@Properties partner dispute leads to departure

A dispute between partners at the residential brokerage @Properties has resulted in one person leaving the company.

Matt O’Laughlin and fellow Alexander Real Estate partners Alex Irrer and Eric Walstrom became a franchise of Chicago-based @Properties just over a year ago. Alexander was founded in 2016 in Royal Oak and added a Detroit office in 2018.

On Wednesday, O’Laughlin said he had left the partnership Feb. 25, and moved to Max Broock’s Detroit office a week later.

At @Properties, a fourth partner had been brought in, O’Laughlin said, and his shares were cut, despite the fact that he said he was responsible for $97 million of the group’s $330 million in sales in a four-year period.

“I left by myself, but I think there’s going to be some shakeups inside that company,” O’Laughlin said. “The partners are not there for the agents.”

But on Friday, Walstrom said everything O’Laughlin said was “completely false.”
“He was fired from the brokerage for cause, and he’s very aware of that,” Walstrom said Friday afternoon.
He said he could not elaborate on the reasons.
O’Laughlin said there are operating agreements in place that he could not talk about and he expected legal action.
He said @Properties has refused to release clients’ listings until their contracts expire, which is allowable under law but, he said, rarely practiced by any brokerage. In an email, he said he had hoped for an amicable split “but it doesn’t seem to be possible.”

“It’s been a challenging week and a half,” he said. “I’m looking forward to moving on.”

O’Laughlin said he expected growth to be easier with Max Broock. Last year, @Properties had 45 agents and $120 million in sales, Crain’s reported then. O’Laughlin said there are now 64 employees there.