Some month's back, I was a buyer's agent for a property listed by another agency. It was an REO.
(I'm going to use made-up names in this story.)
I'd never heard of the Mary Jones & Associates, Realtors agency before. When I called to tell her I would be submitting a contract...were there any bank requirements? Mary said, "Great!" And then she told me there was an addendum that the bank was insisting on. She'd fax it to me.
Well, after a day or so, I found that Mary had no earthly clue what she was doing. She was very nice to speak with, and was trying hard, but she really didn't know so much as the rudiments of real estate.
I submitted the contract a few days later, and when it was countered by her client, I noticed that the name of the listing broker had been changed from Mary Jones & Associates, Realtors, to Haberdashery Real Estate Associates, Inc. Mary had signed on their behalf.
I went to the web site of the Texas Real Estate Commission and found that Mary was not a broker, but an agent. By her license number it was easy to determine that she had not been an agent for very long.
I then searched for Mary Jones & Associates and found that it was a DBA of the same broker who was doing business as Haberdashery Real Estate Associates, Inc. That broker's main office -- where he officed -- was a four hour drive from Mary Jones & Associates' office.
So what we have is a ruse. Mary is "pretending" to be a broker. She's an agent. And while Mary Jones & Associates has its own phone number, office, signs and agents, it's not a real deal. The public is being misled. Apparently the Texas Real Estate laws permits this; the Texas Association of Realtors must not care.
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS - PARK CITIES
Our 45th Year
214 503-8563
