RealEstateCafe

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As this case suggests, home buyers don't realize the protections and importance of advocacy they lose when they consent to dual agency or designated agency. (I'll leave it to those more knowledgeable than me to decide whether this was informed consent and whether the buyer has any legal recourse.) My question is what legal recourse do buyers -- and TAX PAYERS in general -- have against designated agents who helped create overvalued housing markets that we are paying BILLIONS to bail out? If you scoff at that notion, read this blog post about the "so-called buyer agent" who advised their client to "bid $750,000" ...on a house listed at $699,900. It later sold for $70,000 less! http://tinyurl.com/ace3ys Wonder if something similar happened in places like Sacramento, CA, where "prices will have fallen 49.6 percent from a first quarter 2006 peak in Yuba and Sutter counties"? http://tinyurl.com/dyu3gj If industry regulators won't do it, what can real estate consumer advocates do to create a consumer protection campaign between the Ides of March, this Sunday, and April Fool's Day to warn home buyers about the dangers of dual / designated agency? Would LOVE to see consumers, particularly home buyers, post messages on Twitter every time an agent fails to present at agency disclosure. Is there a way to map the results to show how wide non-compliance is? Beyond a mere headline, "The dual-agency letdown," is a story about "legalized" conflict of interests that the press needs to expose and regulators need to correct. The story begins with limited or designated agency legislation in 1993 and let hope it ENDS with the collapse of the housing bubble more than a decade later after designated agents help create overvalued housing markets through bidding wars and other deceptive business practices. Anyone else -- particularly the one in four homeowners now upside down on their mortgages -- agree? Bill Wendel The Real Estate Cafe Serving a menu of money-saving services for "do-it-yourself" homebuyers & FSBOs since 1995 617-661-4046 realestatecafe@gmail.com http://realestatecafe.squarespace.com

Bravo, Liz, I agree—home owners will see through efforts to “cash in” on them, particularly if they are “are facing foreclosure and have zero or negative equity.” Whether an owner is under financial pressure or not, a new generation of tech-savvy, do-it-yourself sellers are increasingly accessing the same product and service vendors leading real estate brands use and paying for their services “a la carte.” For them the choice is not whether to use a traditional listing agent or an “alternative FSBO listing service,” but which product or service vendor offers the best money-saving solution to meet their individual needs at each step in the home selling process. As that trend increases, traditional real estate brokerages willing to experiment with “a la carte” services could use “for sale by owner” seminars to begin developing their own menu of services to help sellers—distressed or otherwise—save money, rather than “cashing in” on them. Does the relatively small number of responses to this article indicate that FSBO seminars are a bad idea, listing agents aren’t sure where to start, or they are too busy to develop their own FSBO seminars or webinars? We’ve never done it before, but if there is a need, maybe The Real Estate Cafe should offer a menu of FSBO seminars to fellow buyer agents and listing agencies ready to experiment with fee-for-service. Check out the slides on our FSBO wiki below and contact us if you’d like to talk about outsourcing your FSBO seminar / webinar: http://fsbo.pbwiki.com Bill Wendel The Real Estate Cafe Serving a menu of money-saving services for “do-it-yourself” homebuyers & FSBOs since 1995 617-661-4046 realestatecafe@gmail.com http://realestatecafe.squarespace.com

Bravo, Paul Howard I agree, if the FTC, DOJ, CFA etc really want reform - divorcing the obsolete two-sided real estate commissions is the place to start! Time to develop a coalition of real estate innovators, consumers and regulators and an action plan? This wiki will give you some idea starters! Be sure to watch the slideshow: http://tinyurl.com/DivorceCom Bill Wendel The Real Estate Cafe Serving a menu of money-saving services for "do-it-yourself" homebuyers & FSBOs since 1995 617-661-4046 realestatecafe@gmail.com http://realestatecafe.blogs.com