My advise; Buy & Sell FSBO
Dear Mr. Hooker:
After reviewing your Complaint and all other pertinent documents, it is the opinion of the Hall County Board of Realtors Grievance Committee there is not enough information to support a possible violation of the Code of Ethics.
Should you desire, you have the right to appeal this decision to the Board of Directors of the Hall County Board of Realtors within twenty (20) days from receipt of this dismissal notice. Enclosed is Form #E-22, Appeal of Grievance Committee Dismissal of Ethics Complaint, however, no additional information may be added or attached to the form.
Sincerely yours;
Judy Presley, Chairman
Grievance Committee
Ms Presley;
You are darned right I am going to appeal; Not only to your committee, but to the state and national Board of Realtors as well.
"...there is not enough information to support a possible violation of the Code of Ethics."
"...no additional information may be attached to the form."
OK, let me REITERATE a few indisputable facts that have already been presented, and Northside Realty has admitted to:
1. Northside Realty-Gainesville accepted and signed a contract from me to bid on a HUD home.
2. Northside Realty-Gainesville never submitted my contract and did not inform me that they were not/did not submit my contract to HUD.
3. Northside Realty-Gainesville won the bid.
Even ignoring the enormous circumstantial evidence, please explain to me and every other thinking person how the above facts comply with the very first sentence in the very first:
and
If you should want any more information (which you obviously don't!), look on my website:
www.NorthsideRealtySucks.com
There, my complaint, their defense, and my dealings with you, is standing the test of public scrutiny, for better or worse.
Jim Hooker
REALTOR(r) The Voice For Real Estate(r)
430 North Michigan Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60611-4087
February 1, 2000
RE: Ethics Complaint
Dear Mr. Hooker:
We are in receipt of your January 9, 2000 correspondence adressed to the National Association which as been referred the Member Policy Department for review and response.
Please understand that enforcement of the Code of Ethics, including tthe conduct of ethics hearings, is a privilege and responsibility specifically delegated to each member board of the National Association. Member boards are guided in their review of ethics complaints by the Articles and Standards of Practice of the Code of Ethics, the cases found in Interpretation of the Code of Ethics, the procedures established in a board's code of ethics and arbitration manual and, when necessary, the advise of board legal council.
You indicate that you have brought your concern to the attention of the Hall County Board of REALTORS(r). We are confident that this board will fairly and expeditiously address your concerns.
Finally, this is to advise that the National Association does not serve as an appellant or review body for decisions rendered by a member board. Once a board of directors of a local board reaches its final determination, there is no avenue for apperal to the state association or the National Association. Any further correspondence regarding this matter would appropriately be directed to the Hall County Board.
Sincerely; Diane M. Noetzel
Assistant Director, Professional Standards and Multiple Listing Policy
cc:
President, Hall County Board of REALTORS(r)
Executive Vice President, Hall County Board of REALTORS(r)
Executive Vice President, Georgia Association of REALTORS(r)
Lorry Connors Cates, Director, Professional Standards and Multiple Listing Policy
From: Jim Hooker
To: Diane M. Noetzel, Assistant Director,
Professional Standards and Multiple Listing Policy
Dear Ms. Noetzel;
This is a response to your reply of Feb. 1, to my letter of Jan. 9 2000, and most notably referenced by my website: www.northsiderealtysucks.com.
When I wrote you I requested that the letter be forwarded to:
"...the person among you who cares most about the adherence to your Code of Ethics and Standards, that you wrote and stand by."
and I appreciate that you relayed it to the Member Policy Dept., Lorry Cates, and the Georgia associations.
I also appreciate your enlightening me about the limitations of the chain of appeals in your organization.
However, what may be at stake here is a lot bigger than something that can be dismissed by mere procedural technicalities.
Do you remember the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval? If not, ask someone older what that was all about. What I am talking about here is the credibility of the label REALTOR(r). What is a REALTOR(r)? Read the bottom of every piece of stationary at every level of your organization. I thought it is was rather telling, how you stamped your document identification (f:\data...diane\hooker.doc) over that most important footnote at the bottom of the letter you sent me. Could it have been that you were ashamed to show it?
Your policy states that REALTORs(r) are "...members of the National Association...", not "...members of a Local Association...". If you have no control over the behavior of your membership, then your official position should state that fact. If, as your letter has clearly implied, All questions of ethical violations can go no further than the (possibly corrupt) local level, then the worth of the label REALTOR(r) is no better than the worth of the local boards. This would be valuble news to anyone shopping for ethical real estate agents.
"You indicate that you have brought your concern to the attention of the Hall County Board of REALTORS(r). We are confident that this board will fairly and expeditiously address your concerns."
I am not so sure. They initially claim there is not enough evidence (!!??), and they will not accept more evidence if some should surface. I am a fair man. I will be more than willing to accept their finale conclusions if they can present a plausible explanation that anyone with a brain could accept. The question I have for you is, What are you willing to accept? How low will you go? What will you eat? What are your true standards?
Please bear in mind that our correspondence will eventually find it's way to my Updates web pages, and if necessary, way, way, way beyond that.
Yours Truly; Jim Hooker
Dear Mr. Hooker:
Pursuant to Section 19C of the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics and Arbitration Manual the Board of Directors Panel, a Tribunal acting on behalf of the Board of Directors, heard the appeal of the Grievance Committee's dismissal of the case in question.
