If there’s anything that will make an agent spit nails, it’s the thought that someone is trying to steal their client.
During the holidays, we had a listing that the seller didn’t want to show for 2 weeks while they had family visiting. Rather than deal with call after call and showing request after showing request, the listing agent withdrew the property from the market with the intention of reactivating the listing after their company departed.
Can you guess what happened? I bet you can.
The seller was immediately inundated with phone calls from agents who were quick to tell her that they could do a much better job and that they’d be happy to take over their listing since it didn’t sell with Agent X.
::insert massive eye roll here::
Since there seems to be confusion, this is the definition of the Withdrawn status in our MLS (GSREIN):
When you Withdraw a listing, it is for a short amount of time, not permanently.
When your Seller wants to take a vacation, paint the house, is having company, and doesn’t want to be bothered with Showings, you Withdraw the Listing for a specific amount of time.
However, if both the Seller and Listing Brokerage sign a cancellation notice to terminate the Listing Agreement, then the Listing Brokerage must expire out the Listing using the date on the Cancellation Notice.
This is also true when an agent leaves a brokerage, and both the Listing Brokerage and Seller agree to cancel the listing; so, the agent can take the listing with them.
If you do not Expire the listing out at the time of the Cancellation Notice this listing is technically still an active agreement and will expire on the date listed on the agreement.
per gsrein
The agents making those calls were in violation of the NAR Code of Ethics, Article 16, which states “REALTORS® shall not engage in any practice or take any action inconsistent with exclusive representation or exclusive brokerage relationship agreements that other REALTORS® have with clients.”
Withdrawn listings are NOT an invitation for every agent out there working expireds to throw the seller into a dialer and start hounding them for business.
Withdrawn listings ARE the same as being temporarily off the market.
Withdrawn doesn’t mean fair game, it just means that you can’t show the property right now. Had our seller decided to pursue complaints against all of the agents calling her, I’m pretty sure she would have won.
After all, ignorance of the rules is no excuse for poor business practices. Let’s be better.
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