Commissions cause cheating, confusion, contempt

Let me rant first about a client whose name I’d love to publish. But I refrain from stooping to his level. (Then I’ll to try clear up some misconceptions.)

There's nothing like a knife in the back.

Call him “Judas,” a retiree who is returning to Manhattan from the Southwest. Referred to me by friends of friends well more than a year ago, he originally wanted to purchase a one- or two-bedroom apartment for no more than $750,000 cash.

Judas was pretty much computer illiterate when we first spoke, and I spent literally hours teaching him long distance how to open attachments and navigate the listings I sent him. Then I spent countless hours–I don’t know, maybe 40 or so over the months–listening to him muse out loud about the state of the market, the names he persisted in dropping, neighborhoods, his relatives and his vast store of knowledge about New York real estate.