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When Tyler Markman got into a beef with the company that managed his apartment, he discovered something he thought the state of Hawaii should know about. 

HappyDoors Property Management was using people without real estate salesperson licenses to show apartments to prospective tenants.

But the state dismissed Markman’s discovery, saying it wasn’t enough to make a case. That’s hard to fathom — as you’ll see, Markman’s evidence was more than ample for state investigators to start asking questions.

Someone needs to take a close look at this outfit. It’s hard enough making a go of it in Hawaii without being jerked around by people who may not be playing by the rules.

As Markman discovered, only licensed workers are allowed to show rental units to prospective tenants, according to state law. That’s because licensees have gone through the process of learning about fair housing law and the landlord-tenant code and apply that knowledge to their dealings with tenants by not discriminating by race or sexual orientation, for instance, or refusing to take a Section 8 voucher.

Also, a licensed person has more to lose by doing something unethical or illegal — namely their license.

In a tight housing market like Honolulu’s, where the balance of power is weighted heavily in favor of landlords, that kind of protection is key.

So Markman got in touch with the Regulated Industries Complaints Office, which is supposed to investigate bad behavior by licensed individuals or, as in this case, people without licenses allegedly doing things that require one. 

Markman, however, got the brush-off from RICO. The state Real Estate Commission, they said, had not sufficiently defined what activities at a property management company require licensure.

Oh yeah? How about this?

“An unlicensed assistant in your brokerage … may not show properties to potential clients or tenants,” according to a 2015 Real Estate Commission bulletin, which has never been superseded.

I spent an hour or two looking at online reviews of HappyDoors. I found about 50 reviews where prospective tenants thanked HappyDoors employees who are not licensed for showing them the properties. Since then, I’ve spoken to several people who told me they were shown apartments by these same unlicensed people.

Really, RICO? Are you so overwhelmed that you can’t read the real estate bulletin that Tyler Markman sent you and peruse online reviews like I did and start asking HappyDoors some questions? Or do you only act if someone hands you the complete case, with a little ribbon tied around it?

Keep in mind, though, that this is the same state agency that missed the fact that an acupuncturist it ordered to stop practicing was still at it three years later.

It’s the same agency that allowed a hotheaded investigator, who happened to be the ex-husband of state Sen. Donna Kim, to berate everyone from the governor to someone making a well-documented complaint about his contractor. 

The fact that there are so many of those positive online reviews about HappyDoors is another matter for the state to look into — maybe not RICO, but the Office of Consumer Protection. HappyDoors asks prospective tenants to write them positive reviews.

Hmmm, let’s see, if you’re one of 50 people going for an apartment, you think you might feel a little coerced?

A Flooded Apartment Leads To Questions

Markman’s odyssey began in 2022, when his apartment flooded twice in one month from different causes. Without going into all the details, suffice it to say that Markman and his wife felt they had to move out, HappyDoors argued that they should stay and pay rent. The whole thing ended up with a settlement in small claims court and Markman being evicted.

Along the way, Markman — who moved to Oahu from Australia in 2018 to run a motorcycle repair business — found out that no one at HappyDoors aside from owner Brent Foster has a real estate agent or salesperson license. Foster did not respond to requests for comment.

Markman also came across that 2015 real estate commission bulletin about unlicensed workers being barred from showing apartments. In addition, they may not negotiate with clients, answer questions beyond what’s in a written fact sheet or sign real estate documents. In short, they are confined to clerical and ministerial functions. 

A spokesman for the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs told me that the 2015 guidance is still valid.

But that very clear directive apparently just sounded like gibberish to RICO’s investigators. 

They told Markman that the real estate commission has not spelled out the “specific management activities” that require a license. Without documents showing that the unlicensed workers were signing the lease agreements, “this would be difficult, if not impossible to prove.”

Markman appealed the initial determination to the investigators’ boss, Deborah Sanehira. She concurred with her subordinates that “there is insufficient evidence to substantiate a licensing law violation.”

