"Its A Great Time To Buy A House" - But Realty Executives Files for Bankruptcy

04-30-2011 • AZcentral.com

In a reversal from statements a week earlier, Realty Executives Inc. confirmed Friday that it intended to file for bankruptcy protection "within the next 48 hours." Employees and agents for Realty Executives were told Thursday about the plan to file for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The announcement to staff and contractors came just eight days after Rich Rector, Realty Executives owner and executive chairman, had issued a staffwide memo reassuring personnel that the firm was financially stable. Rector said in the April 20 memo that the company had struggled to make its lease payments on branch offices. Realty Executives spokeswoman Andrea Kalmanovitz provided The Arizona Republic a copy of the memo on April 21. One reason for the memo was to allay agents' concerns over being locked out of their offices after the company had missed payments on some of its commercial leases. Rector said in the memo that the company was trying to resolve the lease problem by working with property owners to negotiate lower payments.