As a real estate agent, I would like to write about a business that I know very well.
In real estate field the line between ethical and unethical marketing is quite blurred, so some Realtors ® use unethical marketing trikes. Sometimes it is impossible to determine whether a real estate agent acts ethically or not. Even if a licensee follows all laws, rules and restrictions, he may behave unethically.
Here are some common techniques employed by unprincipled agents:
- The listing agent says potential buyers that he has already gotten some offers, or there are buyers interested in the certain property when, in fact, one or none of these is true.
- The listing agent simply doesn’t show all the offers submitted to the seller because he wants to maximize his profit (e.g., an agent shows only the highest offers or, in some cases, when he is interested in acquisition of seller’s property, the lowest offers).
- The seller’s representative agrees to list an overpriced property in hopes to attract the new clients (e.g., some potential clients may call when they see his sing or come on his open house); however, most probably the home won’t be sold.
- The buyer’s agent refuses to show for-sale-by-owner homes since he is afraid of losing his paycheck when a seller doesn’t pay commission.
- The buyer’s agent doesn’t show listings with a low cooperation commission because he simply wants to get as much commission as possible.
I believe that there are, probably, two main reasons of unethical behaviour in real estate business. The first reason is that the real estate agents have an information power since their customers and clients don’t have an access to MLS system and cannot be aware of all the information Realtors ® know. The second one is that there is no ceiling to how much money a person could make in real estate; therefore there is never any room for satisfaction. Because of this, there is always a need to earn more, which could lead to an unethical behaviour.
Nevertheless,as an insider I can assure you that the majority of Realtors ® are very honest and dependable professionals whose marketing techniques are ethical.
If you would like to know more about unethical real estate agents techniques, please visit the following link: http://www.chicagonow.com/getting-real/2011/08/11-of-the-sleaziest-real-estate-practices/