Real-estate agents scrambling after alleged California fraud

More than 120 Corcoran Global Living agents in central Ohio and a few in the Dayton area were left without a corporate home after the agency imploded amid lawsuits and accusations of fraud and unpaid commissions.

"We couldn't get paid. It was very frustrating," said New Albany real-estate agent Jeff Christensen, whose team joined Corcoran in April.

"Around September, October, commissions started to take a little long to get. They said, 'It's hard to find help,' or other things — there was never a real reason. ... We weren't getting paid, utilities weren't getting paid, rents weren't getting paid."

Christensen said his agents are still owed more than $20,000 in commissions.

Kristen Maetzold, a former Corcoran agent in Worthington, was owed $18,000 in commissions for weeks before finally receiving payment shortly before Christmas.

"Commissions got to be dicey," Maetzold said. "We'd turn over our commission check, and that would go to the bottom of the list and be used to pay agents at the top of the list."

Christensen and Maetzold were among more than 50 former Corcoran agents who switched to Howard Hanna Real Estate Services after the collapse. Dozens of others have joined Cutler Real Estate, which took the unusual step of offering Corcoran agents a temporary place to close contracts and receive commissions when Corcoran Global collapsed in December.

"We said, 'We really need to step up and do something here,'" said Cutler spokesperson Rich Johnson. "It's not about a competitor, it's about the industry, and keeping people solvent over the holidays. ... It was a really bad situation, a complete meltdown."

Corcoran Global Living was founded by Michael Mahon, the former president of HER Realtors in Columbus who moved to California in 2016. The firm moved aggressively into central Ohio in 2021, recruiting some of the area's best-known firms, such as Vutech | Ruff in German Village and The Raines Group in New Albany.

Agencies were drawn to Corcoran because of Mahon's Columbus history as well as the prominence of The Corcoran Group founder Barbara Corcoran, a regular on the television show Shark Tank. Corcoran Global was a franchise of The Corcoran Group.

"We thought, with Barbara Corcoran's name and Michael Mahon, we can't go wrong," Christensen said.

Within a year, Corcoran Global had enlisted at least 120 central Ohio agents, although some estimate the number closer to 200. In all, the company had more than 2,600 agents in 70 offices, most of them in California.

Starting as early as last spring, Corcoran Global agents in California and Nevada complained of not being paid timely commissions at the firm. The complaints led to a string of lawsuits and to The Corcoran Group severing ties with Corcoran Global Living in November.

The Corcoran Group spokesperson Johnna Muscente said Corcoran Global "was an independently owned and operated brokerage and we terminated their franchise agreement."

Muscente did not say why the agreement was terminated or whether The Corcoran Group is taking any steps to pay commissions to former agents.

Mahon did not respond to a Dispatch request for comment. Nor did Matthew Watercutter, the Ohio broker for Corcoran Global Living.

Johnson, with Cutler Real Estate, said the sudden collapse of the firm was shocking.

"I've never heard of anything like this happening ever, not to this magnitude and this time of year," he said.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker