Last month Betty decided to get the hell out of Moscow, Texas and make a run for the bigger city, Dallas. After 16 years she had sold just about every house in the small Texas town of about 200 people. Greener pastures with more opportunity awaited her in "Big D."
Before making the move, Betty placed an ad in the local paper that she was selling her real estate business for $25,000.00. It was the talk of the town. It really was, that along with the most recent Chupacabra sighting. A few weeks prior, Hugo had completed his real estate classes & was eager to get his business off the ground, so he contacted Betty and went over the details. The conversation was simple. She'd sell her entire database of closed buyers and sellers to Hugo for the price mentioned.
The deal was sealed, the check was written, and Hugo immediately went to work.
Hugo began calling, emailing, texting and stopping by his new clients houses to press the flesh and let them know he was a full-time Realtor eager to serve their needs. After all, they were now "his" clients. He paid 25k for their information.
What exactly did Hugo buy? What guarantees did he have? Everything went downhill very quickly. Several of the people that were approached by Hugo yelled at him and told him to get off their lawn. 1 person contacted Betty and told her they didn't appreciate having their information sold to another Realtor. Hugo wasn't welcomed anywhere because Betty didn't have the consent, or approval of her past clients to sell their information. In the end, Hugo paid 25k for a database that yielded very little results. He later filed an ethics complain on Betty with the state association. He also sent a letter to the IRS letting them know that he had paid Betty 25k. He was furious. It didn't end there. Hugo also sued Betty for misrepresenting what she was selling. By and large, Hugo felt hoodwinked & cheated. Betty made several major mistakes in selling her clients information. Her only defense was, "I emailed everyone and told them Hugo would be their new agent as I was selling the database."
Moscow is a cool little town. If you're ever in east Texas pull off of 59 and grab you a bbq sandwich. It's on the way to Stephen F. Austin State University.
Comments(74)