Director is Realtor and has another Director's Home Listed

Started by KerryL1 • 5 replies • 1326 views

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KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

I need your help in thinking about this.

One of the three new directors elected last week, "Sue," is a realtor. She has the listing on a veteran director's condo. Sue will get a commission well into the 5 figures if this listing sells. My concern is that Sue always will vote with "Ann" out of fear of losing the listing if she opposes Ann. In addition, Sue has no background of any kind to help her be an independent director. (Ann has a 2nd condo here that she'll move into if hers sells.)

It's true I didn't vote for Sue due mainly to her lack of any related experience and her reluctance in in her bio to even state broad goals for out HOA. Sue beat my candidate by 5 votes (104 ballots were cast).

Making this a little more dicey is that we'll usually have only six attending our meetings. We have a bylaw-required director who represents the commercial owner, but he resigned. His replacement is out of state and will only participate in meetings if the commercial interests are involved and then by phone. In other words, I see tie votes occurring. And also Ann & Sue will hold 1/3 of the votes.

Some HOA's bylaws don't permits realtors to be active in their HOA while they're on the Board, but we're not one of them.

I'm optimistic about the other 2 new directors being independent thinkers and they have the backgrounds & experiences to work well on the board.

Am I worrying too much about Sue & Ann's business ties?

LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099

Posted:

While I understand your concern I do not see where there is much you can do about it. The voting owners presumably had the opportunity to read the bios for the candidates and, despite the shortcomings you cited, voted for Sue. I do not think the business relationship between Ann and Sue would rise to the level of a conflict of interest. Your best hope seems to be that Ann's condo sells quickly so Sue can exercise some independence.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By LarryB13 on 10/31/2015 1:21 PM
While I understand your concern I do not see where there is much you can do about it. The voting owners presumably had the opportunity to read the bios for the candidates and, despite the shortcomings you cited, voted for Sue. I do not think the business relationship between Ann and Sue would rise to the level of a conflict of interest. Your best hope seems to be that Ann's condo sells quickly so Sue can exercise some independence.

I agree.

BobD4 (up north)
Posts: 1,002

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By KerryL1 on 10/31/2015 11:01 AM
. . .
Am I worrying too much about Sue & Ann's business ties ?

Kerry L1 :

1 - What could you do about it ? or at least what until there is a conflict of interest undeclared. ?

2 - A realtor buddy - who happened at the time to be on his professional chapter's Ethics & Discipline Committee - was elected to his own condo Board.

He later would encounter some troubling attempts by other Directors to pre-emptively try to extract information of confidence to his current or potential realty clients.

He also encountered troubling attempts to misuse governance-derived information contrary to what his Realty Ethics committee experience indicated would violate / attempt to violate privacy legislation & civil rights. Sort of a 2 edged sword.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

Kerry,

Any Director is free to vote how they think is best.
If Sue was elected, there is little the Board can do about her being on the Board or not.

What issue are you concerned about that will be voting on?

OR

Are you just concerned because of the apparant personality conflict your post shows?

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Thanks everyone.

Yes, obviously Sue can vote any way she wishes. She barely mentioned her job as realtor in her bio and certainly didn't note that she has the listing on Ann's condo! Very few owners could have figured that out on their own, especially the absentee owners. It'll need a price reduction to sell!

t think all I can "do" about it is to make sure Sue has complete and accurate info before she votes. Our MC is putting on a worship for us in a couple of weeks and will emphasize the importance of voting on the merits of motions--how they will or won't benefit our community-- which might help.

We have a pretty solid if small cadre of H/Os who regularly attend our Board's monthly meetings, and it will become clear enough to them if Sue constantly just falls in line with Ann.

Right, where the division is on our board is between those of us who are pretty frugal and those who want to spend more that I and a couple of others think is wise. Two of the latter are now off the Board (one retired; one was defeated), but 2 of the new 3 are thrifty. At open forums, when Sue did attend, her contributions always were about spending more $$ mainly on cosmetic improvements. This is to be expected from a realtor.

So, I guess when it comes to spending funds, she'd align with Ann anyway! Thank you all again.

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