Elmo and Melitta Marquette

Elmo and Melitta Marquette, on the front porch of their 1923 home in SW Portland.

(Steve Duin)

Sandra Bittler -- who, with husband Michael Leland, purchased the elderly neighbors' two-acre property last November for one-tenth of its real-market value -- has been terminated at Oregon First, where she worked as a principal real-estate broker.

Mickey J. Lindsay, vice president and managing principal broker at Oregon First, said Bittler was sent packing because she never submitted any record of her dealings with Elmo and Meliitta Marquette, as required by state law.

Lindsay said Bittler informed her Saturday morning that The Oregonian was publishing a story on a 2013 transaction that left the Marquettes -- a couple in their late 80s -- clearly confused about the purchase price.

Knowing none of the details, Lindsay said she told Bittler, "On Tuesday, I'll go into the office, pull the file and look it over."

At that point, Lindsay adds, "She said, 'I didn't turn anything in on this transaction.' That's not OK. All of our agents have to make their business transparent to us so that we can make sure they are following the laws of the state of Oregon, the regulations of the Real Estate Agency, and the Realtor code of ethics.

"She obviously didn't turn in her paperwork. She said she didn't know she was supposed to. I guess that's a continuing education problem for her."

Bittler's photo and resume is no longer visible on the Oregon First website. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Last November, Bittler and Leland purchased the 2.02-acre Southwest Portland lot from their neighbors for $22,000. Multnomah County tax records list the assessed value at $108,360, and the real-market value at $220,400.

Meliitta Marquette said she and her husband thought they sold the undeveloped lot, and an accompanying easement, for $220,000, and didn't realize otherwise until they checked their bank statement months later.

Although Bittler identified herself as a licensed real-estate agent in the transaction paperwork, she leaves blank the "final agency acknowledgement."

That's also a problem.

"The purpose of the final-agency acknowledgement, which is required under Oregon law, is to make sure everyone knows who the agents are, who they work for, and who they represent in the transaction," Lindsay says.

Elmo Marquette built the wishing well that sits outside the home in which he has lived for 58 years.

"She (Bittler) should have put her name down as the buying agent, that she worked for Oregon First, that she represented the buyer only."

The purpose of that acknowledgement, Lindsay says, is to "avoid any misunderstanding about who people represent, so no one thinks someone is representing their interests when they are not. It also identifies what company the agent works, so if there are any problems they can contact that company."

Lindsay said Oregon First was bombarded Saturday with complaints about a transaction it knew nothing about.

And she also pointed out that it "would have helped Sandi in this situation if she had reached out to me.

"Whenever I see an agent is involved, particularly when I see the other side is not represented, I'm going to reach out to the other party and ask questions. The assessed value was $108,000. Why was the seller willing to sell it for so much less? At that time, perhaps we would have uncovered that they didn't understand how little they were selling it for."

Leland and Bittler maintain that Elmo and Melitta were willing to sell the lot cheap because the buyers agreed not to develop the property while the Marquettes were still alive.

"I said to him, 'Elmo, you need to get representation. I said, 'Elmo, this land is more valuable in the open market than what we're paying for it,'" Bittler said Friday night. But Elmo pressed to complete the deal, she added, because he was worried that if the property "went to his kids, it would get developed. He was clear that he was trying to prevent (that) outcome."

If that agreement was indeed a factor in the deal, Lindsay says, "I would want that written down. I would want that signed by all the parties, that this (arrangement) was worth $200,000 to the sellers."

Asked where Bittler will go from here, Lindsay notes, "It's my understanding that people have made a formal complaint. The Real Estate Agency will be a formal investigation. There will be problems for Sandi, but it will be up to the Real Estate Agency as to whether she keeps her license or gets a suspension or a reprimand.

"We can only control whether she's with Oregon First."

They have. She's not.

-- Steve Duin

(This post has been edited to correct the spelling of Meliitta Marquette's first name. "I'm full-blooded Finnish," Meliitta notes. "They put in those extra letters.")

