4 ms·

Is that what's happening? How I read it, the sale was being re-assigned to the buyer's agent. It definitely means the seller's agent left some money on the tabl

by rgbrgb 11y ago

Is that what's happening? How I read it, the sale was being re-assigned to the buyer's agent. It definitely means the seller's agent left some money on the table for their clients, but not necessarily that they did so on purpose. I guess that's why this exists... the seller's agent can point to incompetence (unintentionally mis-pricing the home) rather than foul play.

pfarnsworth 11y ago
He turned around and flipped it for $1M. That's fraud, not incompetence.
- rgbrgb 11y ago
  Perhaps we're talking about different cases. I'm not seeing any home in the article that's priced at $1M. I was talking about the first case where the seller ends up selling to the buying agent (not their agent) who then marks it up to the real market value. The seller's agent didn't officially have any perverse financial incentives from that sale, other than the oft-cited incentive to price low and sell quick that all brokers have [0]. [0]: http://freakonomics.com/2008/02/26/real-estate-agents-revisited/ http://freakonomics.com/2008/02/26/real-estate-agents-revisi...
  - pfarnsworth 11y ago
    I re-read the article and I misread it, I thought they were selling to their own selling agent. I guess they instead sold it to the buying agent. If that's the case, then I guess there's nothing wrong since the selling agent is the one that is guiding the sellers, although it sort of makes one wonder if there was collusion going on.
    - rgbrgb 11y ago
      Yeah, I think the most troubling piece of this is how hard it is to figure out if something illegal was going on. I'd say it's definitely a point in favor of just listing your home on the open market rather than doing a pocket listing (a private sale without listing). Even if you really trust your agent, pricing a home is really hard and is best left to competing buyers. It sounds like a lot of these sales were "listed" by realtors who already had an offer in hand when they contacted the owner so they weren't really soliciting the open market for highest and best offers (which is definitely a violation of their fiduciary duties).

by rgbrgb 11y ago

pfarnsworth 11y ago

He turned around and flipped it for $1M. That's fraud, not incompetence.

rgbrgb 11y ago
Perhaps we're talking about different cases. I'm not seeing any home in the article that's priced at $1M. I was talking about the first case where the seller ends up selling to the buying agent (not their agent) who then marks it up to the real market value. The seller's agent didn't officially have any perverse financial incentives from that sale, other than the oft-cited incentive to price low and sell quick that all brokers have [0]. [0]: http://freakonomics.com/2008/02/26/real-estate-agents-revisited/ http://freakonomics.com/2008/02/26/real-estate-agents-revisi...
- pfarnsworth 11y ago
  I re-read the article and I misread it, I thought they were selling to their own selling agent. I guess they instead sold it to the buying agent. If that's the case, then I guess there's nothing wrong since the selling agent is the one that is guiding the sellers, although it sort of makes one wonder if there was collusion going on.
  - rgbrgb 11y ago
    Yeah, I think the most troubling piece of this is how hard it is to figure out if something illegal was going on. I'd say it's definitely a point in favor of just listing your home on the open market rather than doing a pocket listing (a private sale without listing). Even if you really trust your agent, pricing a home is really hard and is best left to competing buyers. It sounds like a lot of these sales were "listed" by realtors who already had an offer in hand when they contacted the owner so they weren't really soliciting the open market for highest and best offers (which is definitely a violation of their fiduciary duties).