“Amazing quote here [in this article in ‘The Vancouver Observer’], regarding the MAC Marketing scandal, from a Vancouver realtor:
“It’s not just what they did, but that they did it so badly. They could have just found a waitress or whatever, somebody who didn’t obviously work for them.”
– Nick at VREAA 5 March 2013 at 10:00 am [Thanks Nick. -ed.]
[For those readers unfamiliar with the “Mac Marketing scandal”, see VREAA 13 Feb 2013.]
Interesting that a realtor would make this kind of comment after such a scandal.
It strongly suggests that he sees deceit in marketing as simply being part of the game.
– vreaa
Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive 
‘JollyGoodIdea’, eh what!… considering how many Waitresses the AssortedPropertyCronies already
own’employ’…Ergo, Apropos of Scandal, Deceit & EconomicMigrancy… your WednesdayMorning’Zen’, DearReaders…
“Our growth and success is attributable to the type of people who are selected to join our team. We are unique in our ability to create a great synergy among our brands. Once we own the
peopleland we can tailor our various products and brands to the marketplace.” – NorthLand Properties Corporation[CBC] – Denny’s restaurant chain settles foreign worker lawsuit
…”The workers launched a $10-million class action lawsuit last year against Northland Properties Corporation, which operates Denny’s Restaurants and Dencan Restaurants Inc.
Herminia Vergara Dominguez, who spearheaded the suit alleged she and other Denny’s workers paid thousands of dollars in recruitment fees to an employment agency in Richmond, B.C., and were promised work in Canada.
But when Dominguez arrived from the Philippines in 2009, she says Denny’s failed to provide the promised work, didn’t pay overtime and refused to cover expenses, such as travel fees.
The settlement approved March 1, is worth more than $1.3-million and reimburses the affected workers for lost hours, overtime, airfare and employment agency fees.”…
http://tinyurl.com/9w8a4dr
[NoteToEd: By a ‘strange’ co-incidence, the Chairman of NorthlandProperties is the son of the former BC Provincial Minister of Public Works, “FlyingPhil”. Fancy that.]
[#BonusZen]…
[G&M] – Chinese couples flock to divorce in rush to escape new property tax
…”Chinese couples are flocking to divorce to avoid a new property sales tax imposed by the government, after it left open a loophole for those who end their marriages.
Government marriage registration offices – which also handle divorces – were swamped by scores of couples trying to untie the knot, with one newly-separated woman telling AFP Wednesday she was heading off to sell a property.”…
http://tinyurl.com/dxc82gk
[NoteToEd: Overheard in the lineup at Shanghai’s Central Marriage Registration Office: “I sell three, my X sell three!”
The law should be changed to only the first divorce is free from taxes. 🙂
They need more kids there. Change the law to if a couple has a second child, they get the tax breaks (and if there’s no father – due to divorce – tough).
nice find Nem, albeit ~ the Mop and Pail, this story shows how Chinese are like the North Vietnamese.. they just keep matching the Americans in ingenuity on the battle field. But this time it’s the Financial Battlefield.
I wonder what Sethy, the pursuer of truth and morality, thinks about this realtors words and actions.
Are we ever going to find out the outcome of this case? I have a feeling this is done and over with and MAC will walk free.
We don’t anticipate they’ll get more than a slap on the wrist; then business-as-usual. In fact, business-as-usual in the interim, too.
There will likely be some stern (hollow) pontificating coming with the slap on the wrist, just to make sure that everyone in earshot knows that the industry is very, very serious about keeping ‘standards’ at an irreproachable level.
The very structure that will be disciplining MAC has far too much interest in business-as-usual for the outcome to be any different.
Wasn’t the maximum fine $10,000? That’s about the commission on one deal. I’ve read plenty of realtor disciplinary actions in Ontario, and it works about the same; the most you can lose is the commission on the deal in question. Obviously no deterrent at all unless the odds of being caught are very high.
What can we expect?
The Banksters that caused the 09 collapse are still free and at it again.
Imagine this – Realtors should be held same fiduciary duty standards as other stewards of assets. If they forecast a return or strategy, it better have good grounding or there’d be a case to settle. That’d be a much better world. The free and easy wild west nature of real estate is distinctly remarkable – both due to the low standards of entry and what is apparently currently accepted by the industry as marketing. If a realtor says to a buyer that they are going to make 200% return in x years by their strategy of buying a Condo or some property, then that return should be reasonably attained or the realtor held liable to make the buyer who acted on their advice whole.
Even stockbrokers don’t typically have a fiduciary duty.
The marks are born to lose, and if you don’t let them lose money in real estate by believing pie-in-the-sky promises, they’ll just find astrology, or poker, or internet poker, or dot-com stocks, beanie babies, baseball cards, alpacas, time-share condos, Tupperware, Amway…
did someone say ‘astrology’? Because understanding the rudiments of this art, goes a long way in understanding what’s goin’ down
Oops, did I type astrology? I meant to type haruspicy. Sorry everyone.
Advanced warning:
Any discussions taking astrology seriously will be redacted.
Ralph: remind me never to compete with you at trivial pursuit. Reading entrails yes, but haruspicy?
astwology sucks!!!! hahaha….
@vreaa, I don’t agree with your characterization of the realtor’s views on deceit being a necessary part of the game. I take it more as a comment along the lines of “it’s bad enough to be deceitful, but they were deceitful PLUS incompetent”.
Agree. I think the realtor was being cheeky. I.e., if you’re going to lie, at least lie well.
We were all thinking it 🙂
Agreed.
I think this realtor is being characterized unfairly. I read that article in full a week or so before it was linked here and the tone was clear that the realtor was disgusted with the behaviour. The point they were making in that quote was that not only were MAC slimy, but they were lazy dumbasses at BEING slimy. They weren’t even good at being slimy, in other words.
Liggsie, junkbird, Andrew: Okay, fair points, the realtor’s comments could be seen as ‘cheeky’ and speculative musings.
At the same time, though, arguably unprofessional to muse in that fashion, especially to a journalist. As I said “It strongly suggests that he sees deceit in marketing as simply being part of the game.”
Yeah, no argument on the journalist point. Real estate is a maligned “profession” at the absolute best of times, ranking in public esteem somewhere alongside car salesmen and pawn shop brokers. To acknowledge and speculate upon the shenanigans of their peers nowadays, i.e. early 2013, to an ever-skeptical public in an environment of plunging sales, fake-HAM-sisters, and photoshopped mansions, is especially ill-advised.
I think this realtor insulted all the hard working waitresses out there.
“Forty percent of homeowners over age 65 had mortgage debt in 2010, compared with just 18% as recently as 1992, Reuters reports.
The Investor Education Fund recently found that 24% of Canadian homeowners surveyed expect to have debt on their principal residence after they retire. Of those who expect to owe money on their homes when they retire, more than one-quarter said they don’t know how they will pay it off.”
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/06/how-baby-boomers-are-rewriting-the-rules-of-retirement/
wow, that is amazing stat. How much of the debt/mortgage equity spending is due to brainwashing from all that television Seniors love to watch?
There was supposed to be a large “wealth inheritance” left from the Boomers to their kids.
Looks like it will be more like a “debt inheritance”.
also, remember Freedom 55!
Thanks for the link, advoc8. Will post with a related anecdote.
Uhm…am I missing something here? Why would a waitress pretend to be a buyer on TV for your company? Out of the goodness of her heart…or do you give her some incentive? Once a transaction takes place, is she not your “agent” for the shooting, ie, an EMPLOYEE or CONTRACTOR for a tv gig? D’uh!