Ethics of "I have an interested buyer" form letter

This is a ridiculous concern. Are you even a New Yorker, with your low tolerance for easy to ignore things like this?

I received one of these the day before yesterday. In a handwritten envelope that looked like it was written by a 10 year-old. I thought about writing back and telling him to send me an offer.

M Meir?

Meier?

REBNY Code of Ethics and Professional Practices, II(B)2 [Standards of Conduct -- Members shall not}

"(2) willfully or knowingly make, circulate or transmit, or cause to be made, circulated or transmitted, either orally, in writing or by any electronic means, any statement or allegation which is untrue or which is intended or calculated to cause a false or misleading value to be placed on any property."

This sounds like a classic broker marketing tactic. This obviously makes zero sense, because if the broker has a real buyer then why doesn't he/she just present you with an offer? There's no requirement to get the 'exclusive' in order for them to send you an offer and request buyer agent compensation...

front_porch - to pick up a topic in another thread, do you know whether this has ever been applied regarding posted square footage? There are some pretty aggressive postings of square footage out there...

TeamM, when I started (I've been in the business about 10 years) brokers just kind of estimated square footage in a way that was sort of consistent -- a certain kind of 1-BR layout was a 750, a tiny 2-BR was a 900, etc. We all kind of made it up, but consistently so, if you can believe that (I used to compare it to Internet dating standards). Then there was a a lawsuit, and no one estimated square footage for co-ops for a while, and then the pendulum swung the other way, and now with computerization buyers can see square footage estimates on apartments that brokers prior to the listing brokers made. So it's just crazy, because if the point was to communicate relative size -- and I do think that was the point -- whatever SF estimates we have don't do that anymore. OTOH, you want to help your clients, so if everyone else is overestimating by a factor of X, does not playing really help them?

That having been said, I think it's fairly easy in some cases to say: this apartment fits in a box, and the dimensions of the box are roughly X and Y, so if the square footage of the apartment is vastly more than (X times Y, rounded up) then you're moving from the realm of puffery into the realm of misrepresentation.

Would love to hear from 30 yrs or oldbroker (if she's around) on this point.

ali r.

300_Mercer -- Yes, Meier

These are usually BS. I'd get one of these every month it seemed when I lived in a high rise condo in midtown. The one time I actually entertained the broker, I asked what was the offer. They danced around it a bit and then finally asked for the listing to which I replied, "no, thanks" as I had a broker I would be working with.

For a long time I have found quoting square footage to be a no win situation. Let's say you are representing a 750SF 1 BR unit. If you quote it as 750SF, everyone who is looking at other 750Sf units and being told they are 900SF won't want to see it because 750SF is "too small" even though it's the same size as everything else they are looking at. But if you quote 900SF, you are knowingly lying. So what do you do?

One time I had a listing for a 2BR on West End Avenue which I had listed at 1,000SF. Another broker had a smaller 2BR which they had listed at 1,200SF. I had multiple buyers tell me that mine was overpriced because the "larger" unit was asking less - while the other unit's Living Room, each bedroom and kitchen were all smaller than the one I had. Plus the maintenance was less and they were each on middle floors with not much difference in view). The only thing "larger" about it was the lie about the unit's square footage.

Whenever I have taken a broker to task about overstating the square footage I pretty much inevitably get back "but it FEELS like X SF".

But if we're on the subject the most commonly overstated aspect has always been ceiling height. I've almost never met a "soaring 14 FT ceiling" that was actually 14 feet tall. And it's obvious from the photos - look at the standard 6'8" doorway and see how tall the ceilings are relative to that.

300_mercer If you don't mind wasting your time, call them and ask which apartment they missed out on. Odds are that even if they can think fast enough to come up with a clever lie it won't even be the same size apartment.

I received the same kind of letter of interest, but with an interesting twist: it appeared to be written by a couple looking to buy for themselves, nothing that would make you think to a broker, but there was a phone number that turned out to belong to a real estate agent. Well I thought that maybe they were really looking to buy, but then I checked with other people in my building, living on different floors and apartments, and they all received the same letter so unless they were trying to buy the entire building..

nyork825 - I would think that such a technique would be ineffective. There should be some level of trust as between a broker and that broker's clients, and I can't imagine that a client would find it compelling to work with a broker who made an introduction through deception.

TeamM: I agree and it was very weird!

The broker will try to tell you that they have a client but you need to first sign a contract with them to sell. They may get a fake potential buyer or just say that in order to get you the best price, they need to list it. Reputable brokers do not do that. I have received mailings which say "I have successfully sold xyz. I know the area. If you would like a free estimate, they will be happy to provide". Much better and transparent way in my opinion.

"The broker will try to tell you that they have a client but you need to first sign a contract with them to sell.:
I'm sure you already know that is 100% bullshit. And if they wanted a contract it could easily be written so it only pertained to THIS ONE BUYER.