Complaint Review: Keller Williams - Desoto Texas

Me and my wife had finally found a home we wanted and made a offer. We found out that Keller Williams was the selling agent representing the bank owned property. After signing the counter adendum on August 9th. We agreed on a September 10th closing. Right from the start we were held up by Keller Williams failure to get the homes power and water turned on for 16 days. We had to cancel 2 inspections, The agent for Keller Williams stated that they try to contact the water department on multiple occasions and that their voicemails had not been answered. I called the water depatment immediatly after hearing this.... To my suprise i got a answer after one ring. I explained to the water department our sitiuation and they stated that they never got any messages and that they are their every day Monday-Friday 8am-4pm. She also stated that she had just gotten a call shortly before i called and that the water was being turned on. That was the first lie Keller williams gave us. So now we have the home inspected and just need purchase and sales to submit the paperwork to our finacing company. It took 2 weeks and multiple e-mails and phone calls from the inspection day (8/24/2010) to get the purchase and sales agreement. We received it on 9/7/2010, 3 days before our intended closing. Then the agent say they sent it to our real estate agent, but she lost it. This is lie #2. The agent has all the e-mail save and they are all dated. She had forwarded to us and to no suprise to me. The purchase and Sales document was sent on 9/7/2010 as we thought. So we called the agent again to say that we needed to change the closing day in order to give the bank enough time to process the loan. The agent said they'd only give us 10 buisness days to do so. Because they have other offers on the property. This has all been a eye opening experience. I have spent almost 1000.00 on inspections and assesments and now it appears they are trying to set guidelines we can not meet so they can sell to a higher bidder. Even after we had signed into a contract and put 5000.00 down. I was under the understanding that once the contracts were signed and they received our money that they could not feild other offers. So if they decide to get more money(higher commision) I'm out 1000.00 and many many hours of headache and personal time. I have contacted a attoney and the Better Buisness Bureau. But i suggest to all potential buyers to not deal with Keller Williams. I will do everything in my power to make this buisness dealing be know by as many potential buyers and sellers as possible.

Disclaimer: My knowledge is mostly limited to the laws of Texas and that will be my focus. First, let me address something very important: It doesn't matter what company you are with, they all must follow state law and T.R.E.C. (Texas Real Estate Commission) guidelines. In Texas, you have to "hang" your license with a broker (that would be KW, Remax, C21, etc.) indefinitely unless you go get your broker's license and you are not eligible for that until after 2 years. It is done this way because it puts most of the responsibility on the broker. Either one of us (or both) can be sued for not conforming to either the states' or TREC's set of "rules" and one or both of us will definitely be fined by TREC. If the offense is bad enough, they will not hesitate to suspend or even ban my broker and/or me from practicing real estate in Texas in addition to a hefty fine. We even have several classes a month that are basically CYA classes. Now, I am in my late twenties but it has been my experience that the "bad guys" are everywhere, in every profession. I am not very surprised that most of the complaints I saw came from California and I'll explain why. I make an average of $4000 when I help someone buy a home but if I were in southern Cali I would immediately double, triple, or more my per deal income just because the average home price is so much higher. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a much, much lower standard of business out there. Greedy people always flock to where the money is, that isn't tough to figure out. The Keller Williams Mission Statement is "Help people build careers worth having, businesses worth owning, and lives worth living." Their priorities are in this order: God, Family, and Business. THAT is why I pay $21,000 a year to be a KW agent. So, to sum up, if you got ripped off by an agent you need to focus on filing a complaint not a lawsuit. That is a much more efficient and expedient way to seek reparations, at least in Texas. I hope this cleared things up at least a little, God Bless.

