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  • Pamela Goldstein, Ellyn Berk, Tony Berk, Paul Benjamin v. Houlihan/Lawrence Inc.Commercial Division document preview
  • Pamela Goldstein, Ellyn Berk, Tony Berk, Paul Benjamin v. Houlihan/Lawrence Inc.Commercial Division document preview
  • Pamela Goldstein, Ellyn Berk, Tony Berk, Paul Benjamin v. Houlihan/Lawrence Inc.Commercial Division document preview
  • Pamela Goldstein, Ellyn Berk, Tony Berk, Paul Benjamin v. Houlihan/Lawrence Inc.Commercial Division document preview
						
                                

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FILED: WESTCHESTER COUNTY CLERK 04/22/2024 11:45 PM INDEX NO. 60767/2018 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1916 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 04/22/2024 EXHIBIT 43 FILED: WESTCHESTER COUNTY CLERK 04/22/2024 11:45 PM INDEX NO. 60767/2018 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1916 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 04/22/2024 From: Arlt, Lewis Sent: Fri 5/09/2014 2:28 PM (GMT-04:00) To: Dalton, Debra Cc: Bcc: Subject: in-house bonus Hi Debbie, I'm working on the meeting report for our managers. It occurs to me to confess that I've never been a big fan of the in-house bonus. Despite the argument that it is an understandable reward for a job well-done, and the in-house nature of it is pure coincidence and simply a function of our large market share, there is no avoiding the perception from an objective observer that this is an incentive for agents to push in-house deals. And while working with two HL agents may in fact help a deal go smoothly because HL agents are generally better and clients benefits from our existing relationships, there is a self-serving elephant in the room, that clearly compromises our fiduciary obligation to place clients' interests above our own. If we start revealing to sellers and buyers that agents get paid more if they do an in-house deal, I think we open a dangerous can of worms. As heretical as it sounds, I think it could be more risky than simply eliminating the in-house bonus as a practice. Is there way these monies can be uncoupled from the individual deal, and restructured similar to quarterly bonuses? We'd look at overall production and reward it whether it comes from in-house deals or not. When the Fee agents first arrived here on 2007, I grappled with Joan, Irene, and others for always including deal emails to the office which read, "AO, in-house," or "AO, out of office." The clear unspoken message was, if it was in-house, "stay away from my deal;" or if it was out of office, the message was "bring your buyers and bump this deal if you can." They would argue that market share was the only motivating factor, but there's no mistaking what their perception of the in-house deal was. They all still do it regularly. Maybe we just lay low and hope this issue doesn't flare. But if we have to print in-house bonus alerts in our ERSs and ERRs, yikes, I'm afraid we'll invite some very awkward conversations. Just saying ... Lewis Arlt Licensed Real Estate Associate Broker Brokerage Manager Houlihan Lawrence 32 Popham Road Scarsdale, NY 10583 Office 914-723-8877 Cell 914-309-5766 CONFIDENTIAL HL00150293