SCAOR At a Glance: Sussex County Delaware Weekly Real Estate Industry Newsletter

2010 Business Plan, Part II

Welcome back to your Business Plan! How did you do writing your Situation Analysis and Mission Statement? Did you write down everything that affects your real estate career? Today you'll learn the remaining steps to writing your business plan for a successful 2010!

Click here to take the next step >>

3^rd quarter COMP e-books are now available at www.theSCAORstore.com. The cost is only $25 for SCAOR members and $75 for non-members. You may download the COMP book immediately, view it by sections or in its entirety, print it and have it available on your computer. Members! Once you buy a COMP book, it also stays available in your Members Only area of www.theSCAORstore.com.

Ocean Atlantic Sotheby's International Realty will be accepting non-perishable boxed and canned food items, and non-food items such as diapers, toothpaste, mouthwash, bar soap, shampoo / conditioner, liquid hand soaps, and paper products. They invite all in the Rehoboth and Bethany communities to make this food drive successful and help those that will need help the most, especially during the holiday season.

Proposed Real Estate Licensing Changes
Read the proposed changes to Delaware real estate law and licensing at www.dpr.delaware.gov.

Case #12-19: Remove Information about Listings from Websites Once Authority to Advertise Ends

REALTOR^® A, a residential specialist in a major metropolitan area, spent several weeks each year in a cabin in the north woods he had inherited from a distant relative. Always on the lookout for investment opportunities, he paid careful attention to "for sale" signs, newspaper ads, and local brokerage websites in the area. Returning from the golf course one afternoon, REALTOR^® A spotted a dilapidated "for sale" sign on an otherwise-attractive wooded lot. Getting out of his car, he was able to discern REALTOR^® Z's name. Returning to his cabin, he used the Internet to locate REALTOR^® Z and REALTOR^® Z's company website. Visiting REALTOR^® Z's website, he found detailed information about the lot he'd seen that afternoon. Using REALTOR^® Z's e-mail address function, he asked for information about the lot, including its dimensions and asking price. Several days later REALTOR^® Z responded, advising simply, "That listing expired."

The following day REALTOR^® A, hoping to learn whether the lot was still available, contacted REALTOR^® X, another area real estate broker. "As it turns out, we have an exclusive listing on the property you're interested in," said REALTOR^® X. In response to REALTOR^® A's questions, REALTOR^® X advised that he had had an exclusive listing on the property for almost six months. "That's funny," responded REALTOR^® A, "REALTOR^® Z has a 'for sale' sign on the property and information about it on her website. Looking at her website, I got the clear impression that she still had that property listed."

While the wooded lot proved to be out of REALTOR^® A's price range, REALTOR^® Z's "for sale" sign and website were still on his mind when he returned home. Ultimately, he contacted the local association of REALTORS^® and filed an ethics complaint alleging that REALTOR^® Z's "for sale" sign, coupled with her offering information on her website made it appear as if the wooded parcel was still listed with her firm, when that had not been the case for over six months. REALTOR^® A noted that this conduct, in his opinion, violated Article 12 since REALTOR^® Z was not presenting a "true picture" in her public representations and was, in fact, advertising without authority, a practice prohibited by Article 12, as interpreted by Standard of Practice 12-4.

At the hearing, REALTOR^® Z claimed that failure to remove the "for sale" sign was simply an oversight, and if anyone was to blame, it was her personal assistant who was responsible for removing signs and lockboxes from expired and sold listings. "If you want to blame anyone, blame my assistant since he's supposed to bring back our "for sale" and "sold" signs." Turning to the stale listing information on her website, REALTOR^® Z acknowledged that information about her former listing had continued to appear for more than six months after the listing had expired. REALTOR^® Z analogized the continued presence of that information to an old newspaper advertisement. "It's possible someone might come across a six month old newspaper with my listings in it. Those ads were true when I ran them but how could I ever control when and where someone will come across them, possibly months or even years later?" she asked. "Besides," she added, "REALTORS^® have better things to do than constantly inspect their websites to make sure everything is absolutely, positively up-to-the-minute." "If we did that, none of us would have time to list or sell," she concluded.

Based upon your understanding of Article 12, what do you think the hearing panel concluded?
Find out in next week's At a Glance!

The December 3^rd Princess Diana bus trip is cancelled. Please contact Crystal@scaor.com with any questions.

The SCAOR office will be closed Friday, December 18^th from 12:30 to 2 p.m. for staff training.