I received an email this afternoon from a potential client. He had found a listing on Zillow and had emailed me for more information. The listing did not have an address but an ID number in Plano, Texas. The listing had been posted by a local agent with a large brokerage.
I dropped over to the MLS and brought up all of her listings. She had 7 active listings and none in Plano. I went back over to Zillow and noted she has over 170 active listings. I dropped her an email and asked her for the MLS number or listing information if this was a non-MLS listing. She emailed back that, I could look it up myself on a local new homes sales site.
What’s she’s done is to copy new home listings and put them up on Zillow as if they are her listings. I see some resale listings as well. I’ll bet those have been poached from other agents.
I see three issues–legal, ethical, and copyright.
I can’t find the rule in the Texas Property Code, but offering a property for sale without the consent of the owner rings a bell with me.
This is a clear violation of Article 12 of NAR’s Code of Ethics. SOP 12-4 states, ” REALTORS® shall not offer for sale/lease or advertise property without authority. When acting as listing brokers or as subagents, REALTORS® shall not quote a price different from that agreed upon with the seller/landlord.
Many of the “photos” are artists renderings taken from the builders’ listings. This is a clear case of copyright infringement.
I dropped her broker an email letting him know about the situation.
I started to dig around and easily found another broker doing the same thing. I’ll email him in the morning.
If they don’t take the “listings” down, I plan on going the distance with an ethics complaint.
I wonder how widespread this is?
