SimplySOLD® Down Under?
SimplySOLD®, the nations most technology-oriented real estate franchise, announced to franchise owners on Tuesday that they were closing their doors. The “official” response on why was simply answered with reasons of monetary shortages and unwillingness of investors to continue operations.
The VP, Craig McClelland, brought the news to me at shortly after 10AM on Tuesday morning and by the time the calls came to the franchise owners, it seems that the CEO, Scott Dasher, had already cleaned out his office, which tells me that he waited until the absolute last minute to tell franchise owners.
SimplySOLD was a fast growing franchise real estate company and had the tools which could have really made a difference to the industry but it seems that ActiveTech version 2, the company’s proprietary “back-office” simply took too long to get off the press and money was being spent quicker than it was being made.
The news of SimplySOLD going under did not come as a surprise to me. After they let go their lead programmer and switched franchisees over to a NetAspects (third party provider) system, it was pretty apparent that the “shit had hit the fan”, but nonetheless, there are still franchise owners out there like myself that believed enough in the system to invest our hard-earned money into it through the purchase of a franchise. I believed in the system so much that I actually bought exclusive rights to the entire Gulf Coast of Mississippi just under a year ago.
So where does this leave franchise owners?
The good news is that SimplySOLD has agreed to let franchise owners continue to use the trademark names, so at least we will not have to attempt to revamp and re-brand our offices. The downside is that there is still all that money spent in franchise fees that most likely will never be recovered.
Franchise owners, with the exception of a few tools, which will be missed but are not mission-critical, can continue to operate as normal, without royalties of course so it will not effect the end-users and agents in the local markets.
While I cannot speak for other franchise owners and their initial response or their future actions, I am currently still debating litigation against the company and its officers. If the company truly is “out of money” the chances of recovery are slim but if I do pursue further action, a judgment may be the way to go. Being that the CEO, Scott Dasher, is a real estate investor as well, I am sure that some of this money could be recovered from some of his investment property sales.
At this point I have not made a decision on my actions. I guess I am still a little upset about the way the whole process was handled as well. I had a lot of respect for Scott, and for him to pull such a cowardly move to have Craig call everyone while he dodged it - that really got under my skin. I understand that you can’t control everything in business and sometimes your dreams can go down quickly, but how you handle yourself in those instances and the choices you make ultimately show your true character. Maybe I am missing something - maybe not.
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Yeah, I agree. The main point to this is for those that are adding in the incentives just go about ...
I love the cruise idea, but hate the fact that many clients are getting slapped with higher commissions as incentives ...
Soooo, how do we go there?
Comment by Admin on 4 April 2008:
The official response from Scott, who called me about an hour and a half ago, was that he was handling other aspects and handling some family issues as well.
I had to cut him short because I was meeting a client for lunch but plan on talking to him further this afternoon.
Comment by Admin on 7 April 2008:
Okay,
I ended up talking to Scott again later the same day and I guess my original assumptions were wrong. At this point it seems that they are trying to make a smooth transition for the franchise owners so we will see how that works out.
I have talked to a few of the other franchise owners and there are talks of getting together to “take over” the domains and trademarks of SimplySOLD® and making it a broker-controlled entity.
This makes me a little nervous because often in these situations you end up having a power struggle, especially when a bunch of real estate brokers are involved.
While I think on the surface it sounds like a good idea, I have to wonder how well it would play out in the long run.
Another franchise owner I spoke to today said that he had heard Scott planned on “holding onto the domains and trademarks” but I have to wonder if that is really a smart idea on his part, especially since the VP “officially” resigned because of what sounded like power struggles.
Where will this ultimately leave everything? Who knows. At this point, I want to make sure my business is operational and that includes attempting to get my HotLeads application running on my server (if I can get the programmer to knock it out for me) and figuring out what I want to use for listing data on my website (thinking of custom solution).
Things I would like to see from SimplySOLD corporate:
1. Email forwarding from primary domain (in the works)
2. Splash page on the primary (simplysold.com) domain with links back to offices or drop down “pick your office”
3. Something a little more formal in the way of rights to use trademarks instead of just a telephone call
At this point I have been back and forth on whether to pursue litigation. On one hand, I feel that I am owed, at a very minimum, my franchise fees (even prorated would be over $20,000). On the other hand, I have to wonder, if they are doing as bad off as they are leading us to believe, do i really want to hit them while they are down? I know SimplySOLD was Scott’s dream and have to wonder what purpose it would serve to hit him while he’s down, especially if he is operating on limited funds anyways.
Could I go after the big dogs? Ken (investor/co-owner).
Probably, but I am sure he is pretty well protected on paper.
I guess right now the only thing to do is to watch and see what happens and make my decisions based on the turn of events.
Comment by Suzi Gravenstuk on 8 April 2008:
Damion–that stinks! Sorry, can’t think of a more professional, expressive term.
Are there any laws they may have violated?
However, I am confident that you will come out on top, Viking that you are (hint). Rise and conquor! (why is there no spell check here?)
By the way, when am I taking you to lunch?
Comment by Admin on 9 April 2008:
I have not talked to an attorney because I am still debating on whether or not I will sue or not. At this time, it seems that they are trying to help the franchisees get up and running on their own with the tech toys we enjoy so much
For now, the only thing I know is that at a minimum we are looking at breach of contract, potentially business interruption (interference?) - other than that I am unsure.
As for lunch - I am always up. just call or email me and let me know when you are free and wanting to go
As for spell check - use Firefox as your browser - it uses your the dictionary from your computer (same one for Word, etc) to spell check in browser comments, etc. I do not have a direct link, but if you go to to this website and click on the Firefox banner on the left side of the page you can download. I use FireFox for everything except MLS - because MLS requires IE for ActiveX controls.