Is what I'm proposing illegal/immoral/unethical/swindling/etc. like a PM just told me?

Question

Here is my story;

I work for a company that help foreigners from a certain country (will remain unnamed) and their family members here in the US. We provide 24/7 interpretation over the phone, help them find and contract cellphones/cable/internet, find schools, provide translation at hospitals, and many other services to assist non-English speakers.

One request we get a lot is help dealing with rental homes (both apartments and single family units). This includes finding realtors to help show them different homes, contacting the landlord when there is trouble, finding an appropriate home, etc.

While there's a plethora of rental home finders in English there doesn't exist a _______ language rental home finder, so we decided it would be in our best interest to build it, and at the same time help grow our customer base by selling our service along with the home search.

We have a major realtor interested in showing rental properties to tenants and their incentive is the referral fee (one-time) that they can collect from providing ______ speaking agents.

The problem arose when I was spoke to a PM (whom I spoke with before and was very much interested) today and brought up the legality of having the support fees included in the rent. Now to be clear, this isn't saying that rent will be higher and our fees are implicit, the fees are made clear to the tenant, we don't want them to have to write out two checks, mail one to us and mail another to a landlord.

After I explained this I was called a thief/scammer/charlatan every other name in the books, was told what I was proposing was highly unethical, and that no self respecting PM would touch this. Telling the PM that a percentage of whatever we receive can go back to the landlord as a convenience fee only enraged the PM further and  I was told to (please pardon my French) f*ck off.

I understand the you can't receive any money regarding real estate without a license (Depending on the state, and in ours you do). We are in the process of having a accredited Realtor who will be able to receive any fees from landlords within our company, so why can't the extra rent be sent to us as a type of 2nd level of managerial fee? I understand there are disclosure clauses and other legal hoops to jump through, but figuring those out, I don't see how this is seen as "immoral".

From reading this I'm sure you see I have very little experience in real estate so please feel free to blast me as the PM did. However, given you are receiving a tenant who is paying extra (with agreement) for a service where the fees are included in the rent which is meant as a _____ language management fee along with a convenience fee that you receive, I can see where technically this can be barred legally (in which case we will obviously rework the fee structure), but I don't see why this was such a revolting request. It felt like I asked if I could shoot child pornography in her units and kick her back 20% of the profits.

I'm legitimately confused and any suggestions would help but just reading this was probably torture enough for your guys. Thank you for your time.

Tom Goans · Answer

Without any consideration of legality, ethics, or morality, you may want to review your approach. Especially with regards to how you collect your fee. This may cause concerns, whether correct or not.

Also consider, if a licensed individual does something the state finds questionable, the license may be suspended or forever pulled. Is this acceptable to you?

John Rooster · Answer

I can not comment on the legality. But it seems sleazy to me, reminds tangentially of the infomercial scam where they give you the first month of product for free but you have to sign up for the recurring monthly shipment. You know that your business model is flawed and that a large majority of your customers will no longer need your services once they have obtained a rental, but you want to tie them into a long term contract which will be adverse to their interest.

Ali Boone · Answer

I would think there are simpler ways to structure everything. I have worked with numerous international buyers, some who don't know English, and I've seen a lot of structures for how interpreters can handle it and get paid, etc.

Rob K. · Answer

If there's a lot of people from one country coming to your area, aren't there a bunch of real estate people who speak that language? In my area, we have many people who are from Iraq. We also have many Iraqi real estate agents, landlords, etc. The Iraqi immigrants have no problem finding a real estate agent or landlord who speaks their language.

I once sold a house to a woman from Iraq. Her English was (how you say) not so good. When I called my title company about the closing, I found out that one of the workers there spoke Arabic and was able to handle the closing. It worked out great.

Roy N. · Answer

Monsieur Harris,

Ce n'est pas français et je ne peux pas le pardonner

Jon Holdman · Answer

I'm assuming that your basic offer is translation.  You provide a web site in some language, then act as a go between for your customers and the providers they deal with.  For instance, you make the calls to a PM or landlord on their behalf, and translate between them and the landlord or PM.  If that's what you're doing, I don't particularly see a problem.  As a landlord, I have, on occasion, had to get a Spanish speaking friend to help me interact with a tenant.  But if this is something that's being provided between you and the tenant, I don't see why the landlord or PM would be involved.

Nor do I see any justification for maintaining an ongoing payment, once the initial transaction (e.g., getting a cell phone or signing a lease.)  If your customer later needs your help in dealing with the cell phone company or landlord/PM, why wouldn't they just pay you at that point in time.  I can see where a PM might view this badly if part of the deal with you helping to find a tenant was that the tenant had to keep paying you indefinitely.

Roy N. · Answer

Interpretation services, Dawn.     Translation is performed on existing texts ... it is not performed in real time

Interpretation is the real time conversion of spoken word from one language to another.

Dawn Anastasi · Answer

What is ___ language service?

Are you offering translation services?

Mike McKinzie · Answer

While I am not sure of the legalities, it would appear that you are only supplying "interpretation" services, whether your clients are getting a cell phone, buying groceries, finding schools, etc....  Just as Verizon will not pay you to help your client buy a phone, a PM will not pay you to help with the tenant.  Those services should be paid for by those that need the "interpretation" services.

Will Harris · Answer

Thank you for your response Mr. Holdman,

I've seen your other posts sir and you seem to be an expert in tenant-owner relations so it is an honor to have you respond, and am actually embarrassed at the language I chose to use in original post.

The extra rent covers the original services we already provide for other people who we didn't help find a home for. This includes 24/7 interpretation and other requests that I listed above.

Put short, right now we offer "_____ language service", and we want to attach the home search and say, "Hey you can use this search engine that's in _______ and find a great rental home while you live in the U.S., and while you're at it "____ language service" comes with the home at a discounted rate included in your rent."

The reason we want to attach the home search and put in the fee in the rent is so that when people are looking for homes in the U.S. from _____ there' s a go-to source for people to find rental homes because they know that the rental comes with "______ language service".

However, after reading your explanation of how owners are paying for most facilities and services of the tenants and not the PM's (I really should have thought of this), I can see why it would be really confusing. Since the tenants rent revenue is not matching how much the owners get, and now all the sudden the PM's are receiving this cut of extra rent that the owners didn't agree to, and the whole thing could be a logjam.

I'm going to guess PM's licenses in any state says that they must collect what the owner state and not a penny more. So the only way we can provide "_____ language service" to tenants on a ongoing basis after signing the lease is having them directly pay us.

I really want to apologize for seeming really seedy. I've discussed what I've learned with our company president and we maybe moving ahead with a completely restructured system.

Is what I'm proposing illegal/immoral/unethical/swindling/etc. like a PM just told me?

Most Popular Reply