In response to a recent story concerning nonpayment for Broker Price Opinions (BPOs) to Realtors by Cartel Asset Management, Realtors are telling Realty Times that Cartel Asset Management's complaints of "money problems" aren't just temporary, they have been going on for years. Is the company truly having problems or does it have a clever ongoing ruse for getting Realtors to work for nothing?

"Cartel owes me for a BPO done in July of 2002," says Waco Realtor John Howard. "I am in batch 143. They are currently in batch 108. They have been in batch 108 for the last 5 months. I still have not been paid as of 1/30/2003."

Realtors are contacting Realty Times with similar stories. They receive urgent calls from Cartel to "rush" out a BPO. Realtors who have never worked for Cartel before are assured that they will be paid promptly. Months go by without a check, and when the agents complain, they get a canned e-mail reply from someone in accounts payable that is effusively apologetic. The e-mail outlines the company's recent travails, with much blame put on banks which don't pay them for their services. The company's sincere-sounding wishes to get the agent paid include an update on which "batch" the agent's check will be paid. Recent batches which are in accounts payable right now are batch 108, while the agents payoff always seems to be scheduled somewhere in batch 139, 141 or later. Unsuspecting agents get the impression that the company is trying to pay them, but they may not have a clear idea how long the payoff is. Incredibly, even after not being paid for months or years, many agents continue to do BPOs for Cartel knowing full well that the company is slow-pay if not no-pay.

Other Realtors are saying that this we're-honestly-trying-to-pay-you excuse is a ruse by Cartel, and that the company has been using this technique to get Realtors to work for little or nothing for years.

Real estate agent Lenora Rowe says she had to turn into a collection agent to get paid.

"I used to do BPO's for the Cartel Asset Management company, and this was back in 1996 to 2001," wrote Rowe to Realty Times. "The headaches of trying to get paid were pretty much as you have described by others. I was very persistent (calling and sending letters), until I made sure I collected for all of these BPO's. But once I did collect, well needless to say, I decided I was not a collection agency and refused to do any more of their BPO's."

Says Florida Realtor Jim Henning, "I have invoices from two years ago. "Brandi" in accounts payable does what she has to do, or what they want her to do. But how can you work for a company that has you lie to people? They might indeed still be on batch 108, but it has been the same letter for two years. All you have to do is be honest. Everyone or company has bad times, so we can be understanding, but to outright lie is terrible."

Cartel is not the only slow pay/no pay company, says San Diego Realtor Walt Harvey, who shared the names of four other asset managers with Realty Times, but he says slow pay/no pay can also be blamed on some BPO clients - the banks.

"I'm reluctant to provide BPOs for a company I've no experience with," says Harvey. "I turn down quite a few! I guess it's a gut feel I get when I talk with the contact person. The last one I rejected mentioned she was ordering the BPO for a new client of theirs and that she needed photos of the comparables as well as the subject. That was a clue to me who the ultimate client was. From experience, I knew that that client was a slow pay/no pay and I asked her if this was a BPO for that lender. When she confirmed it, I turned down the BPO. Obviously, that lender was using different asset management companies for their BPOs because they have a poor reputation for payment."

"Unfortunately, when we tell a slow pay/no pay company that we're not going to do any more BPOs until we get paid, they just find another unsuspecting agent," says Harvey.

Published: February 3, 2003

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