ARTICLE 15 and Real Life!

I woke up this morning to a barrage of "non-sensible emails").  This is a little bit of "he said and she said," so be patient as you follow along.  You really don't need to know a whole lot to get the idea here.  Here's what you need to know:

1.  buyer and seller have verbal "after closing" agreement
2.  agreement does not involve the Realtors
3.  listing Realtor decides to enforce agreement 6 months after closing
4.  selling agent is involved in the passing of communication
5.  buyer responds to listing agent that her Realtor is to be left out of all communication, since this is appropriate.  She further invites him to deal DIRECTLY with her.

Ok, enough said. 
I just returned to my office, only to receive a copy of the email the listing Realtor wrote in response to the buyer's insistence he deal directly with her.  I am not sure why I was cc'd, but since he wrote it, I gotta share it:

Buyer,

I would be happy to work directly with you.  I just needed permission.  I apologize for the tone.  I have tried to patient and courteous with your Realtor to no avail.  I first contacted her over a month ago and then again last week.  She did not indicate you were working on this in anyway.   You obviously have been at work on this and that is all we can ask.   

Again, I apologize for the tone, I was under the impression this was not being addressed. 

Thank you for working on this.

Best Regards,

Ok,  this is definitely one of those, "Somebody has to say it---so here I go" moments!  First, I will tell you that my broker did not respond appropriately.  She failed to realize she did not "have a dog in this fight."  This situation was between buyer and seller.  The listing broker chose to "play."  The choice to "fight or not" is always yours. 

All that being said, I want to just refresh the minds of those following along if you are a Realtor, you are bound by a Code of Ethics.  Let's just cut to the chase, check out the following Article, directly from 

The Realtor Code of Ethics:

Article 15 REALTORS^® shall not knowingly or recklessly make false or misleading statements about competitors, their businesses, or their business practices. (Amended 1/92)

Hopefully, the (listing) offending  broker will read this blog.  Hopefully, he will recognize himself.  Our broker, the selling broker really does not need to respond.  This listing broker has taught the buyer who he is.  Our choice as Realtors with an eye toward the right thing, would be to call him on this directly, or file with our local board. To "reply all" and include the buyers and sellers is indeed inappropriate since this mud is between the "professionals."

The lesson here, is that we are all human and we all make mistakes.  I know both brokers to be quite good and ethical.  Anger and the misdirection of anger sometimes takes us down the wrong path.  I can say with certainty that neither broker "intended" to make any false statements regarding the practices of the other.  Frustration can cause even the finest to lose their cool!

 

  

We live and learn--but let's remember what we learn!

There, I did say it---hopefully, some of us got it!
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