Local real estate office mysteriously shuts down. Agents sue for $500,000 unpaid commissions
Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent
Local real estate office mysteriously shuts down. Agents sue for $500,000 unpaid commissions
Realtors sue, claiming they are owed $500K after South Shore real estate offices close
Low inventory, high interest rates, and discouraged buyers: These have not been banner times for Massachusetts real estate brokers. But to suddenly close up shop? That is almost unheard of.
Two weeks after Success Real Estate abruptly closed its doors, 12 former agents have sued its owner, Stephen Webster, who had two real estate offices in Marshfield and Braintree.
The agents are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions and personal loans, according to the Quincy attorney they hired.
Success Realty firm had been in business for 32 years and recently boasted billions in property sales over the last five years.
SUCCESS owner Steve Webster sent a note out to agents over the weekend indicating the firm was to close.
It is unclear what Webster needs to make right. sources close to SUCCESS are painting a troubling picture of a firm struggling to get through a slow time for real estate sales.
This might be a potential embezzlement situation
This might be a potential embezzlement situation. Embezzlement at a real estate company would likely involve funds placed in escrow by buyers and sometimes sellers. These can be deposits on a property or, in the case of sellers, funds to help a buyer pay closing costs and/or realtor commissions.
I’ve been told, from an agent who worked at the company, the money’s gone it’s a disastrous situation for everybody. It is theft. If that’s what happened and those escrow funds are gone. It’s a crime. And it’s a serious one.
Thus far, no one has been accused of a crime.
