In today’s flipping/investor market, some agents will buy & flip properties in order to earn extra money.
As an agent, you should be careful selling your own property through your real estate office.
Here is an example of what can happen
A real estate Broker, purchased a condo unit for $200,000 to use as a vacation property.
After owning the property for a year, he decided to put it on the market through his real estate company. Although the realtor/owner knew the condo had problems, such as plumbing issues and a hole in the wall that was covered with a hanging portrait, he did not make any repairs to the unit.
Two weeks after the Realtor/Owner listed the property, the office was contacted by a prospective buyer, who expressed an interest in purchasing the unit for $315,000.
While acting as a dual agent, Realtor/Owner sold the property
During the buyer’s initial visits to the property, there was still furniture in the unit which caused him not to notice some of the needed repairs.
After moving into the unit, the buyer discovered several problems and also found out that Realtor was actually the owner of the condo.
As a result, the buyer filed suit against Realtor and the office for failure to disclose known property defects.
The result
The Buyer won the case and was awarded $100,000 in damages. Real estate professionals acted as dual agents should be wary of selling owned properties through their real estate office. results could also be damaging both personally and professionally.
#1 Risk Factor
The Realtor/Owner did not stop to think about what could happen if the buyer of his property found out that he was selling a property that he owned while supposedly working on behalf of the buyer.
#2 Risk Factor
The Realtor/owner, put himself at risk by acting as a dual agent and selling property in which he had an ownership interest. There is additional risk if it should be discovered that an agent knew about defects in a property, especially if that property is their own.
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