There is no "Keller Williams". Keller Williams is not a company, rather they are Texas Corporations: "Keller Williams Realty Inc", "Keller Williams Inc Realtors", "Keller Williams Commercial, Inc" which sell franchises to whomever wants to be part of their "millionaire club get rich quick" schemes and use it's name. They in NO WAY provide any LEGAL or PROFESSIONAL back up for these franchises. Keller Williams is a "growth company" (AKA a pyramid scheme). Keller Williams does not register their corporation in any other state. Therefore, you cannot sue "Keller Williams Realty Inc", nor the name "Keller Williams". Here is a letter I received from an attorney Steve Phillips, who works for Mr. Keller in Texas, regarding my questions as to how Keller Williams conducts their "international business.": "While Mr. Keller is deeply concerned, Keller Williams Realty Inc. ("KWRI") is a franchiser that sells the rights to use its trademarks and systems to qualified individuals and has no authority over the manner in which a Region handles its disputes. Further, KWRI does not own or operate any Keller Williams Offices. Each individual office is independently owned and operated through a separate entity and by a different ownership group." The pyramid top in Northern California is Beverly Steiner. At one time she had a web site which listed non-existing California Real Estate corporations. This web site also did not list the fact the she is part owner in the Keller Williams Realty Inc. After I questioned her about these inconsistencies the site was dropped, likewise I never received any answers from her. She, the original founders and other regional leaders now set up a NON PROFIT corporation, "Keller Williams Cares." After extensive research I have found all these "individual groups" to have numerous Corps and LLC's which are seemingly impossible to trace as a "Keller Williams" franchise office. The corporation which covers the KW West coast operations is "Northern California Region, LLC". However, this corp is not registered in California (which it should be if acting as a Real Estate corp in CA), but rather in Tempe Arizona. The agent's name is James M. Balogh. The owners of Arizona Corporation, "Northern California Region, LLC" is "Desert Foothills Real Estate Company Inc", agent Scott Agnew, the other owner is "Northern California Texas Partners", listed as a Texas LLC. This corp is listed as "not in good standing" in Texas. Is this chucking and jiving, smoke and mirrors created by KW to avoid responsibility? If not, why not be up front with whom owns what? As is the case here in Sacramento Ca, Mr. Wayne T. Hall owns numerous KW offices. He is the supervising broker. However, he allows his agents to repeatedly break the Calif. Department of Real Estate ("DRE") Commissioner's codes as well as the CA Professional and Business Codes. He also allows his agents to use DBA's and own personal corporations, which is illegal and consequently they are not registered with the DRE as public information. Mr. Hall himself, along with his partners Don Yoakum and Ronald Melchin, Esq. own the folowing corporations as listed with the DRE (none use Keller Williams in their title), Dance Hall Investors, Inc City Hall Investors, Inc Town Hall Investors, Inc Folsom Hall Investors, Inc Elk Hall Investors, Inc East Hall Investors, Inc Red Hall, Inc South Hall Investors, Inc Likewise some are not listed with the DRE as required by law of which I found at least one: El Dorado Hall Investors, Inc. They also own at least 5 LLC's with dubious titles such as "Kay Dub U" KW Auburn, A California Limited Partnership Kay Dub U Auburn, LP Kay Dub U El Dorado, LP Kay Dub U Redding, LP Kay Dub U Truckee, LP (Good luck in trying to sue for errors and omissions when you can't even find the correct Corp.) Keller Williams agents are rewarded by bringing in new agents, the emphasis is on RECRUITING not on the real estate consumer, they profit from directly from this recruiting, (commonly known as the Pyramid Scheme). This takes up most of the KW agent's time and resources, spaming agents at other brokerages constantly in their recruiting efforts. They also must pay a large "entrance fee", desk rental, percentages to their recruiters and "team leaders". They must also pay for their own signs (on which many falsely advertise with non existing DBA's). They claim other brokerages take most of the "profit" from an agent, not so, unlike Keller Williams, these brokerages back their agents with advertising, legal backing, international and national support, ethical real estate tools, etc. Here's how the KW plan works. Agents are paid as agents, but they have a second revenue stream as recruiters. Agents are paid a percentage of the production of their recruits and their recruits' recruits-up to seven levels. The profits can help pay agents beyond retirement and to the agent's heirs after death. This is why they advertise that "you can become rich in real estate without ever having to sell a piece of property", just sit back and become a millionaire on other peoples' money. It is more than obvious that they use real estate to "legalize" their pyramid scheme, but the real estate aspect seems only secondary to their true goal of becoming rich quickly without having to actually work for it, a sad day for the consumer. Surely there are some KW offices with honest intentions of serving the consumer in their real estate needs, but the scary thought is which ones? How can a consumer really know, the name "Keller Williams" International sounds so very "trusting" and "important". The consumer should be made aware of the fact that if anything goes wrong in their dealings with a Keller Williams agent, their only recourse will be that particular agent's own net worth or that of their franchiser. There is NO Keller Williams legal support, NONE, to back up their franchisees, it's agents or their clients. Yoka California

In our society today, lawyers, & businesspeople are often more concerned about what they can get away with than what is fair. Misuse of power! They say it's all "business". They take away the personal values of honesty and integrity and show no mercy except maybe some token political correctness. Patsy Hodges at Keller Williams trys to find ways around the being fair; She tries to figure out little angles not to pay after signing on to a bargain. She lies. She cheats. Standards are slipping everywhere. More and more people have come to expect to get "something for nothing." And when they get it, they don't want to give it up. She's greedy! Keller Williams claims they will settle for half of the original agreed upon amount. Patsy wants to settle for less. Their attorney considers this equitable and has asked that any complaints be removed prior to any payments being given.

In our society today, lawyers, & businesspeople are often more concerned about what they can get away with than what is fair. Misuse of power! They say it's all "business". They take away the personal values of honesty and integrity and show no mercy except maybe some token political correctness. Patsy Hodges at Keller Williams trys to find ways around the being fair; She tries to figure out little angles not to pay after signing on to a bargain. She lies. She cheats. Standards are slipping everywhere. More and more people have come to expect to get "something for nothing." And when they get it, they don't want to give it up. She's greedy! Keller Williams claims they will settle for half of the original agreed upon amount. Patsy wants to settle for less. Their attorney considers this equitable and has asked that any complaints be removed prior to any payments being given.

Keller Williams Is Not A National Company Keller Williams says it is a franchise brand name and that only the Keller Williams Dallas office say it's all "business". Their mediator says ihey are willing to make a 50% concession and they will make improvements to their business to avoid the reported problems from happening again in the future. We've accepted their offer.