The Corcoran Group has terminated its franchise agreements with the Southern California offices of its affiliate, Corcoran Global Living, according to documents obtained and first reported on by Inman News.
In an email sent on Monday to all employees and associates, Corcoran Global Living CEO Michael Mahon announced that due to challenges that include “problems with our transaction management data system, forcing us to change vendors earlier this year; an ongoing multi-million dollar business dispute with our franchisor over double-payments and mounting arrears; and a rapidly declining economic and real estate environment,” Corcoran Group had notified him it would be terminating the franchise agreements for its Southern California Region.
According to the email, all Corcoran Global Living offices and operations within the Southern California region are slated to be shut down by December 31, 2022. There are Corcoran Global Living offices spread across four counties in Southern California, but it remains unclear exactly how many offices exist in total. The firm also operates offices in Northern California, Nevada and Ohio.
In addition to the shuttering of the Southern California offices, Mahon and his company, ELI Realty Investments, are facing three lawsuits from franchisees of Corcoran Global Living and Corcoran Group for alleged fraud and breach of contract. Four Corcoran Global Living agents told Inman that they have experienced significant delays receiving commission payments — agents said they receive wires for sales within two or three days of closing — and that lights were turned off in their offices and leases had fallen into default as bills went unpaid.
In total, Corcoran Global Living has roughly 2,600 agents across more than 70 offices, making it Corcoran Group’s largest affiliate.
The firm’s office pages on its websites previously had a filter to look at just the Southern California offices, but there are currently filters for only the California-Northern, Nevada/California Sierra and Ohio offices.
In addition, webpages for the Southern California offices in Lake Arrowhead, Cerritos, Malibu, Newport Beach and Westlake Village appear to no longer exist. If a user clicks on the profile pages of those office’s district managers — including Laura Coleman, Jana Goncalves, Paige Gordon, Donna Hollingsworth, Kat Johnson and Tom Swanson — the results are webpages with error messages or pages that don’t load at all.
Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of Corcoran Group, did not wish to comment on the franchise agreement terminations and request for comment from Corcoran Global Living and Corcoran Group had not been returned at the time of publication.
