A real estate broker from Saint-Constant, Anna Estephan, manipulated her clients to buy their property, concluded her professional court, which suspended her license for 9 months and ordered her to pay a $50,000 fine.
Anna Estephan, of the real estate agency of the same name in Saint-Constant, “is an artist in the art of sowing and maintaining confusion in the minds of her clients”, affirms in its decision the disciplinary committee of the Self-Regulatory Organization of Real Estate Brokerage of Quebec (OACIQ) which does not mince its words on the subject. “His behavior is dishonest and his comments are deceptive.”
Tried at the end of May 2023 for two real estate transactions during which she “favored her own interests to the detriment of all and in flagrant violation of her ethical obligations,” Ms. Estephan now has her license suspended for a total of 9 months. Her professional court also fined her $40,000 for the 6 counts against her and $10,000 in total for the 2 counts against her real estate agency.
Anna Estephan, who says in a video on her agency’s website that if she wasn’t a broker she would do any other job where she can help people, instead “abused trust and vulnerability of its clients,” according to the committee.
In 2020, she convinced a couple to represent them, alleging that the land of their house in Saint-Constant was prized because of development in the region. The couple, who maintain that they had full confidence in the broker, signed a brokerage contract which binds them to her for three years with a sales commission of 10%, a standard percentage in this type of transaction, they assure them. She.
The broker does not show comparables to her clients to set the sale price at $800,000, she does not post the property on Centris and does not put up a for sale sign in front of the house. When a builder in the area makes a promise to purchase and insists on giving $800,000 to the owners, Ms. Estephan does not present the promise to purchase.
As the couple has not heard from the broker, they decide to sound out one of the real estate developers who are building nearby. Ms. Estephan, who heard of the conversation, contacted the couple and offered to buy their property, thereby violating Quebec’s Real Estate Brokerage Act.
The purchase price is determined based on the 10% commission that the broker did not receive, i.e. $720,000, which violates another article of the Regulation respecting the conditions for carrying out a brokerage operation, on the ethics of brokers and on advertising. The couple will subsequently make a request for assistance from the OACIQ.
“His plan is deliberate. The respondent wants the land and she will have it,” analyzes the committee.
Anna Estephan placed herself in a conflict of interest a second time by submitting an offer to purchase the house of two clients in Saint-Philippe-de-la-Prairie that she was to represent in 2019.
When signing the brokerage contract with them, the sale price was set at $424,000, but the sellers specified that their floor price was $380,000. Once again, Anna Estephan retains her clients with a three-year contract.
Shortly after, the broker is so incompetent in the eyes of the sellers that they want to get rid of her and are even willing to pay her $5,000 in compensation. Anna Estephan instead replies that she will buy the property at their floor price.
Subsequently, when they asked to be accompanied by an independent broker to finalize the transaction, Ms. Estephan refused.
Considering themselves “taken hostage” by Ms. Anna Estephan, the couple made a request for assistance from the OACIQ twice to request help.
The committee is categorical, Anna Estephan used strategic information – the sellers’ floor price – has no loyalty to them and did not avoid placing herself in a conflict of interest, especially since she was acting at the time as a real estate developer and was prospecting in the Saint-Philippe area.
Anna Estephan, who did not share this opinion during the hearings, declared in a video published on her agency’s website after the fact that she is a broker “because people still need me, my work, my expertise to change their lives.”
During the suspension of her license, the broker who practices mainly on the South Shore of Montreal, notably in Brossard, Candiac, Saint-Constant and Saint-Philippe de Laprairie, will be able to transfer her contracts to her daughter Samira, broker within her Anna Estephan agency.