It was the decision of the Board Directors Tribunal to overturn the dismissal and refer this matter for an Ethics Hearing on Article 1 - the appealed Article.
Enclosed you find, consistent with Section 21-C, paperwork should you wish to challenge any potential Ethics Hearing Panelist. Any challenge must be submitted to this office within ten(10) days of receipt of this letter.
Also enclosed, Mr. Hooker, is a copy of the Respondent's reply.
Notification of a hearing date to review the allegations that Article 1 was violated will be sent on or about the end of this month. By copy of this letter, the Respondents will receive the same challenge paperwork.
Sincerely; Judith M. White
Association Executive
cc: Michelle Collier, Theresa Huss , Billy Ray Smith
To give you some idea of what I may be up against, please note that Theresa Huss was A former president of the Gainesville-Hall County Board of Realtors (the very organization I am appealing to!) and has been state director of the Georgia Association of Realtors. This should be very interesting.
I am also extremely interested to learn what true value the Code of Ethics means to genuine Realtors(r). I will post further developments as they occur.
Address: P.O. Box 841
City:Gainesville State:GA
Zip: 30503
Conclusions of the Hearing Panel: We, the members of the Hearing Panel in the above-stated case, find the Respondent(s) (in violation) (not in violation) of Article(s) (attachment) of the Code of Ethics.
Recommendadon for Disciplinary Action: We recommend to the Board of Directors the following action:
We, the Hearing Panel, recommend that Michele Collier receive the following discipline: (a) That a letter of warning be issued to Ms. Collier advising her of the violation and warning against futher violations. (b) That Ms. Collier be require to take a continuing education course in which the process of bidding on HUD homes is explained, and (c) That Ms. Collier be required to take a course on either agency or writing contracts.
We find the following facts:
1. Michele Collier prepared an offer for Jimmy Hooker to purchase a HUD home on Saturday, October 9, 1999.
2. By its own terms, the offer expired on Monday, October 11, 1999, at 6:00 p.m.
3. The offer prepared by Ms. Collier indicated that she was representing Mr. Hooker as a client.
4. At the time she prepared the offer, Ms. Collier informed Mr. Hooker that she lacked expertise in bidding on HUD homes and had never before submitted a bid on a HUD home. However, she told Mr. Hooker that others in her brokerage firm had the expertise to submit a bid to purchase a HUD home, and that she would get the help she needed to submit the bid.
5. Ms. Collier did not submit the offer before it expired by its own terms on October 11, 1999 or before the bidding was closed on October 13, 1999.
6. Ms. Collier had sufficient time to submit the offer both before the offer expired and before the bidding was closed.
7. When Ms. Collier took on the responsibility to submit the bid, and said her brokerage firm had the expertise to help Mr. Hooker, she assumed the obligation to get the offer submitted in a timely fashion. Therefore, a violation of the Standard of Practice has occurred.
8. The Hearing Panel also finds that there are several mitigating facts present in this case as follows:
(a) Even had the offer been timely presented, Mr. Hooker would not have been successful in his bid because of other higher bidders.
(b) Ms. Collier's inability to get the bid submitted in a timely fashion was in part due to a lack of meaningful assistance by other licensees in Ms. Collier's brokerage firm.
(c) Mr. Hooker chose to submit his bid through an agent who clearly told him that she had no expertise in submitting bids to HUD.
Dear Judy White & Board of Realtors;
Thank you for the attention, trouble, and expense you gave to my complaint I have with the Gainesville office of Northside Realty. It has taken some time, but I am satisfied that the process proceeded as it should have, and the Hall County Board of Realtors can and will perform up to the standards espoused by the National Association of Realtors.
I am satisfied with the conclusions that you had to come to. While I, personally, have little
doubt that:
the 7,000 dollar number was not a fluke, that it was shared by one & all at Northside,
that knowledgeable persons at Northside through omission (rather than commission)
allowed my bid
to die,
I could not prove the above beyond the obvious circumstantial evidence. You had to give Michele the benefit of the doubt, and came to the only conclusions you could under the circumstances. I am just going to have to be satisfied that my suspicions will be presented before more of their knowledgeable peers than would have been shown had I not complained to your committee.
Once I consider the conclusions you had to come to, I must also be satisfied with the disciplinary actions you have chosen to take in this case. At least you are acknowledging, officially, that something wrong occurred, Ms. Collier did indeed violate one of your Codes of Ethics. That is far more than I was ever getting from Northside's corporate headquarters. The only thing I would ask you is this: Would you hold Michele Collier up as an example of a Realtor? I would have liked to have seen something to the effect that "What she did is not what we Realtors do." But I'll have to be satisfied that that statement is implied though not explicitly stated. I may be an "angry man", and I know I'll never get everything I want, but I can understand that you need to maintain some decorum.
I am continuing on my "mission" through other agencies. Your committee has done a good job and I cannot complain at all about the treatment I received from the Hall County Board of Realtors. You have, in fact, taken an unpleasant task and made it is as comfortable, fair, and satisfying as can be expected. I am particularly grateful to you, Judy White, for seeing me over the bumps & potholes of this process, and assuring me that fairness would be meted out when I had some doubts that it would.
Thank you all again for your time and attention and I hope we may meet again under better circumstances in the future
Jim Hooker