[quote=HLS]BG wrote “I don’t think the DRE will even look into it unless she can prove she was somehow “damaged” by what the seller’s agent told her”
I completely disagree with this. MLS is intended to be an orderly market place.
Imagine if everybody listed properties for 20% less than they had any intention of selling the property for.
(expecting offers of 25% more than the listing price)
It would be mass chaos with hundreds/thousands of agents & buyers scrambling to look at properties, wasting everyone’s time.
Most agents don’t call listing agent to discuss specifics. They spend several hours showing a property and have to prepare a 20 page offer. NOT OK.
Agent has been licensed for 2 years, currently with Coldwell Banker. I would also contact Coldwell Banker corporate and let them know how disgusted I was about this.
Agent listed this at $299,900 so anyone searching up to $300,000 would see the property. Misleading.
There are penalties for abusing the MLS system. I’m not the one who decides or enforces them, but this is blatant misrepresentation. It’s not a court case where one needs to prove damages. It’s unethical and I think the BRE may have an issue with it.
OP’s agent should file a complaint with the board as well as every other agent who takes a buyer to look at the property thinking it’s available for sale in the $300K range, only to be told offers will be considered above $375K .
This is NOT OK.[/quote]I completely agree with you here, HLS. I’ve seen a lot of properties listed with a “value range” asking price which exceeded $75K between the lowest and highest price point at which the seller will “entertain” offers. However, those properties were more “mainstream” (usually move-up homes) and not an obvious cosmetically-flipped “starter home,” as svelte as just shown us. (Thanks for posting the 2011 “street view,” svelte. It is exactly as I had imagined it would be, including its 2-tiered lot, which is common in Lakeside).
If I was representing the buyer in this case, I myself would likely call the listing agent to ask why the last two escrows on the property fell out of escrow (a week apart) and demand to see any inspection/engineering reports paid for by former buyer principals PRIOR to placing an offer for my client. An honest, ethical experienced listing agent would provide them up front or even leave them in a binder on the kitchen counter for prospective buyers to look at when when are shown the property by their agent (since it was vacant, a buyer’s agent didn’t need to make an appt to show it). I agree that it is a waste of everyone’s time to go back and forth with an offer, get it accepted and open escrow only to find out the active listing has flaws (which could have been disclosed up front) which are a deal-killer. By that time, the buyer has often spent a few hundred to a thousand dollars on an inspection rpt, engineering rpt and/or appraisal.
For example, I’ve viewed dozens of engineering reports by fax of cracked (and signed-off, repaired) foundation slabs l-o-o-ong before I ever considered placing an offer for a client on a particular listing. I knew to ask for them because of obvious tell-tale signs while previewing the property as well as the lot’s location on a notorious street for foundation problems. This is because I was highly-familiar with the areas I was working in.
OP’s agent doesn’t sound like he/she was.
I just don’t honestly think the BRE (fka DRE) will investigate this. But it doesn’t cost anything to file a complaint and would likely deter this agent from egregiously mis-pricing any future listings in the MLS. Theoretically (it wouldn’t happen here, though), this listing agent could list this property for $300K and an all cash buyer could offer $375K, which sellers will, of course accept over OP’s offer which needed financing and thus was subject to an appraisal.
