Just received a post card in the mail from a broker who has the house listed accross the street saying it was SOLD.

Problem is it doesn't close until the end of the month (3 weeks away).. so says the owner.

Does this kind of stuff frustrate you as it does me? It's not over til it's over and my take is that this is false and misleading advertising... or am I being too critical.

I will never say a property is SOLD until it is. It is "under contract".... BIG difference.

You are correct. There are some associations that ban the use of the SOLD sign until it closes escrow. I heard of a lawsuit by an owner, can't remember what state, where the owner won a case in which an agent put SOLD up, then it didnt close escrow....

Is it the owner that has the issue or is it you?

If all the contingencies are gone..all inspection, funding etc...and the only thing they are waiting for is the closing date then it could indeed be considered SOLD.

With many investor clients as soon as the seller accepts the offer it is a done deal.

It's me who has the issue. And I'd disagree with the fact that it's SOLD when all those items are cleared.

Is it about ready to close? yes.
Is it sold? no
Can it fall through? yes
Have I seen it happen the day of closing? yes
Do unsuspecting consumers think the home is sold if they get a postcard in the mail saying it is sold? yes

If these "unsuspecting" consumers had no intention of making an offer on the home how are they damaged?
Do most deals fall through on closing day? NO! Could it happen? Sure!
What if the buyer has his loan commitment, all inspections are done and good, title is clear and they are just now counting down till closing day. As this is not your deal you have no clue about the motivations of the buyer and seller.

Did the agent jump the gun a bit? Sure! Is it such a terrible thing? No!

These unsuspecting consumers may choose this broker based on the fact that they said they already sold that house, when they didn't.

There's no damage... but does there have to be to make it wrong?

I guess we'll have to disagree on our opinion on this... you can say its sold and I'll say it's under contract.

One of my current listings the seller wanted me to put the 'SOLD' sign on the sign...

Lemrut

It is COMPLETELY WRONG to put a sold sign on a house even if the contingencies are waived!!

The homeowner WON the case against the real estate companies for putting the sold sign up when in fact it failed to close.

In my opinion the court ruled in favor of the homeowner because the public viewed the home as SOLD and were discouraged from making a back up offer. In addition, the home lost valuable market time.

I'll try to find the case file....

In our state you may send out cards saying a property is "sold" immediately after all parties sign a purchase contract, if you participated in the sale. Sounds a little crazy doesn't it? But it is fresh in my mind, because it was told to us in a CE class today by a RE attorney. It is legal here. I don't agree with it and wouldn't do it myself, but it is legal.

I never, yes never, put any sign like sold, under contract, contract pending, etc. on any sign of mine.

First of all, I educate my sellers that WE both want potential buyers to continue to call on his house so that we can either entertain backups or at least assemble a list of buyers in case the current contract crashes.

Secondly, I do not want do deter any buyer from calling on the house as after telling them that there is a contract on the house and they don't want to write a back up, I then sell them something else. I probably sell half my transactions a year off sign calls, selling them a home other than the one they called about.

If there is a lender involved, all contingencies are never necessarily removed. Last year I had a transaction crash after "closing" but before "funding" after the lender checked and found out the buyers went out and bought more than $15,000 worth of furniture for the new house they were buying later in the week.

I've had clients ask why I didn't put a "sold" rider on their sign. Because when it's sold, the sign comes down and you've moved out!! But I may start putting a "sale pending" rider up.

I tried to show a house today, but the owner said it was already sold. It isn't even updated in the computer. No harm no foul, I was going to show it as a comp to my clients who will be sellers. I had said that one will be in escrow before ours hits the market, and looks like I was right!
--A

this holds true in Arizona as well...

We do things a little differently. In Western Washington, per our MLS rules, the buyers agent get's to put his/her sold sign rider within 3 days after going pending. After 3 days, the listing can can put their sold rider up. If the buyers agent puts there's up, the listing agent can't do anything about it. I'm not sure about postcards though, but I think can go out once it's pending.

I believe here in Nevada, it is totally illegal to interpret the home to be sold if it is only pending! We cannot send out anything that states it is sold until the deal is fully closed.

I don't know the law in your state, but to me it's certianly not sold yet and it's unethical to represent it as being sold.