Patty Manzi's Tri-Valley Real Estate Blog

With all that has been going on the real estate market over the last few years, it is more important than ever to make sure the agent you are working with is an experienced, ethical agent connected with a brokerage that supports their agents with the same values. 

I was recently researching listings in Dublin for a listing I have coming on the market.  I wanted to preview a comparable home in the neighborhood that was listed for substantially below the fair market of the area.  I called the listing agent – I will call him Agent X – to inquire about the price and to make an appointment to view the home as there were no photos posted on the MLS listing.  The agent informed me the house was priced ‘competitively’ to stimualate immediate interest (aka multiple offers).  Agent X also stated that I wouldnt be able to go in and preview the home until mid-April because there is a tenant in the property and the tenant did not know, nor had they been advised the home was being sold.  This home was also going to be a short sale, but the bank didnt know that yet either.  I asked about the condition of the property, appliances, decor, flooring  and to my my shock and horror the agent admitted he had listed the home without previewing it first and didnt know the property condition! 

I think I must have said “WHAT?”  a little too loudly into the phone as Agent X seemed in a real hurry to end the conversation.  Or maybe he realized the implications of what he had just told me and wanted to get rid of me before I fired off questions about his integrity as a real estate professional. 

How can an agent properly advise a seller on the price of a home without seeing the condition of the home?  The simple answer is they can’t!  What the seller most likely does not realize is that if they get an offer for the list price of this home and proceed with the short sale, the bank will get an appraisal and determine the fair market value of this home.  The bank will then counter the buyer’s offer to bring the price up to the fair market value.  Unfortuntely this may be months into the transaction and the buyer may walk away at that point leaving the seller to put the home back on the market and start the process again.  The agent is putting the entire transaction in jeapardy by not properly pricing the home in the first place. 

The first form a seller should be presented with when hiring an agent is a Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationships (CAR Form AD).  In this disclosure it clearly states the sellers agent has a “fiduciary duty of the utmost care, integrity, honesty and loyalty in dealings with the Seller.”  It also states the agent will use “dilient exercise of reasonable skill and care of performance of the agents duties”, and “A duty of honest and fair dealing in good faith”. 

It is my opinion that in this case the agent is violating the basic fundamental duties to the seller and it reflects badly on the industry as a whole.