Mi casa no es su casa

I saw a Craigslist posting similar to the one below a couple of months ago. Names and property information have been changed to protect the brokers/agents involved.

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$447000 / 5br – (Anytown)

Motivated seller – Five bedroom, three bath colonial in Anytown.  New roof and siding.

Johnny Cash, ABC Realty
123-456-7890

Courtesy of Wilson Realty Professionals

• Location: Anytown
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 987654321

Give up?

This listing was posted by an agent affiliated with ABC Realty, but it isn’t their listing – the listing belongs to another broker. 

If you run an IDX site you have blanket permission from any broker that hasn’t opted out of IDX to advertise their listings on your own IDX Web site. But that permission doesn’t extend to putting information about these listings in other places…like Craigslist. Would you ever think that you have permission to run a newspaper ad that advertises another broker’s listing just because you put “courtesy of Listing Broker” in the corner?

Pennsylvania law and regs (see section 301 of the Regulations), as well as the Code of Ethics (see Standard of Practice 12-4) prohibit a broker/agent from advertising property listed by another broker without the permission of the seller or the other broker. In fact, you’re likely in violation of your local MLS Rules (probably section 13) if you’re using information from the MLS to advertise listed properties like this.

Now you might argue that “any agent would want his/her listing advertised in as many places as possible,” so your decision to post their listing on Craigslist is really helping the other agent. Nice try, but no dice. Rules are rules, so unless you have permission, you can’t put up that ad.

This is one of many recent examples of calls/e-mails from members who have said “I’ve always thought that XYZ was prohibited, but I guess it must be legal since the Broker down the street is doing it now.”  Maybe. But then again, maybe the broker down the street is wrong. After all, if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?