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[151949]

A realtor called and said since we had relisted our house for sale she had someone to look at it. Well, no we haven't relisted our house so she said you need to look at Realtor.com. We went there and sure enough, there was a house listed on our street - but not on the lake side - anyway they used the pictures of our house instead of taking new pictures of the actual house that is for sale.WTH? Showing this home with beautiful lake views out the back etc even thouh the actual house that's for sale looks out to woods , not a lake. My DH immediately called the realtor that had listed our house and he said he owns those pictures and can use them as he pleases.

[NicksmomESQ]

 The realtor may own the pictures because he took them but he doesn’t own your house.Just because he took some pictures doesn’t give him the legal right to post them !! 

  The realtor is misrepresenting those pictures as being those of a house he has for sale.I would have an attorney send him a letter.

[Tigriss]

WOW! Isn't there a law about misrepresentation? I would report him to whatever authority in Florida regulates real estate. That is false advertising. If the agent listing the property is your previous agent, then they may "own" the pictures but if it isn't then they are either with the same agency and the agency "owns" the pictures, if not, that too may be illegal. REPORT REPORT REPORT! I would see if there is also a place on the Realtor dot com site to file a complaint or write a review on that listing to make people seeking the property know what is going on. Also, if the listing price is like you previously listed and some one actually would like to buy it, then you may have a buyer for your home, just not when you were looking for it. God works in mysterious ways!

[novamc1]

I wouldn't pay one dime to have a lawyer deal with this crazy, lazy real estate agent who won't post photos of the ACTUAL property for sale.

As the owner of the home being used  in the photo, I'd tell him to stop using my home in a "bait and switch" marketing program and remind him that my house is  a private residence, and I have no desire to have it posted on the internet as an advertising gimmick, and that I believe his marketing program invades my sense of security and privacy, and FURTHERMORE.........

If he fails to wipe off of the internet all photos of this home which is not for sale, he will be reported to his broker and to the Board of Realtors as a Code of Ethics breach, if nothing else. 

 Bait-and-switch marketing is against  Realtor ethics as well as state AND federal law.

Unless I'm wrong, the Federal Trade Commission website should have some information about this, but you wouldn't need to take your complaint that far.  

After that type of lecture, he will get in line and do right, I'll bet, because he'll be afraid not to.  LOL!!

[Q4u]

We have been in our own "real estate h*ll" for the last 8 months and this doesn't surprise me at all!!  A quick letter from a lawyer should stop this nonsense.  He may own the photos but he's misrepresenting the listing by showing another property with your interor.... very unprofessional as well as unethical??  A lawyer can tell him you'll sue if he doesn't take the photos down. 

We have sold our house and we made a contractural bid on a brand new house, on an older property with an existing outbuilding.  Normally most people wouldn't get an Inspection on a new build.  We did and boy oh boy are we glad we did....  serious problems with the house and and the outbuilding should have been torn down, soft roof and soffets (dry rot), no king studs around windows, door wouldn't open or close and the main 40ft roof support was cracked (all the way through both sides) with a huge gouge in the wood....  the contractor said he would not repair any of it, it was "as is".  Well, that "as is" was inserted in the realtor's verbage (not in the listing for the public) the day the other agent got wind we were planning to make an offer.  A week later, we made the offer.  Contractor thought he could sell that dangerous building and then do nothing to make it safe. 

We cancelled the sale. BIG surprise because we've been watching this build for months and the Contractor knew it....  OH, did I mention that DH's brother is a Structional Engineer?

Never buy anything without having it inspected.

Good luck with the unethical agent... I hope you're able to back him off... 

[Q4u]

@novamc1j

Excellent suggestion re Bait and Switch and reporting this agent!  

[151949]

And another thing - he listed it as a condo  instead of as a house. We own the inside,the outside and the land our house sits on. It is not a condo. This makes a difference as to what you own , must insure and care & upkeep. Our HOA cuts the grass & trims the landscape, they paint the outside and they replace the roofs but not because they own them. We pay into a fund every month to cover the paint and the roof, and we pay for the landscape maintainence monthly as well. I have the deed to the property our house sits on. For instance if the stucco outside my house chips off I have to find someone to repair it and I have to pay for it. If this was a condo the HOA would have to do that. With a condo you only own the inside. Not that this matters to me but people should have correct info about what they are looking at.

[151949]

@Q4u You have all my sympathy. I completely understand how you feel. IMO - any and all dealings with this realtor from the beginning have been hell.Now it has been 2 months since we took our house off the market and we are still in their hell. Does this ever end.

I'm sorry you lost your new house - believe me - I know how that feels.

[jackthebear]

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@151949 wrote:

A realtor called and said since we had relisted our house for sale she had someone to look at it. Well, no we haven't relisted our house so she said you need to look at Realtor.com. We went there and sure enough, there was a house listed on our street - but not on the lake side - anyway they used the pictures of our house instead of taking new pictures of the actual house that is for sale.WTH? Showing this home with beautiful lake views out the back etc even thouh the actual house that's for sale looks out to woods , not a lake. My DH immediately called the realtor that had listed our house and he said he owns those pictures and can use them as he pleases.

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that is odd

[novamc1]

Not so odd.........it used to happen all the time on eBay with sellers using photos of the same product that  had been  sold by someone else.  Sometimes these photos show the original seller's home interior or something else that proved the photo was taken by a previous seller, and not merely a manufacturer's photo that was in the public domain.

eBay would immediately take down the photos, as I recall, if someone complained.

(I haven't been on that website for years, so I hope the policy against stealing photos taken by others is still in effect.)

I recognize this real estate situation is different, but just proves that lazy marketers exist in all types of businesses.