement of purchase and sale firm deal because it's a phony agreement. And he falsifies the seller's signatures on the agreement. So I mean, through DocuSign, they could possibly do that or whatever, but he falsies the signatures for the buyer and the seller or on behalf of the buyer. But what came out here was that the seller's signature and the agent's signature on the agreement of purchase and sale were falsified. So then they submit the agreement for financing to a lender. So the appraiser representing the lender contacts the listing agent and says, yes, I'd like to get into the property for the appraisal to make sure that it appraises out to the value that the property sold for in the agreement of purchase and sale. And the listing agent says, what? We didn't sell this property. Who is this buyer?

Doug Downs (29:00):

Wow.

Desmond Brown (29:01):

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, exactly. It is a wow. So they're all shocked about this on the seller side, and a complaint is filed, and there's obviously, it's very easy to track down who the agent was and the agent, in the end, this fined $20,000 for putting together this false agreement of purchase and sale. So the thing was, with this RECO case, it didn't outline much more so it just leaves us here to discuss it. But I'm thinking this is obviously a fraud. It is a fraud in some way here. I'm trying to figure out how they would end up with the funds.

Doug Downs (29:44):

Yeah, because done that great story about underworld activity selling homes. That's

Desmond Brown (29:52):

Right. With John Lancaster.

Doug Downs (29:53):

Yeah. I'm wondering if there's some scheme like that going on, but it's an agent who's doing it. It's only 20,000 because I'm wondering about revocation of license here.

Desmond Brown (30:07):

They should definitely kick this agent out. They should put him in jail.

Doug Downs (30:13):

It seems like it

Desmond Brown (30:17):

All seems there's going to be fraud because what's going to happen now on closing date? Is he going to, again, falsify information on closing date that he is the actual seller of the property and get the funds transferred into his account or into his buyer's account, who he's obviously in bed with on this.

Doug Downs (30:38):

I'm also wondering, this is wild, if there are health issues going on here,

Desmond Brown (30:43):

In what way?

Doug Downs (30:43):

You mean health issues, mental health issues? If someone's not

Desmond Brown (30:46):

Well, people can always turn it out when agents do such stupid things.

Doug Downs (30:50):

Well, how do you get away with this? What is the game you're trying to siphon funds out somehow? You're trying to, that's why I was brought to the Lancaster series where the underworld was actually taking the money.

Desmond Brown (31:07):

I

Doug Downs (31:08):

Think they were selling a property and getting paid by the purchaser, and they were taking the money pretending to be the homeowner, and they weren't the homeowner.

Desmond Brown (31:17):

Exactly. You know what? I'm thinking that this is just the beginning of a bigger fraud. It's the beginning, starting with the agreement of purchase and sale, getting everything into place, and then the next step was going to be falsifying information as to who they were when it came to the closing date. Somehow they were going to try to pull that off and get all of the proceeds of the mortgage transferred into their accounts and run

Doug Downs (31:44):

Away with it. If that's a deliberate plan, you're right. Then prison and revocation of

Desmond Brown (31:50):

License, I think. Yeah, I really do think so. This is one to watch. I'm going to take a look at this one and try to keep an eye on it. But yeah, it's actually disturbing.

Doug Downs (32:00):

And again, these are the exceptions. The majority of any agent I've ever worked with, I've become good friends with and easy to do. But they

Desmond Brown (32:12):

Have many clients who

Doug Downs (32:13):

Are friends. Even though I said RECO, I didn't think had a big enough hammer in the first case. At least there is a RECO in place that has a hammer.

Desmond Brown (32:22):

And from what I'm hearing, the regulations in Ontario are very strict. Good. I've spoken two agents across the country, and we're pretty good here. We're not perfect in Ontario, but we do a pretty good job keeping things under control.

Doug Downs (32:36):

Yep, good as it should be. Because as someone who buys and sells, I expect it. I expect the highest ethical representation possible.

Desmond Brown (32:47):

Yeah, and that's why I'm so glad that you could fill in for Jen today, because like I said, it's always nice to have a member of the public hear cases like this and just to get their feelings and reactions about it. And it is quite appalling to you, isn't it? Well,

Doug Downs (33:00):

I hope I represented our impossibly high expectations of agents appropriately, because that is, as a member of the public, that's what we have. High demands, high expectations.

Desmond Brown (33:10):

Great. Okay. So that's it. That's our latest episode of Sold in the 6ix with my producer Doug Downs. Now if you're a real estate agent out there and you're thinking of a podcast or anybody out there who's thinking of doing a podcast, I recommend that you get in touch with Doug, and he's with stories and strategies, and not only is Doug a producer, but Doug is also a podcast host. So tell us about your podcast, Doug.

Doug Downs (33:34):

Oh, yeah. We have a podcast that goes by the name of the company, Stories and Strategies, and it's about human communication, the good, the bad, the ugly, all that stuff. Thank you for that.

Desmond Brown (33:44):

Okay, great. And that's what it's called, stories and Strategies, and it's available anywhere you get your podcast, just like sold in the 6ix Desmond Brown's podcast and Apple, Spotify, you name it, it's all out there. So if you'd liked this podcast today, please subscribe and leave a rating and send it to a friend. And to get in touch with me, you can email me at desmond@desmondbrown.ca and also follow me on all of the social media platforms. My handle is Desinthe6ix, and if you're a realtor outside of Toronto and you're thinking of a podcast, call Doug, get in touch with Doug. Or if you need someone to look after your clients that are moving to or from the GTA, that's the greater Toronto area, please keep me in mind. I promise that I'll look after them really, really well. Until next time, I'm Desmond Brown.