I awoke this morning to an email from one of my sellers. It was a forwarded message between him and another agent who, in my opinion, violated Standard of Practice 16-2 in the Realtor® Code of Ethics.

First, she called him last night and, as he put it, she asked him if he would be willing to make a trade with her clients for my listing. He informed her that she needed to contact me instead of him directly. She replied that, if he would consider the trade, that she, of course, would go thru me. But she figured that since she knew him, she would just call him directly.

Now let me back up a little bit. This particular listing was HERS last year. It expired, and I got the listing, fair 'n square. I'm sure she's maybe a little upset that she wasn't able to sell this listing and lost it, but that's no excuse.

My seller knew that what she was doing was wrong and promptly notified me. He forwarded the email correspondence between to two of them and called me to tell me about the phone call as well.

Furthermore, she is a BROKER. Should've know better.

From the Code of Ethics:

Standard of Practice 16-2

Article 16 does not preclude REALTORS^® from making general announcements to prospects describing their services and the terms of their availability even though some recipients may have entered into agency agreements or other exclusive relationships with another REALTOR^®. A general telephone canvass, general mailing or distribution addressed to all prospects in a given geographical area or in a given profession, business, club, or organization, or other classification or group is deemed "general" for purposes of this standard. (Amended 1/04)
Article 16 is intended to recognize as unethical two basic types of solicitations:

First, telephone or personal solicitations of property owners who have been identified by a real estate sign, multiple listing compilation, or other information service as having exclusively listed their property with another REALTOR^®; and

Second, mail or other forms of written solicitations of prospects whose properties are exclusively listed with another REALTOR^® when such solicitations are not part of a general mailing but are directed specifically to property owners identified through compilations of current listings, "for sale" or "for rent" signs, or other sources of information required by Article 3 and Multiple Listing Service rules to be made available to other REALTORS^® under offers of subagency or cooperation. (Amended 1/04)

I'll update this blog as more progresses. My broker is handling it for me as we speak.