Would the buy side agents do this?

Question

Let say you are a buy side agent, and there is an advertising to conduct a 4 hour open house for a seller who sells on his/her own. Let's also assume that you are familiar with the area and have time on this particular day. Let's say the owner conducted preparation for the house on his own and wants you to 1) relay the info about the property to prospective buyers, 2) collect their info, and 3) pass this info to the owner. You are free to contract the buyers and represent (if they come unrepresented) them for any other properties. The owner will spend 30 min with you before the event disclosing info about the house and you would need 30 min after the event to write down the notes.

Multiple choice question:

I will do it for 300.

I will do it for 500.

I will do it for 800.

I will not do it in principle.

I obviously appreciate the comments too :)

Multiple choice question:

I will do it for 300.

I will do it for 500.

I will do it for 800.

I will not do it in principle.

I obviously appreciate the comments too :)

Russell Brazil · Answer

@Jacob Bindler Amazing you want to keep arguing a point about a state you do not do business in, when two licensed agents in that state have told you it is illegal to do so. In Maryland an open house can only be conducted by an agent, or an agent in the same office, as someone who has a signed listing agreement on a property. If you do not have a signed listing agreement you would be guilty of brokering without a license for sitting on that house. Maryland law dictates that an agent can only be paid either a percentage of the sale, or a flat fee when a property settles for the listing of a property. There is no retainer fee allowed on the listing side in Maryland.  The same holds true if you had an agent from another office sit on the open house, it would be brokering without a license under Maryland law. Also in many other states, the reason why someone would want to sit on an open house in which they are not the listing agent is to gain new clients from the people who go through the open house....however in Maryland that is illegal. We are not allowed to solicit business at an open house. Now I or Account Closed may not be able to cite the MREC regulation that prevents this...it could be a regulation, it could be determined by case law, or it could have been enacted by congressional act, or as is the most common case it is set out in a guidance memo by the MREC that is distributed to brokers, then brokers in turn tell us how to act in the market place....but it is the case, as we have this type of stuff drilled into us over and over again by instructors in our CE classes, and our brokers.

Account Closed · Answer

@Jacob Bindler, if you're looking for exact wording, you're right, I can't cite singular language to support what @Russell Brazil and I have mentioned.  However, the collective of codes, case law, guidelines, etc. do a pretty solid job of outlining it.

I'm not going to pluck out each of the connecting portions of Title 17, Business Occupations and Professions, Annotated Code of Maryland and COMAR 09.11 for you, but, by all means, have at it.

Kevin Fox · Answer

Well, that almost seems as silly as the airplane operator running up to a train engine mechanic and telling him how a steam engine works. (Strikingly similair scenario to someone in another state telling someone what the regulations are that govern the profession they practice full-time in that state are, no?)

Do you expect for their to be some code that explicitly states "an agent may not enter an agreement with a home-owner, currently in the proccess of marketing their home FSBO, to receive a fee of $500-$800 dollars for conducting an open house at the property, passing along all lead information, while also maintaining the right to pursue said leads for their own personal business gain."

Hate to break it to you - but, unfortunately, laws don't even begin to approach this level of specificity. We have a legal system which relies on the ability to make inferences from more broadly defined rules in order to apply them to them to the specific circumstances of any particular scenario.

While it may not make sense, the reality is that the rules we all must follow tend to have astronomical differences depending on where it is that we practice. So, I learned a long time ago not to make assumptions about the laws pertaining to RE/REI in other states just because that's how things are in California.

More importantly - at least in the sense that it's something that may be applied more generally - the best thing anyone ever taught me was never to guess. It's okay if you don't know something, as long as you admit it and find the answer; but throwing a guess out there and acting as if it's a matter of fact will only make you look like a fool when someone more informed than yourself steps in to correct you.

Russell Brazil · Answer

It would not be legal to do this in my market which is Maryland. So I couldnt do it.

If I could do it, Id probably charge the owner about $500 as that works out to about my hourly rate.

Kevin Fox · Answer

Got 'em!

Account Closed · Answer

Because the law here in Maryland says so.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Russell Brazil  and why people think its a disadvantage to be an agent  I will never know.. that's over 1 million in sales on one walk in  LOL.  I get to play on BP why she brings in the dough !!!!

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Russell Brazil  pretty tight rules there in Maryland.

Its very common for me to have non affiliated agents hold our new construction open.

I think as long as it MLS listed its open all that are members.. at least in our state

and for sure you solictate business form open houses.. Not sure if I am reading you right there.

classic example is walk in comes in buys a home from us via open house.. they have no agent so they need to sell their current house open house agent makes appointment goes and lists and sells.

My wife just did one this month... walk in buys one of ours.. they list their home with her she sells that one too and got a referral....  But then again she is pretty good at this  LOL...

Jacob Bindler · Answer

At the end none of people here are able to cite any legal language expressly prohibiting what I am asking about. The argument is : "trust me". I am an engineer, so imagine if aircraft maintenance run on "trust me, I know, I have been doing it for a long time".

Jeff B. · Answer

@Michael Paris, @Jacob Bindler, @Russell Brazil.  IMO, the problem is professional ethics and likely governed therein.  "a seller who sells on his/her own" is a FSBO and they tend to push the envelop in RE, which is why many will decline to work with them at all.

Would the buy side agents do this?

Most Popular Reply