Last week, The Kleer Team went through an interesting experience involving a Miami Beach short sale condo at the Murano Grande. We had placed an offer for this short sale condo with one of our most loyal and qualified buyers after receiving a solicitation on behalf of a distressed owner who I happen to know (this South Beach condo is listed with a family friend). Unfortunately, shortly after submitting a contract significantly ABOVE the list price, we discovered that the price on the Multiple Lisitng Service was raised several times, and that the commission to cooperating Broker was changed to one percent, with the total commission payable of six percent.
Here's the problem - our ready, willing and able CASH Buyer was completely turned off by the lack of coherent pricing. Also, all short sales and bank foreclosures which we have dealt with in the recent past (and we've closed on many) stipulate commission splits of 50/50 between the buying and selling brokers. We subsequently found out that the listing agent for the condo convinced the current owner to accept a finance contingency contract (his own buyer) at a significantly lower price. Not only was this agent acting unethically with us, but the worst part is that the owner (and the lenders) have no idea of the games that this particular agent is playing in a desperate attempt to earn some extra commission income.
I firmly believe, especially in this market, that it's an agent's duty to do everything possible to sell a property for as high a price as possible to a QUALIFIED buyer. Any agent (or Brokerage firm) that is not willing to work for the best interest of their client should no longer be in the business. The old adage applies - "Let the Buyer (and Seller) beware."
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