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Aimee Therese Marsh (pictured) was a sales agent at Ray White Aspley
A fired real estate agent claims she was mocking cruel trolls and not tenants when she hit out at ‘people’ on Facebook.
Aimee Therese Marsh, 30, was a sales agent at Ray White Aspley, near Griffin in north Brisbane, until Tuesday last week when she was sacked for writing derogatory comments about tenants.
According to a series of screenshots, which have since been deleted, she said tenants who earn $50,000 a year envy her and suggested her tax bills cover their Centrelink payments.
Ms Marsh appeared to double down on her comments when speaking to the media on Thursday, saying she was “not sorry” and suggested that people who don’t own homes aren’t ready to make ” sacrifice”.
However, the Griffin local told Daily Mail Australia on Monday that her comments were only aimed at the trolls who relentlessly attacked her in a local Facebook group – they were not general comments about Australians who rent.
Ms Marsh also said she had rented several properties before deciding to buy a house in March this year – adding that she had flatmates and worked three jobs to save enough to enter the market.
“My friends and some of my family members are tenants, some of my clients become tenants after they sell,” she said.
“Many current tenants of the properties I sell have contacted me in a positive way to say that I am not who these netizens claim 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 tenants’ who make $50,000 a year.
Ms Marsh said the situation started about a year and a half ago when she wrote an article in the local group saying she had sold a house at auction for $85,000 above the reserve – which she often did because the locals were interested.
“It had nothing to do with me. There were two buyers arguing with each other,” she explained in an interview with local Brisbane radio station B105 on Friday.
“Unfortunately, this has put people out of the game who feel like it’s my fault that they can’t get into the real estate market because of the prices.
“And then I started being responsible for fuel, groceries and everything else, so the comments that were made were very targeted against me and very rude.”
Ms Marsh worked with Ray White for less than a year when the online attacks began in 2021 – she had never been trolled online before so she hit back saying they were ‘people’ with low income.
Her bosses took notice of her reactions and provided her with social media training to help her deal with these situations in the future, but she said the training did not cover targeted harassment online.
She said the screenshots accompanying her comments did not show the full context of the conversation, especially the parts where she tried to support the trolls by providing information about lenders and general borrowing advice.
Ms Marsh said she was looking forward to selling the houses they were renting in another comment (pictured), referring to people making fun of her in a Facebook group
Ms Marsh said she had finally had enough and decided to fight back – calling her trolls ‘jealous’ and saying ‘I can’t wait to sell their houses’.
In her radio interview last week, she acknowledged she should have let go of the situation, but said she was not ashamed of her decision to fight back.
“Sometimes I wish I was big enough to get away from that stuff, but I mean there’s a lot of history in my past that makes me who I am today and I’m not going to apologize for having a spine,” she said.
“Those who target me are just bullies who stay at home with nothing better to do, and that’s why I said, maybe if they work as hard as they spend their time on the social networks, they would probably be able to buy a house.
Ms Marsh said she was not sorry to the trolls her comments were aimed at, but said: ‘I’m sorry to the nation who thinks this was a generalized comment because it wasn’t. “.
On Tuesday, Ray White posted a statement on Facebook saying Ms Marsh’s employment had been “terminated immediately”.
A spokesperson for Ray White told Daily Mail Australia she was fired “approximately an hour” after the agency’s social media team found her comments.
“We respect and value everyone within our community, and we have a great community of people who rent.
“Aimee Marsh’s views do not align with our company values.
“We pride ourselves on our customer service, we have a great community of tenants and we don’t tolerate anything like this.”
Ms Marsh said her employer failed to investigate the bullying before firing her.