Crying Wolf

Once upon a time there was a listing. Price for this 3 bdr /3 bath oceanview condo in Daytona Beach Shores was very good, and I rushed to call the listing office for the showing instructions.

There was a slight hesitation, and then I got the listing agent on the other line. And we know each other.

- Jon, it is actually not for sale at this particular moment…

I was puzzled. It is on MLS as active, so what is the deal? Well, the seller has a much more expensive piece of property in South Florida, and he is trying to short sell this way over a million-dollar beauty, and until he sells it, this one is not going to go anywhere.

- Then why have it active on MLS?

- The Seller wants it this way…

I did not want to argue that it does not matter what the Seller wants, and that we have our rules on MLS and this was, obviously, wrong.

I figured that they wanted to show to the bank that they had it at a very low price, but still cold not sell it.

I now treated the condo building as if this unit was not even there. And I was not the only one. Every agent, who tried to show, learned that it was there…but it wasn’t.

And then we saw it on the list of foreclosure going on the chopping block. Ouch, how come? Why not to do a short sale?

Too late. It was sold at the auction.

How coud it happen? I think, when the time came to realluy sell this unit, we all “knew” that it was not for sale, so nobody was calling the agent, there were no requests for showings… and a beautiful unit priced well was left unnoticed. And ended in foreclosure.

Crying wolf...