Once lawsuits start flying over pocket listings (which limit exposure, and thus selling price), the practice should end quickly. Agents don’t think there is anything wrong with them because they see so many other realtors doing it – heck, there are websites devoted to pocket listings!
An excerpt from INews:
Their views on pocket listings were refreshing and unequivocal. Osher was particularly frank. The main takeaway: There is no place for “premarketing” or “coming soon” in an MLS-accessible market. If a home is being marketed in any way, it’s for sale. Limiting its exposure puts an agent’s personal financial gain at odds with a client’s financial return.
Possibly more striking was the conversation with Neil Garfinkel, a partner with the law firm AGMB in New York. In his personal opinion, those who engage in pocket listings are opening themselves up to potential litigation. A former client who felt they were led into a practice that didn’t maximize their financial return, and didn’t fulfill the agent’s standards of duty, will at some point be the bellwether for pocket listing litigation in the industry. Real estate licensee duties can be fiduciary or statutory depending on the state, but almost always call for a high standard of care for a client’s well-being.
While the liability discussion on that day centered on a single former client suing their personal agent, there are a number of much larger issues that seem to collide at this one point.
As real estate brokers and agents battle over opening large sets of agent production data to the public, the executives of most of the largest real estate companies seem to be signing on to the idea (Realogy’s and Re/Max’s CEOs concurred at Connect).
It’s becoming clear that the dissemination of agent sales data is becoming a question of “how” as opposed to “whether.”This new look into the practices of real estate agents and their brokerages will allow consumers to see everything their professional service providers do in a new light. Individual sales and practices will be boiled down into averages, probability and patterns.
Read full story here: http://www.inman.com/next/open-real-estate-agent-data-generates-vast-new-liability-for-pocket-listing-brokers-and-agents/2/
The issue as I see it is damages. To prove up a case you would need testimony from an expert and they don’t come cheap. The other side will bring in their own expert. Then you also have the issue of the amount of damages and is it worth the cost of litigation.
I dont see a problem with it as long as it is disclosed to the seller and they are ok with it. Otherwise it is unethical and could be costing the seller money.
Welcome back Daniel!
Agreed, damages are hard to prove. You could bring in 10 experts and get 10 opinions.
We all remember the case in Aviara where the buyer’s agent was sued for allowing his buyers to pay too much – and the agent won the case.
It could easily be proven that a listing agent didn’t properly expose the listing, but the battle over what price was right is hard to prove.