We sue real estate agents and their boss, also known as their real estate broker.

Why?

First and foremost, they don’t know what they’re doing. They are licensed real estate professionals, but they don’t act like it. And when they mess things up, they blame you and don’t take responsibility.

If you are reading this, you already know. It’s like dating. Your agent love bombs you with attention. They reply to your texts and emails with lightning speed. But when the s*** hits the fan, they bounce. And when you have a dispute and reach out to them, they ghost you.

“You need to talk to a real estate lawyer,” they say. And if they’re being honest, what they should really be saying is, “you need to talk to a real estate lawyer because I didn’t do my job and let you down.”

So, there you are.

Numb.

Maybe a little embarrassed that you got yourself into this situation. And more often than not, you probably are blaming yourself. “I should have been more diligent. I should have read these documents. Why did I trust my agent?”

And why did you trust them?

Because they look and play the part. They carry themselves like experts. And since buying a house and even meeting an agent can be intimidating, you blindly trust a complete stranger with one of the most important financial decisions of your life.

The person you trusted is now the person who screwed you, or they allowed you to get screwed by the seller.

And that’s how we meet.

Hi, my name is Damian Castaneda. It’s nice to e-meet you.

Why I became a lawyer is a long story—I did a podcast episode on it and it’s beyond the scope of this introduction. The reason I became a lawyer is very clear, but the answer as to why I chose real estate is less clear.

The obvious reason is that I’m really good at it. So, that plays a small part. But there’s something much deeper than that.

My dad was a contractor. He built homes on vacant lots. He lived in a trailer next to an empty lot as he built them. And when he finished, he would sell the house.

It was a very hard living.

He was out there in the hot sun, digging ditches alongside workers he hired at Home Depot. He was a very proud man and the hardest worker I ever knew.

But it pained me to see how physically demanding his work was. And it hurt even more to see how much he financially struggled to make a living. The first two houses he built, he didn’t make money. With the third house, he made about $200,000 in 1987. He used that money and a loan from a termite company to build a 9,200 square foot mansion in Mount Washington, California.

It was an incredible home.

It was supposed to be his retirement money.

But the economy was really bad in 1991 when he finished the house. And because the interest rates were as high as 13.5%, banks wouldn’t give so-called jumbo loans. So, he couldn’t sell it. And he had to live in the house until hopefully someday a buyer would come along.

But living in the house until a buyer came along was incredibly expensive. The mortgage started at $3,500 a month and then skyrocketed to $7,000 a month with a variable interest loan. I did everything I could to help him in his business to make that mortgage payment.

But the construction industry was really bad at the time. Sometimes, he would only make $100 a day. We lived in that house not knowing if we would be able to make the mortgage payment.

But in 1996, I had to go to law school. I wasn’t going to be there to help him get business and pay the mortgage. I cried like a baby when I had to go to law school because I knew he wouldn’t make it without my help.

In my first year of law school, we began a three-year battle in court trying to save his house. But he lost his house to foreclosure in my final year of law school. I didn’t have any money to help him and I felt helpless.

But before litigation began in 1997 and before he lost his house, a prospective buyer came along. And that’s when a real estate agent let him down. The agent didn’t look after our interests. All she cared about was her $60,000 commission check. We trusted her so much. And if it hadn’t been for her negligence, he wouldn’t have lost the house to foreclosure.

My dad never mentally or financially recovered after that devastating foreclosure. He lived in somebody’s garage for a short time and fell into a depression.

It was heartbreaking. And it affected me deeply.

So, is that the reason I got into real estate? Maybe. I’m not sure.

But here is what I do know. I stand up to people with power and influence who take advantage of others. I don’t care if they do it intentionally or out of incompetence. The result is the same. And second, I want to do the right thing. That usually means holding people accountable for hurting others.

Specifically, here is what I don’t like about the real estate profession.

