Procuring Cause has become a hot topic, especially in these times. Times are tough and some folks are fighting and pinching for every dime. I have never experienced a dispute, I count myself lucky for that, but think I just got threatened by an agent in my area?
I wrote a post about an agent who feels he is the procuring cause if a sale was produced with my now buyers. Let me just say the subject property is under contract from another purchaser so it is a mute point as far as my purchasers go, but it got me thinking.
Here is why he thinks he would have been the procuring cause; They saw the house on the internet and called him to ask about the property. I think there was one email exchanged and one phone call. Now here is where it gets tricky - The wife buyer's mother - went over to look at the house to give her opinion to the out of town buyers. I told the buyers that they would have to buy the house with the listing agent because he thinks that he is the procuring cause because of a chain of events. The wife said, no, it was one phone call but yes her mother did see the house.
Okay, got that? So the listing agent started calling the buyers, after I had told him they were working with me with a BBA. He called the buyers anyway to tell them new info about the house. I called him to say that if he had information please contact me. He was not happy but acquiesced. Let me just say that I work as a fiduciary agent and no matter what the outcome of the commissions I told the buyers, several times, that I would gladly take them to the house to see and sell it to them if that was the house they wanted to buy. I would deal with the agent later but that I would not stand in the way of the house they wanted to purchase.
I don't feel that way about the LA because he has caused so much drama, most agents would just take their buyers somewhere else to the detriment of the seller. To me, that is not representing the seller's best interest.
Later that night, I knew it was not the last that I had heard from him, he emailed the purchasers and copied me on the email. The email made my buyers so mad I didn't even have to say a word.
He stated the chain of events for why he believed that he was the procuring cause to them and for my benefit. That was fine, but in the email he wrote to us that he disclosed agency to the purchaser's mother VIA PROXY and the mother signed the disclosure. My argument would be that the mother is not the buyer.
Think about the consumer and the Internet. 85% of today's real estate consumers start out on the internet and many will sign up for newsletters and auto alert listings where they system is automated and there is a chain of events showing that the agent set up with the internet system might have had something to do with being a procuring cause for a sale of real estate. Are more agents going to try to lay claim to our hard earned money because they email a pile of listings to buyer and the home they bought happened to be in the pile - I did have an agent call me two years ago and say just that. Makes me wonder where this might go?
In my area, we have to "carry the purchaser over the threshold into the house" to be considered PC. I have not been to an arbitration, but they say that each one is different, depends on who is there, what the weather is like, what the mood is - who hates/loves the listing broker/selling broker - so who knows if this type of information will start to make a difference in the future?
The next part of my scenario is the VIA PROXY? Never had that brought up in my 20 years of RE before? I figure the LA went to his broker and their company attorney to go ahead and figure this out. I don't know of any laws in my state with regard to real estate and PC that deal with a proxy? It doesn't mean it is not so, I just don't know about it? I will ask my attorneys that I deal with to answer this for me, just wondering if any of you have had this type of scenario?
By the way, the mother read the listing agent's email and was horrified. She said the agent never disclosed the agency disclosure to her, nor did she sign any documents. I guess you can see what I would have been dealing with. Remember, the house is now under contract and is a non issue. Actually, even if it was for sale, my buyers are so turned off by the listing agent they would not consider the house at this point.
So what do you think of the Via Proxy, does an internet auto system that delivers the house that they purchase? Will some attorneys figure out that this might become fair game? What are your thoughts on this? Does the public really know what kind of listing agent they have hired?
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