eXp Realty named in third sexual harassment suit

The top-ranked brokerage in the country by transaction sides, eXp Realty, is facing another lawsuit alleging sexual harassment at the firm.

The suit was filed last Tuesday in a Nevada federal court by Reno-based real estate agent Misty Carter. In the complaint, Carter accuses former eXp team leader Chris Nevada of a variety of sexual harassment behaviors, including making sexual remarks in the workplace, offering to pay Carter for sex, “unwanted touching” and attempts at kissing, and sexually oriented texts.

In addition to Nevada, the suit names eXp Realty and Nevada’s team, the Nevada Real Estate Group as defendants. Nevada and his team are no longer brokered at eXp Realty, as he and his team moved to LPT Realty in 2023, where they currently remain.

The lawsuit specifies that Carter was an employee of the Nevada Real Estate Group and not an independent contractor. She worked on Nevada’s team between December 2021 and June 2022.

According to the complaint, when Carter refused Nevada’s sexual advances, her “employment was terminated.” The complaint also alleged that eXp knew about Nevada’s behavior, however it did not elaborate on what the firm knew exactly.

In an emailed statement, an eXp spokesperson confirmed that Nevada and his team had moved to LPT Realty and that the firm did not know of the allegations against him until Carter filed the lawsuit.

“eXp Realty’s investigation began immediately upon receiving the allegations,” the spokesperson wrote. “We take our responsibility to foster a safe and inclusive environment very seriously. eXp Realty has zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or misconduct of any kind — including by the independent real estate agents who use our services.”

This is the third sexual harassment lawsuit for the Glenn Sanford-helmed firm in the past year. In mid-December, the New York Times published a story examining allegations of sexual assault at the firm.

After conducting over 30 interviews with current and former eXp agents, and examining two lawsuits alleging sexual assault by former eXp agents and recruiters, the Times reported that eXp has “a yearslong pattern of predatory behavior by two marquee agents.”

Allegations of sexual assault relating to eXp Realty surfaced in February of 2023. A complaint filed by Fabiola Acevedo, Tami Sims, Christy Lundy, and an anonymous husband and wife in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleges that two eXp agents, Michael Bjorkman and David Golden, have a history of drugging and sexually assaulting women at eXp Realty recruiting events across the country, in violation of the federal sex trafficking statute.

According to the February 2023 civil complaint, Bjorkman and Golden would “entice women to travel in interstate commerce, recruit enthusiastic real estate agents with the promise of career advancement and coaching, and use their considerable influence in the real estate industry on these other real estate agents’ behalf, knowing that they would use means of force, fraud or coercion to cause these women to engage in a sex act.”

The second lawsuit, which makes similar allegations, was filed in December by Anya Roberts. In this complaint, Roberts claims she was given substances at eXp Realty events that caused her to black out. She believes she was sexually assaulted by both Golden and Bjorkman while unconscious.

Both Golden and Bjorkman are no longer agents with eXp. Bjorkman was removed as an agent in 2020 after allegations of sexual assault first surfaced, while Golden was suspended as both an agent and a recruiter in February 2023 pending the results of the investigation and the Acevedo lawsuit, according to an eXp spokesperson.