So What is Joel Stern - Real Estate Consumer's Ax To Grind with Bernie Hassan, With Weichert Realty and Just How "Silly" is it?

Bernie Hassan - Weichert Realty Says to
Real Estate Consumer Joel Stern:

" Apparently you have an ax to grind and it’s not with me or any of my agents. Clearly by your email and the list of people you are connecting me to have an issue. While I do feel badly about how you were treated you seem to want to make a hard and fast case that the entire industry is corrupt when that is not the case. Again we have been successful with our well trained and managed staff.

All contracts can be written subject to legal review. It is an accepted and worthwhile practice that allows attorney’s to have a say in a client contract after the offer is written and accepted by the seller prior to a P&S agreement where legal counsel has more input.
Maybe you should not be so one way with your thinking.

Bernie "

JOEL Stern's Response to Bernie Hassan

"" Dear Mr. Hassan:

Yes, I certainly do have an ax to grind, not on my own account but on behalf of the countless millions of victimized citzens whose legitimate right to fair and competent representations has been flouted for some 15 years, even since dual agency and other unconscionable practices were foisted on the unsuspecting public by the NAR lobby and its lickspittles in government and so-called regulatory bodies.

Did you actually read Ken Harney’s article that I sent you? If so, you must have seen that the NAR’s OWN surveys over the past decade showed that the GREAT MAJORITY of real estate agents are violating their statutory obligations vis-à-vis clients.

Do you think this happens by sheer accident, or is this pattern indicative of a longstanding systemic problem in the real estate industry, which seems to consider itself beyond all legal and ethical restraint, judging from its deplorable record of compliance with the law?

If the widespread occurrence of statutory violations by agents is not proof of widespread incompetence at the least, or deliberate deception of consumers in the worst case, please tell me what it does mean?

I should mention that unlike in New Jersey, contracts in most states do not require legal review for final approval. And even if this practice were instituted nationwide, do you think the majority of financially strapped citizens have the wherewithal to afford high-price legal expertise to review every contract they sign to purchase a house, a car, or other costly item?

I’m talking here about real life, not about some abstract right that cannot be exercised in common practice, where clients normally rely on the advice of fiduciaries to guide them through complex procedures.

Do you believe that consumers in the housing market are being adequately served by state real estate commissions whose membership largely comprises agents and real estate attorneys affiliated with the industry they are tasked with regulating and punishing in the event of violations?

Since you failed to answer even a single one of the questions I sent to you, but limit yourself to pious generalities about the overall integrity of the real estate industry without producing any substantive evidence for this assertion, I will continue to maintain that the NAR lobby is shot through with corruption and conflicts of interest that have played a major role in precipitating the housing bubbles and ultimately the economic crisis. Your industry is long-overdue for public exposure and an overhaul of its harmful practices. ""

posted here by
Real Estate Industry Whistleblower
Crystal L. Cox
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Crystal COx