All Forum Posts by: Tara Piantanida-Kelly

I've been keeping up with it with MeetKevin, on YouTube. Here's one of his videos where he talks about the rental relief portion of the COVID relief bill.  

@Bill F.  Here's my concern: I've stayed in the deal and am now working with someone who has shown me that they are unethical and/or can't be trusted. I don't want to punish anyone. But she's broken trust. I'm just wondering what other things she may do between now and when (if?) the deal closes. 

Thank you, @Reinaldo Lopez.  

@David M. and @Russell Brazil.  I completely understand that the listing agent has a fiduciary relationship with her client and not with me. The very first paragraph of Article 1 of the National Association of Realtor's 2020 Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice: "When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client. This obligation to the client is primary, but it does not relieve REALTORS® of their obligation to treat all parties honestly. When serving a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant or other party in a non-agency capacity, REALTORS® remain obligated to treat all parties honestly."  
https://www.nar.realtor/about-nar/governing-documents/code-of-ethics/2020-code-of-ethics-standards-of-practice

I would argue that the listing agent, when she forwarded the reports to her client and said "The buyer's haven't seen this yet.", was not treating me honestly. 

Russel, you say:

"Also, you would have ended up sending it to them anyways in your next step of negotiations, so it really looks like you are trying to create a problem where one doesnt really exist." Not necessarily. Here in NY, we are NOT required to share the report with anyone. If we choose to, it is at our discretion. Listing agents here know that.

'"Clients" are due confidentiality. "Customer" are not.' I agree. The listing agent didn't owe me confidentiality, but she did owe me honesty.

Thanks, @Lydia S. It sounds like several people replying to this post assume that these things (sharing inspection reports) are handled the same way everywhere. You and I know that they aren't. Here in NY, the report belongs to the one who pays for it (i.e the buyers). Other parties can request to see it, but it is up to the owner of the report if they want to share it or not. My beef isn't with the property inspector. I believe he made an honest mistake. I'm not happy about that, but I don't think he was being dishonest. I believe that the listing agent, on the other hand, did not treat me honestly (according to the NAR Code of Ethics). She clearly knew that the report was delivered to her in error and that forwarding it to her client was unethical.

Thanks, @Steve Morris. I agree.  The listing agent received it by mistake (the property inspector's error), and forwarded it to her client, the seller. In the listing agent's email to her client, she said "The buyers haven't seen it yet."  Clearly, she knew that she wasn't supposed to do that.  

No, Joe S. I'm still here. I haven't "left the building". I've just been busy negotiating this deal. We use real estate attorneys here in NY, and mine confirmed that the seller's agent sharing our inspection report with her client without our consent was unethical. 

We are the buyers in a 4-property multi-family deal.  The property inspector we usually use wasn't available. The seller's agent/listing agent recommended someone she's used before, and we agreed to hire him for the job. He requested/demanded full payment ($1,500) before the reports were delivered. We complied (that's on us) and paid him $1,500 on Monday, October 26. He delivered four reports on Monday, October 26 - to the seller's agent. By Wednesday, we still hadn't seen any reports, so we asked about them. The seller's agent then forwarded the reports to me on Wednesday afternoon. The email she forwarded to me shows that she sent the reports to her client, the seller, as soon as she received them on Monday. 

She shouldn't have received the reports at all, and we called the property inspector about it. The property inspector said something about thinking that the seller's agent was representing us, and he apologized. On a scale of inappropriate to unethical to illegal, 1) where does the property inspector fall on sending the reports to the seller's agent and 2) where does the seller's agent fall on sharing our inspection reports with her client without our consent? 

I really just want to know what kind of leverage it gives us in renegotiating the deal. (The inspection reports showed some things that need addressing immediately.)  What would you do? Seller's concessions? Ask the seller to cover the cost of the four appraisals (about $1400) to compensate? I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

I'd love your thoughts and feedback on this:

Buyer's Realtor: "I have clients interested in seeing your house. Are you cooperating with Buyer's Realtors by paying a commission?"

Me: "Yes."

Buyer's Realtor: (Shows house to clients. They love it.  The next day...) "My clients want to make an offer on your house. Before I submit the offer, I want you to sign a commission agreement for 3%"

Me: "We'll split a 3% commission 50/50 with your client, or we'll pay 100% of a 2% commission."

Buyer's Realtor: (no response)

Me: (2 days later) "Hi Buyer's Realtor. Are your clients moving forward with the offer?"

Buyer's Realtor: "No. They decided against it."

Me: "Was it related to your commission, or was it something else?"

Buyer's Realtor: There were no comparable properties to support the price you were asking."

Me: "They changed their minds after wanting to submit an offer? Did you tell them that we would only offer a 2% commission?"

Buyer's Realtor: "They changed their minds after I ran the comps for them."  

Me: (Riiiiiight.....  I ran the comps too and posted them to our house's website.)

Hi @Susan Little .  For the properties we own in western New York, we try to keep them within a 30-minute drive.  The one we bought at a county tax sale is more than an hour away, and we found that it's too far for us.  We won't be doing that again!  The properties that we own in Oregon are professionally managed, so we don't need to be close by.  Good luck!