Property listed without permission....

@Jennifer Duke I would love to hear the guts of this story

 

Thank you for the replies. At the time I was pretty shocked and angry but to be honest after I spoke with the agent I am almost convinced it was a mistake or worst case they are desperate for listings and thought "if we bring him a decent offer he might just sell". The agency is an independent that is owned by an older gentleman who started it many years ago and has a good rep around town. The agent is also an older fellow that has a good rep. I certainly wouldn't like to damage that over a simple mistake. However some of the fraud related comments have got the cogs turning so I will follow up tomorrow morning to find out what happened. In the unlikely event it does turn out to be something nasty it will be all guns blazing. I have kept the screen shots. Thank you again for the support.

 

Something has to be off.. There was no ambiguity regarding the house not being for sale. You can't easily accidentally list a house for sale! Plus, wouldn't you normally have the seller check the ad write up and photos before publishing the listing?

 

Yes. I recently sold a house in Melbourne. The agent would not list the property until he had:
1. signed authority to sell
2. written approval for advertising text
3. written approval for photos

It would have to be a huge series of coincidences and mistakes for a property to be listed by accident.

 

Sign of a diligent agent Perthguy. There was one before the 3 issues you mlisted...a signed contract of sale that complies so you are permitted by law to offer the property. ie no section xx s certificate and you can advertise it. No contract in the office it cant be listed and so on. My son is a agent and he reckons he wouldnt have a job if he approved a listing where the client wasnt a signed up contract and there wasnt a contract of sale, keys and all the rest in the office.

The old guy sounds like he should retire.

 

I didn't get a chance to catch up with them Friday. I will definitely catch up with them on Monday because it turns out it is still listed on domain.

 

Don't just use a screenshot, print the listing to a pdf.

 

Amazing story. How did it end?

 

I would have had it delisted same day.

 

On some level it could be quite accidental. The agent does an appraisal for you, they've got a lot of other inquiries at the same time and your appraisal gets mixed up with the others that are going to proceed to a full listing.

The receptionist (who doesn't have a clue who you are) simply churns through a heap of work, listing properties that she's got in front of her and yours is accidentally included in that pile.

It's not right, it's not good practice but it's quite possibly just a dumb innocent mistake. It wouldn't surprise me if it happens a bit in agencies, and they realize and remove listings when someone makes an inquiry about the listing. If that had occurred here you'd probably never by any the wiser.

 

Certainly that may well be the case, but surely it is not too much to expect to have the listing removed immediately once the agency is advised of the error?
Marg

 

They accidentally took photos, accidentally wrote the sales script and accidentally posted it on the internet? Seems unlikely to me.