I know this is going to seem like a shameless plug for getting people to read my blog, but the fact is, I don't want to paste it all here.

To summarize: A broker in NYC took a client to court over non payment of commission due, and they ended up on the People's Court.

To make a long story short, the broker went to court without knowing what his contract was actually for, and according to the findings of the court, the client was not in breach of contract at all and this court case was premature.

I am annoyed that this broker helped to perpetuate the idea that real estate agents are greedy and stupid.

In case you'd like to read my entire blog, here it is...

http://activerain.com/blogsview/319234/Simpleton-Real-Estate-The

But I'd love to get some discussion going on this situation. as you know I don't often post my blog here so hopefully nobody will criticize me for blatant self promotion...hee hee.

Also wondering if anyone else saw this episode.

Looks to me like incompetence of the broker and badly written contracts.

The deal was this - the tenant found a tenant on his own, and he didn't want to pay commission on it. So the broker took him to court as they had an exclusive right to rent agreement.

However, it came out that the "tenant" was temporarily renting the basement apartment while the landlord lived in the main part - for which the broker was contracted to find a tenant.

The broker goes to court claiming that he's entitled to commission for two units, the client says no, the part he rented was not part of the contract, and there was nothing in his contract that said he could not live in the upstairs until a tenant was found.

My suspicion is that the landlord actually did rent out the upstairs to someone, and then when this whole thing went to court, he got some legal advice to switch the living situations.

At any rate, the landlord came to court prepared and knew his stuff. The broker looked like an idiot. He may actually have had a case - but he still didn't know he wasn't contracted to rent the basement.

Definitely an incompetent -and perhaps, hot-headed- broker. Evidently, the "toughness" of the broker's exam isn't tough enough!

Aww, I was hoping this was the Mary Knoll case, but she says she was on Maria Lopez..

" In fact, you're all going to see me on a soon upcoming Episode of Judge Maria Lopez as I'm a component in a very exciting Case coming up and we taped in Chelsea Studios just last week. You DO know who Judge Maria Lopez is, right? "

Sounds like something Mary Knoll would have done.. maybe she/he had the wrong show?

Oh...well, there was a lady with the broker. Maybe it was Mary!

Or maybe, Mary is really the broker?!