Breaking news this late afternoon- the AZ Dept of Real Estate is going to perform an audit on RE/MAX 2000, as reported by azcentral.com. RE/MAX International is also interested in performing their own internal audit, but owner Robert Klein has yet to agree to that.

The purpose of the audit is to insure that the trust accounts were handled correctly. Specifically, funds were not commingling between the Sales Divisions and the Property Management Divisions. As of right now, the Property Management division is still open for business.

The article states that owner Robert Kline informed RE/MAX International days before Christmas that their agents’ commissions checks were going to start bouncing. Agents and employees were notified two days before Christmas that they were closing their doors.One agent estimates that there are over $111,000 in commissions that are supposed to be paid out. Kline is instructing title companies to cut the checks directly to their agents, instead of to the brokerage itself.

Now, I will not reveal my sources, but I have been told by insiders in the industry that this brokerage has been known to bounce it’s agent’s commission checks occasionally. This has been happening for quite a while (read, years) before this entire incident surfaced. Read the original post earlier this week titled "RE/MAX 2000 Closes Down in Gilbert, AZ". It’ll be interesting to find out what happens.