Last week a local bank foreclosed on a very nice property that was built as a 'spec' home. Originally offered at 3.3 million, the home was marketed while under construction and the listing agent's MLS information showed all sorts of bells and whistles that were included in the purchase price:. Security system, whole house intercom, golf simulator room, temperature controlled wine cellar, flat screen TV and whole house suround sound system, outdoor kitchen, country club membership and on and on.........
Once the foreclosure took place, the bank engaged me as the new listing broker. While accumulating the information for my listing paperwork, I discovered that the former listing agent had been advertising the house for a price below what the bank would have considered accepting ( about $500,000 less). Not only that, but he had advertised the house as completed - even listing the appliances.
The house isn't finished; there are no appliancesinstalled; there is no completed golf simulator room; no 'systems' ar completely installed; there is no temperature controlled wine cellar. Not only could the house never have sold for his advertised price, the builder was incapable of taking the house to the advertised finished state.
Since the agent didn't locate any qualified buyers and his listing ended with the foreclosure, I suppose many readers will say, 'No Harm, No Foul'. However, the information he posted is still available to researching parties. I now have a qualified buyer who has made an offer based on the information he found on the Internet that had been posted by the former listing agent. What a waste of everyone's time!
If the falsified information had never been entered in the Multiple Listing Service, prospective Buyers wouldn't be making offers based on erroneous information.
A conversation with the compliance department of the MLS system gave me no direction about addressing the fact that the agent made an informed decision to post false information.
Has anyone else out there had this experience? If you have, how did you handle it? It is agents like this whose actions harm the reputation of our industry.
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