COLUMBIA BASIN — In a perfect world, every real estate transaction would be completely above board, and all parties would walk away happy.

Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world. Serious disputes between real estate professionals and clients aren’t common, but they do happen. So what is a person who feels wronged to do?

Well, the best solution is not to get into a bad situation. Do your homework first, suggested Logan Hickle, spokesman for the Better Business Bureau.

“Before you even engage a (real estate professional), you should always make sure that they're properly licensed and that they have third-party sources, vetting them,” Hickle said. “You can always look them up on BBB to see if they're accredited with us and see what other people are saying.”

Doing your homework also requires reading everything before your sign it, Hickle said. Take the time to make sure you understand what’s in any contract.

“When you're dealing with a bad agent or property management company, it's always best to go back and see what's in the contract. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, you as the consumer will be held to what's in that contract. So make sure that you're reading that contract up front before you sign it. If somebody is rushing you to sign it, that's probably a red flag and you need to take that step back. It's okay in that conversation to say, ‘I'm going to take my time to review this.’ It's OK to do that and smart to do that. Reach out for legal help if need be.”

It makes a difference what sort of professional you’re dealing with. A real estate agent or broker is licensed through the state, whereas the term “Realtor” denotes a member of the National Association of Realtors, which holds its members to a strict code of ethics, according to Cara McNeil with the Washington Association of Realtors.

“There's recourse for a member of the public or another broker, if they have an issue with another agent, they can file an ethics complaint to the Realtor Association,” McNeil said. “Some local associations handle their own ethics complaints, and some have the state association to it. So a lot of that just depends. And we have a professional standards coordinator here on staff who handles all of that. “

If you’re dealing with an agent or a broker, the avenues for recourse are a little less cut and dried.

“You can always leave a complaint,” Hickle said. “You can go to bbb.org, and on there, you can do a couple of things: you can either leave just a review or you can leave a complaint. A review is just letting people know about your experience out in the community. This doesn't get a response from the business. It's just a general review letting people know what you experienced … A review doesn't solicit a response from the business owner, but a complaint does. What happens here is, you file your complaint to bbb.org on their profile. We then vet that complaint, make sure it meets our standards and make sure it makes sure that all the information is there, and then we send it off to the business. We give the business 14 days to respond before we notify them again, ‘hey, we still need your response to this.’ If they do not respond, then it'll be marked as closed.”

“If the real estate agent who has his license or her license isn't a member of the association, there's really very little that we can do about that individual,” McNeil said. “There's always recourse through the Department of Licensing if there's a licensing violation.”

How about when you find out the person you’re dealing with isn’t even licensed?

“If maybe you were trying to find a place to rent or trying to buy a home and you encountered a scam Realty or maybe property management company, that would probably be a good place to put it on BBB scam tracker,” said Hickle. “And there, you can let us know the person's name you interacted with, how much money you lost, the business name they used, the email they used, phone number, everything like that, and let us know what's going on there. And then we can take that information and look further into it. We do give that information to authorities when they request it, and we also always encourage any type of business interaction in the marketplace within the state of Washington. We always encourage reporting it to the Attorney General's Office. The Attorney General's Office is pretty good about taking a look at complaints and taking action on them.”

“But the best thing, 100% hands down, is to seek legal counsel, real estate legal counsel, when there's an issue,” McNeil said. “And that's by far the best advice that we can give to any member of the public.”

Joel Martin can be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

Where to find help

Better Business Bureau: www.bbb.org

Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors: www.mlobr.realtor

Washington Association of Realtors: www.warealtor.org