When they chose a real estate agent to sell their home, Aaron Schwid and Youngkey Chung said it helped that Matt Isbell was well-known enough to appear on an episode of the hit TV show “Million Dollar Listing.”
“The moment that we met them and they walked through our home, we felt that instant connection,” said Chung.
The couple signed a three-month agreement with the Compass agent to sell their four-story West Hollywood condo. They’d already bought a new house, so they needed to sell their condo fast.
“We took a calculated risk that we would put everything we have into the new house. But we would be okay, because we really believed this house would sell really quickly,” said Schwid.
And it did. The couple left town so Isbell could show the home. Two days later, they got an offer and entered into escrow. But within a matter of days, they were hit with a major problem.
We feel both abandoned and trapped at the same time.
Aaron Schwid
“We received frantic text messages and calls from our neighbor saying that there were fire alarms going off and water was leaking out of our house,” said Chung.
Schwid and Chung raced home to find the sprinklers on the third floor had activated, flooding the entire home and destroying nearly everything. They said it’ll cost $200,000 to put the home back together.
The couple slowly started to piece together what they believe happened.
“I walked past the fireplace and noticed the switch to the fireplace was on. Which I found very strange. Is this what caused it? Did someone turn the fireplace on?” said Schwid.
A remediation company also noticed the fireplace switch and took a picture.
The next big clue: the natural gas bill, broken down hour by hour. It shows there was no gas usage in the unit, but it spiked just after home security video shows Isbell arrived at the home for a showing. It then stayed that way for the next four days, while no one was in the unit. Finally, the sprinklers activated.
We thought they (Compass) had a reputation for service and integrity and honesty.
Aaron Schwid
“Our best guess is that the fireplace remained on for four days. It heated the room to about 135 degrees, which is what triggers the fire sprinklers to break and explode. And that water is what ruined everything in our house,” said Schwid.
Schwid and Chung told Isbell and Compass what they found. They said both have dodged them. The couple said they then asked Isbell and Compass to walk away from the deal, allowing them to work with another agent. But they say they refused.
“We feel both abandoned and trapped at the same time,” said Schwid.
Meanwhile, the couple is carrying two mortgages, and they don’t know when their condo will close. But they do know that if they sell to the original buyer, who’s still interested, Compass will collect more than $100,000 in commission, with a portion of that going to Isbell.
“We thought they had a reputation for service and integrity and honesty,” said Schwid.
The I-Team reached out to Compass and Matt Isbell. Isbell said he didn’t want to comment on the couple’s allegations. Compass told us it would not discuss the matter publicly, but that it would try to resolve it through mediation. Since then, the two sides did try to mediate, but Schwid and Chung said they got nowhere.
Real estate attorney Stephen Vokshori said most brokers carry an errors and omissions insurance policy, to cover incidents like this. The I-Team asked Compass why it wasn’t filing a claim, but it didn’t answer our question.
Vokshori says Schwid and Chung’s next step it to sue.
“I think they’ve got a great case. I’d be asking for them to be made whole. So you’ve got your carrying costs for your mortgage, your property taxes, you’re probably going to have attorneys fees,” he said.
Schwid and Chung don’t want to take legal action, but they feel it’s the only was to hold Compass accountable.
“It’s just so tragic that this is the end memory of it. It’s so unfair this is how we have to say goodbye to it,” said Chung.
