Isoldmyhouse.com & New Hampshire

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

ISoldMyHouse.com asks real estate commissioners to step aside

The owners of ISoldMyHouse.com have asked three members of the New Hampshire Real Estate Commission to step aside in their case, claiming the commissioners have a conflict of interest.

The commission is investigating whether ISoldMyHouse.com must be licensed by the state as a real estate broker. The Web site, owned by East-West Mortgage Co. Inc., of Danvers, Mass., lets people list and sell their own homes with using a real estate agent. Users pay a flat fee.

The New Hampshire Association of Realtors filed a complaint with the commission last August, arguing the service was operating as a broker without a license. They asked that the commission order ISoldMyHouse.com to return all the listing fees it had collected from state residents.

East-West Mortgage then asked that three of the five real estate commissioners -- Barbara Heath, Nancy LeRoy and Arthur Slattery -- excuse themselves from hearing its case because they are Realtors. Slattery and LeRoy also are past presidents of the Realtors association.

In a May 17 order, the three commissioners declined to step aside. East-West Mortgage has asked the commission for another hearing and says it could go to court if the commissioners fail to recuse themselves.

 

[Kate]

Well this should be interesting. Isoldmyhouse.com is huge around here.

NH RE commission has two licensed real estate brokers, one licensed real estate salesperson, one lawyer and one public member. The public member can only be a person who is not, and never was, a member of the real estate profession or the spouse of any such person.

Ruling are a simple majority (3 of the 5, Never 2 out of 3). So if Isoldmyhouse.com feels there is a conflict of interest the board can not rule with only the lawyer and the public member. Looks like they could ask three old commission member to rule on the case though. But that could be difficult.

Whenever a quorum of commission members is unable to hear a particular case, the commission may appoint one or more former commission members as alternates to hear that case, starting with the most recent member to leave the commission.