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I just looked at a house that had a totally wrong listing. Claimed it had a fireplace - no, attic - no, formal dining room - no, etc. Such a waste of my time. When I asked the agent he just shrugged it off.
Another house was converted to an illegal 2 family with extra kitchens and bathrooms without permits.
Is there anywhere to complain about this?
It happens all the time with lazy Realtors who simply pull-up a similar listing and attempt to use it as a 'template' for the current listing ... without carefully checking the details. Sometimes, I wonder if it's not done intentionally to attract lookers ... who might convert to potential buyers. This is a 'buyer beware' situation, with little recourse. Potential Buyers should carefully compare a copy of the listing with the actual home ... and bring a tape measure to verify room dimensions. -- Later-on when comparing listings, the corrections will come-in handy.
You could try complaining to the Multiple Listing Service. They should hold their members accountable.
Yep. We actually have the ability to flag corrections in my MLS and we aren't allowed to enter data into the system without taking a class. They are serious about the data at my MLS. I can honestly say I see very few errors in listings.
When DH & I were house hunting last year we found that this was fairly frequent! Our Buyer's Agent actually called the Seller's Agent about one property since it was SO misrepresented (wrong number of bedrooms, no HVAC, no basement, no fireplace, etc)- the Seller's Agent told her he hadn't actually been inside the property himself, his information came from his assistant who may have had it confused with another property! LAZY!
I think we came across at least 3 properties that had been terribly misrepresented in some way. I think part of it was due to our budget though- since we were looking at houses in the $100k and less range, it seemed that a fair few of the seller's agents representing these properties were 'bottom feeders' and representing houses en masse without much care or consideration toward each one due to the low commission.
Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do about a misrepresented property.
Always when you buy, verify every single tiny fact about the property independently. The information on the listing is often incorrect is some way or another.
There will be a Board of Realtors, if you want to file a complaint. Was it your buyer's agent or the listing agent who shrugged it off? If it was the listing agent, you could call his broker and that will get some action. If it was your own buyer's agent, there is not much he can do except complain to the listing agent. Maybe he knows the agent and knows it would be a waste of his time to contact him. Or maybe he is soothing you and will contact the listing agent and give him what-for, without upsetting you any further. Not all issues are handled in front of the client.
Is it illegal for a Realtor/Property manager to change an listing agent to himself and broker without listing agents knowledge?
This probably should have been it's own thread, not tagged on the end of an old, completely unrelated thread.
As for your questions, listings are owned by the brokerage, not the agent, at least in our MLS.
I don't know if they can go in and change a listing though without the agent's knowledge, because they wouldn't have the login. They'd have to go through the MLS and have the MLS change it.
The more specific you can be about what happened and where, the better the answers might be.
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