DECEPTION

By Robin Shapiro

BE AWARE: There are a few local brokers who advertise deceptively and/or use deceptive sales techniques. Specifically:

• When an advertisement emphasizes WATER VIEWS, there’s an excellent chance that these views are BAY VIEWS – not ocean views.

• When an advertisement doesn’t specify “private driveway,” then there’s a good chance that it’s a SHARED DRIVEWAY.

• When a broker pushes “MLS” as a means of selling your house – they can be just trying to get you to give them the exclusive listing without your knowledge/ permission. Why? Some people are not informed that in signing up for “MLS,” they are ALSO signing an exclusive listing agreement. 

• Some Rockaway brokers have a habit of describing listings as “EXCLUSIVE.”  However, the listings are open listings (other brokers have them too) and are exclusive only in the sense that they are nice properties (which may not even be the case!).

Unfortunately, once a prospective buyer visits the property with this broker, then he’s locked into dealing with him/her on this listing. The aforementioned deceptions are a form of bait-and-switch.  Who would want to deal with proponents of these techniques?  Call me.  Love,  Robin.