Admin

The case of the Invisible agent

By
Real Estate Agent with Scotsman Realty Group

Well I have have had several agents who after faxing me an offer fall off the face of the planet, don't return calls emails etc. Last week for the first time I wrote an offer on a listing, faxed it to the number listed on the MLS and had zero response for 7 days! I left messages at both numbers for the listing agent and decided to hand carry a copy of the offer to his office where at least I could get a receipt initialed by the receptionist.

 

Invisible Agent

His 'office", was an unmanned desk inside a local mortgage brokers which was under a different name. The lady who answered the phones told me that he was a one man office who rented his desk from the mortgage broker and that she had seen him yesterday! Frustrated I called the California Association Attorney. I was sure  I had read that I had the right to go directly to the seller if I did not get any response from the listing agent within a certain limit. The attorney said no. Despite the listing agents inaction and failure to respond this was not cause for me to contact the sellers direct. It is unethical and perhaps a violation of MLS rules to not communicate with a selling agent but no more than that.

Eventually I hear from him, and he provided a plethora of excuses, about why he did not call back yeah right. The deal did not go together, no surprises there.

So my question to you, has anyone else experienced this? How do you handle this in other states? Should MLS rules include a set time for which a listing agent should at least acknowledge that an offer has been received?