A fired real estate agent claims she was mocking vicious trolls, not tenants, when she lashed out at “nobodies” on Facebook.
Aimee Therese Marsh, 30, was a sales agent at Ray White Aspley, near Griffin in north Brisbane, until she was fired last Tuesday for writing disparaging comments about tenants.
According to a series of screenshots, which have since been removed, she said tenants making $50,000 a year are “jealous” of her, and suggested her tax bills would cover their Centrelink payments.
Ms Marsh appeared to redouble her comments when speaking to media on Thursday, saying she had ‘no regrets’ and suggesting that people who don’t own homes are not prepared to make ‘sacrifices’.
However, local Griffin told the Daily Mail Australia on Monday that her comments were only directed at trolls brutally attacking her in a local Facebook group — they weren’t general comments about Australians renting.
Ms Marsh also said she rented several properties before deciding to buy a house in March this year. She added that she had roommates and worked three jobs to save enough to enter the market.
“My friends and some relatives rent, some of my clients become renters after they sell,” she said.
“Many of my current tenants in properties I’ve sold have made it known in a positive way that I’m not the person these online people say I am.”
Ms. Marsh (pictured) rented several properties before deciding to buy a house in March this year
Ms Marsh says she was referring to online trolls when she said they are ‘renters’ who make $50,000 a year
Ms Marsh said the situation started about a year and a half ago when she wrote a post in the local group saying she sold a house at auction for $85,000 over reserve – something she often did because locals were interested .
“It had nothing to do with me – there were two buyers fighting with each other,” she explained in an interview with local Brisbane radio station B105 on Friday.
“Unfortunately, that sidelined people who feel like it’s my fault they can’t get into the housing market because of the prices.
“And then I started getting blamed for the fuel, the groceries and everything else, so the comments that were made were very directed at me and very rude.”
Ms Marsh had been working with Ray White for less than a year when the online attacks began in 2021. She had never been cheated on online before so she fought back saying they were low income “nobody”.
Her bosses heard of her reactions and gave her social media training to help her deal with such situations in the future, but she said the training was not aimed at targeted online bullying.
She said the screenshots of her comments didn’t show the full context of the conversation — particularly the parts where she tried to support the trolls by providing information about lenders and general advice on borrowing.
Ms Marsh said she couldn’t ‘wait to sell the houses they rent out’ in another comment (pictured), when referring to people mocking her in a Facebook group
Ms Marsh said she eventually got fed up and decided to fight back. She called her trolls “jealous” and said, “I can’t wait to sell their houses.”
In her radio interview last week, she acknowledged she should have walked away from the situation, but said she was not ashamed of her decision to fight back.
“Sometimes I wish I was big enough to leave things like that behind but I mean there’s a lot of history in my past that made me who I am today and I’m not going to apologize because I have a backbone” she said.
Aimee Therese Marsh (pictured) was a sales agent for Ray White Aspley
“Those who are targeting me are just bullies sitting at home with nothing better to do, which is why I said, if they worked as hard as they spent their time on social media, they probably could. buy a house.’
Ms Marsh said she had no regrets to the trolls her comments were directed at, but said: ‘I’m sorry to the nation that thinks it was a general comment because it wasn’t’.
On Tuesday, Ray White posted a statement on Facebook saying Ms Marsh’s employment had been ‘terminated with immediate effect’.
A Ray White spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia she was fired “within about an hour” after the agency’s social media team found her comments.
“We respect and value everyone in our community, and we have a large community of people who rent.
“Aimee Marsh’s views do not align with our company’s values.
“We pride ourselves on our customer service, we have a large community of tenants and we will not tolerate such a thing.”
Ms Marsh said her employer had not investigated the bullying before they fired her.