So many real estate agents are arrogant. They make so much money for doing very little and knowing very little. The money goes to their head. And if they have a lot of transactions under their belt, they might start believing they know what they are doing. But that only fuels a false sense of confidence which people blindly trust.

The #1 mistake that agents make is that they think it’s your responsibility to read and understand the legal mumbo jumbo in a stack of real estate documents. But who really reads all of those documents, let alone understand them? Lawyers.

We recently sent a demand letter to a real estate agent who didn’t do his job. He has 25 years’ experience and nearly a billion dollars in sales. Yet he foolishly replied, “the duty to understand and comply rests with the homeowners—not with me.”

He’s basically saying that it’s not his job to explain to people what they are signing and warn them about bad things. And he’s also saying that it’s not his job to give people advice.

Really?

Apparently, he didn’t get the memo.

Here’s the memo.

An agent’s responsibilities—not just suggestions, but their legal duties—are to explain things to their clients, make sure they understand what they are signing, and give them great advice to keep them out of trouble. This has been the law for decades.

In fact, the Department of Real Estate (the people who give out real estate licenses) recently recognized the problem with the profession. The Department published a newsletter in the Winter of 2023 called “Preventing Problems: Take the Time to Review and Explain.” That newsletter points out that buyers are signing documents without reading them and sometimes signing on their phone or tablet. Even worse, their agents are not reviewing or explaining the contents of those documents to them. (Read that article. It’s short and really good.)

And while many things have changed in the real estate industry, the duty to explain and counsel hasn’t changed. Put simply, the agents are supposed to be there to protect you, and not to put their commission over your best interests.

But they do it all the time.

And instead of taking responsibility for screwing up and hurting his client, that foolish real estate agent with 25 years of experience I mentioned earlier, just pointed his finger at the client. Basically, if the client signed documents and didn’t ask questions, that’s their problem, not his.

Um, noooo.

So, we just filed a lawsuit against him to protect our client, and properly educate him. Hopefully, he doesn’t do this again.

Unlike doctors, lawyers, engineers, and CPAs, you don’t need a college degree to become a real estate agent. You don’t need a high school diploma. And you don’t have to take the GED. If you can pass a DMV test, you can likely pass the real estate exam.

And that’s a perfect storm for real estate problems.

You fall in love with a house. And just like when you fall in love with the wrong person, you don’t see the red flags. Instead, you blindly trust your real estate agent. But they don’t have the knowledge to educate you. So, it’s the blind leading the blind. Furthermore, the agents have a financial conflict of interest because if the deal doesn’t close, they don’t get paid. Do you really think they are going to try to talk you out of buying a home when that’s in your best interests?

For fun, I went to an open house last weekend.

I asked the agent if the foundation was good. I knew that the area was a marshland about 100 years ago and that homes in the area have foundation problems. The agent answered, “Oh, it’s good. We have the inspection report and it’s good.”

OMG.

I can’t tell you how many times the foundation was a complete disaster and the inspection report either said nothing about it or the fine print says they are not foundation experts and the homeowner should hire a foundation expert. But the problem is, most people never read the report—and even if they do, they’re often misled by their agent’s reassurances. And if they do read it, they don’t believe negative information because the agents are minimizing the problem and telling them that everything is ok—but it’s not. For a report that costs a few hundred dollars, people rely on that to buy million-dollar homes.

That makes no sense and it’s very unfortunate.

Here is what you need to know.

It’s not your fault. It’s your agent’s fault. They were hired to protect you from the problem you find yourself in. Yes, you probably lost your better judgment because you fell in love with a home. But that’s what the agent is there for—to be objective and to explain and counsel you to do what’s right for you.

And if you haven’t already figured it out by reading this or watching the one video on this site, we’re not others lawyer in a suit—we’ve been through it, and talk like a real person. It’s something we value and something we look for in all of our employees.

And here’s a blurb for the search engines.

•Real Estate Purchase Disputes

•Partition Actions (Co-Owner buyouts and disputes)

•Commercials Leases: Review and Negotiation

•Construction Disputes