Pocket Listings

[timd354]

As a matter of fact, in many areas, individual offices keep all of their listings in house and do not expose the house through the MLS. .

Yep, I know that is not unusual in NYC, but it is certainly highly unusual in most areas of the country and it is also highly unethical in my opinion...real estate brokers should be trying to expose the listing to the broadest audience possible in order to obtain the best deal for seller and should not be keeping the listing in house which does nothing to serve the seller's interest but instead serves the broker's interest in trying to retain both sides of the transaction.

 

[Meandering]

Not all sellers want to be exposed to the "broadest audience possible" where every thief in the world can see that within about .25-30 days the house will be vacant, and the air conditioning unit, well pump and septic grinder pump, will be available for taking, without any annoying pets barking and making noise in the middle of the night. Nothing worse for a seller than to get to the closing table and the buyer's walk through inspection did not find the air conditioning unit, so the price then needs to be renegotiated at closing. Agents working for the "best interests" of their sellers need to discuss the level of vacant home crime in an area with the seller, and the SELLER decides if the property should be listed in the MLS and/or on the internet. As it's the SELLER who becomes exposed, and bears the liability and/or reaps the rewards of the "broader market".

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[Carnivore]

Yep, I know that is not unusual in NYC, but it is certainly highly unusual in most areas of the country and it is also highly unethical in my opinion...real estate brokers should be trying to expose the listing to the broadest audience possible in order to obtain the best deal for seller and should not be keeping the listing in house which does nothing to serve the seller's interest but instead serves the broker's interest in trying to retain both sides of the transaction.

Well I agree with you almost 100%. There are certainly exceptions; Seller privacy, etc. Most that I have come across were simply the Realtor knows they have something that will sell FAST! Even then it does raise the question of proper improper pricing(low balling). I see it all the time in my area because the CDOM/DOM is usually Zero. Usually its because the market is Hot and/or inventory is low.

Recently there is another phenomena that raised its ugly head. Under-pricing to produce a bidding war between multiple buyers. The result has been sale price 5-15% over List price. Many areas like the Charlotte MSA have this going on. Inventory is tight, Realtors chasing the ever rising prices(literally monthly). I encountered this recently and decided to call a few Realtor to find out what's going on. Unbelievably they were quite open about it. Not sure if this is some type of ethical issue, I suppose it is not as long as the Agent informed the Seller and they agreed. Tough explaining this situation in the report especially since its skewing the Statistics. eyeroll

 

[Meandering]

Sellers have no obligation to make statistics "accurate", nor to fill anyone else's database.

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[DTB]

Sellers have no obligation to make statistics "accurate", nor to fill anyone else's database.

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Sellers need to specifically sign off that their property can be placed into MLS.
EVERYTHING is negotiable.

 

[timd354]

Recently there is another phenomena that raised its ugly head. Under-pricing to produce a bidding war between multiple buyers. The result has been sale price 5-15% over List price. Many areas like the Charlotte MSA have this going on. Inventory is tight, Realtors chasing the ever rising prices(literally monthly). I encountered this recently and decided to call a few Realtor to find out what's going on. Unbelievably they were quite open about it. Not sure if this is some type of ethical issue, I suppose it is not as long as the Agent informed the Seller and they agreed. Tough explaining this situation in the report especially since its skewing the Statistics. eyeroll

That always goes on in very hot markets....I remember that type of thing well from back in the pre-bubble days...I don't see anything unethical about that though.

 

[timd354]

Sellers need to specifically sign off that their property can be placed into MLS.
EVERYTHING is negotiable.

Its all well and fine when the property seller does not want the property to be listed in the MLS for some reason, where it is a problem is when real estate brokers encourage sellers not to put the property in the MLS simply because the real estate broker is trying to capture both sides of the transaction.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

but they cannot "require" you to put every listing on the MLS.

Our Board does not allow you to withhold any listing from the MLS unless the seller completes a form stating they wish it not to show up on the MLS.

 

[Meandering]

We have listings in the MLS with no address, no seller's name, and no tax ID number, because that's the way the sellers want it, only to go through the listing agent, who is usually the only person they trust to show their home or business.

 

[Don Clark]

our board rules state all listings must be put in MLS no later than 48 hours after signing agreement to list. then they came up with "coming soon" listing which seemingly defeated the previous rule.

Not every real estate agent and company belongs to the Realtor Organization. I have my brokers license with such a firm. Also, pocket listings lack exposure to the market.