Should Other Agents Advertise YOUR listings?

We’ve all seen the Real Estate magazines touting many, many listings all from one company.

Can they really be that good? Do they really have that many listings?

In most cases…NO!

These Agents grab most of these listings from the MLS, copy the photos, and publish them with the implication that these are all their listings. Not only are they misleading the public, but sometimes, the information is incorrect. eg. wrong number of bedrooms, wrong square footage, etc.

These are usually foreign language publications. The thought being that they get away with this because most people don’t understand the languages used.

But, as listing agents, why would we complain about free advertising of our listings?

These listings are available for other agents to search for on MLS anyway.

What’s the difference?

And, from a buyer’s standpoint, most people don’t really care who has the listing. They just want to browse and pick out what they like and have those properties shown to them.

That’s all these publishing agents want as well. They want to pick up buyers. This practice really doesn’t take away anything from the listing Agent. If the buyers make a good offer, the listing office will still make the same commission.  

My suggestion is that any Agent who wants to put out a publication like these, should simply come clean. Don’t try and pretend that these are all their listings. Call the real listing agent and ask for their permission to include the property in their advertising magazine. Then, in the publication, a title above listings from other agents should simply say “Available for Showing”.

That’s all the clients need to know. They are buyers. They work with buyers agents, not listing agents.

If we all cooperate, we can all get along… and thrive!