Why even have these laws if nothing can be done about people who blatantly violate them?

Lindsey Gore said that a HappyDoors worker who showed her an apartment in Lower Punchbowl that she later rented. The worker is not licensed as a real estate salesperson, according to DCCA’s online search tool.

Gore said she asked the HappyDoors worker if she could get a six-month lease instead of one year, and the employee said she could.

Afterwards, she said, the HappyDoors worker asked her for a positive online review.

Gore didn’t feel coerced, exactly, but she did think it would be in her best interest to say yes.

“It was definitely like I was going to get in her good graces,” Gore said. 

She said HappyDoors kept her hanging for a few weeks. When her existing lease was days from expiring, she finally learned she got the apartment, she said. 

But then HappyDoors told her it had to be a year-long lease, not the six months that she preferred. With time running out, she agreed.

“That was a switch-up,” she said.

Gore said when she needed something repaired, she would talk to another unlicensed Happy Doors employee who asked her to try “six different home remedies” before sending anyone. While unlicensed workers may be authorized to schedule repairs, the real estate commission’s bulletin suggests they should not be negotiating with tenants about whether to do them. 

Fed up with the overall experience, Gore said she put in writing that she would not renew four months before it ran out, even though the lease required only 45 days notice. She paid her last month’s rent but asked if she could drop off her keys before the lease ran out. The management company agreed, she said.

So she was surprised when she got a letter a few weeks later saying she was being charged $500 for breaking the lease. After Gore filed in small claims court earlier this month, she said HappyDoors backed off on the $500 charge and agreed to send her her deposit. 

Rani Dawson said she also had a negative experience with HappyDoors, but not as a tenant. She and her husband commissioned HappyDoors to manage their rental unit.

The Dawsons had several complaints about HappyDoors and also ended up in small claims court, but because their contract required mediation and they were off-island at the time, they let it go.

Dawson said that a different HappyDoors employee than Gore dealt with showed their rental unit to tenants and also did the walk-through with the tenants before they left. That person also does not have a real estate salesperson license.

Markman, the tenant who filed complaints with RICO, said that several HappyDoors employees performed functions that should have been done by a licensed worker, including discussing the legalities of a rent reduction and advising the Markmans to keep living in the unit after it was flooded with sewage and plumbers told them it was unsafe.

Reviews Under Duress?

The online reviews of HappyDoors suggest that renters themselves are under the impression that the employees who showed them apartments were professionals.

They variously referred to the worker showing them the apartments, who is not licensed, as the “agent/assistant manager,” “the listing agent” and “our realtor.”

“It was relieving to have a professional realtor looking out for the best interests of the customer,” one wrote. 

Gore, Markman and others say that HappyDoors asks would-be tenants to write positive reviews. In fact, there are more than 850 reviews on Google Maps, with an overall rating of 4.4. But the distribution is odd — many five-star reviews, but hardly any fours, threes and twos. The only reason HappyDoors doesn’t have an even higher rating is that there are quite a few one-star reviews. 

It’s impossible to tell which of the five-star reviews were solicited by HappyDoors, but it’s clear that some of them were written by people who had applied to rent the apartment and were still waiting to hear.

“Deal isn’t done yet, but I have confidence we will get the exact outcome we were hoping for,” one five-star reviewer wrote.

“Fingers crossed on getting the unit,” another wrote.

Still another: “Hopefully, we get to move into the unit she showed us.”

The law on soliciting online comments seems a little nuanced, but I did get this from DCCA:

“If a consumer has a concern or a complaint about a business soliciting them to leave a positive review under circumstances when there is an implied quid pro quo, or pressure to do so, the consumer should consider sharing their concerns or filing a complaint with” the . The number for the Consumer Resource Center is 808-587-4272.

Meanwhile, the state could be much more aggressive in looking into this company, and others like it, to live up to its mission of protecting the public.