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REBNY Reminder - You Can’t Advertise Other Real Estate Agents Exclusive Listings

December 12, 2007

ducks.jpgBait and switch? Have you ever heard of it or quite possibly experienced it? Well, if you ever searched Craigslist, The New York Times online or other such real estate listing sites for a home then the answer might be a resounding yes. In open non-regulated listing venues such as these, real estate agents with no exclusive listings, get shall we say, a little creative. They poach other agents exclusives and advertise them without the listing agents permission. Shame on them!

You know, the listings without the exact address. The ones that sound too good to be true. They use this sleazy tactic in order to get customers - buyers or renters. Most of the time, the customers don’t even realize what’s happening. They just want the place and shrug it off as the cost of doing business in New York City. Yada Yada Yada…

An agent friend of mine who’s been in the business for quite some time told me a story of how they learned about this tactic the hard way. After they had consummated a real estate transaction as the listing agent (their exclusive right to sell listing) they were informed by the buyer how they actually found the listing and the buyers agent. Apparently, the buyers agent had placed an ad online advertising the other agents exclusive listing. After the buyer found out, they didn’t want to lose the deal so they closed their eyes and proceeded. My friend the listing broker was pissed, but did not do anything about it. And you wonder why crap like this still happens.

Recently, REBNY sent a reminder notice to all it’s members regarding our co-brokerage agreement.

Reminder - Change to the Universal Co-Brokerage Agreement

The Board of Directors of the Residential Division has approved an amendment to the Universal Co-Brokerage Agreement that provides for the imposition of monetary penalties on those firms and agents that violate the rules pertaining to the advertising of another firm’s exclusive listing. The fines range from $2,000 to $5,000 and upon a fifth conviction a firm/agent will not have access to the RLS for a period of 30 days.

The only part of the memo that makes no sense to me is that they give you five chances to break this rule. The monetary penalties are too low. Then, they really drop the hammer on you by denying you access to the RLS - REBNY Listing Service for 30 days. Is this really a deterrent?

In order to really prevent this type of behavior from happening, should the penalty be more severe - like revocating their real estate license ?

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Posted by Rudolph D. Bachraty III | Filed Under Advertising 

Comments

2 Responses to “REBNY Reminder - You Can’t Advertise Other Real Estate Agents Exclusive Listings”

  1. Craigslist New York on December 16th, 2007 3:45 pm

    [...] REBNY Reminder - You Can’t Advertise Other Real Estate Agents … [...]

  3. John beck on March 26th, 2008 12:59 am

    It was popular when the market was good.

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