On Jan. 23, a site, Buzzworthy, published a listicle on four property agents who have been suspended in the same month.

The article was shared to Facebook on Jan. 27, and subsequently boosted.

Here's the headline and cover photo (censored by us):

For each agent, Buzzworthy would provide:

• The agent's photo
• The agent's name
• The agent's Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) registration number
• The agent's suspension period
• Details of their wrongdoing
• An explanation of said wrongdoing

Here are some particularly interesting bits from the article.

1. At the top of page, Buzzworthy indicated that the article had been updated on Jan. 23 to include case notes from CEA.

2. Under one of the female agents, a comment on her "rice bowl".

3. At the bottom of the article, where Buzzworthy pointed out that all the agents were from PropNex.

They also cited further stats for 2019, pointing out that 11 out of 18 misconducts had been committed by PropNex agents.

The link at the bottom, "This Real Estate Agency in Singapore has the most wrongful conducts", simply re-directs the reader to Buzzworthy's home page.

In other words, the article does not appear to be available.

Commenters divided

At time of writing, the article had about 1,400 shares and 181 comments.

Some disagreed with the article, mainly for two reasons:

1. It adversely affects the agents, who have already been punished for their misconduct.
2. It appeared to be a smear campaign against PropNex.

Another reader also picked up on the "rice bowl" comment about the female agent:

Others, however, felt that it was an article worth writing.

Post written with "neutrality": Buzzworthy

In response to the comments, Buzzworthy wrote a lengthy comment on the post, asserting that the article was neutral and written with publicly-available information.

They added that they do not take a stand on right and wrong, and will leave it up to the readers to decide.

However, the publication felt that the content was relevant to Singaporeans, and hoped to raise awareness on the issue.

They were also adamant that the post would not be taken down, and noted that some comments could potentially undermine Buzzworthy's "perceived integrity".

PropNex responds

In light of the hoo-ha, PropNex has commented on the same post.

They made two main points in their reply:

• The company takes "full responsibility" of their salespersons' shortcomings.
• Out of the 11 salespersons that Buzzworthy mentioned, the misconduct of four had occurred before they joined PropNex.

Was the article edited?

In one of the comments, however, a reader claimed that the article has been heavily edited.

The original titled was supposedly "This Real Estate Agency in Singapore has the most wrongful conducts" — the link that was no longer available at the bottom of the page.

However, all the other listings were allegedly removed, except for the four PropNex agents.

Top image via Buzzworthy's Facebook page