Hello,

I am not a real estate agent, but I have a property on a market and just find out about a mistake that was done by my agent 3 months ago.
The MLS shows a wrong zip code, a zip that is about 100 miles away from my property's zip and/or town.
Nobody looking for a house in this area will ever find my house as one of the MLS listings.
I think, I wasted 3 months of trying to sell it.
I got no "traffic". I dropped the price already twice.... ( sad )
I would be very thankful, if anybody can answer me this : Does such mistake give me good enough reason of breaking the contract with the real estate company, or what else could I try to do in such situation.

Thank you for all suggestions,

Paziu

In Texas either party can terminate the listing agreement at any time if they feel that the other party is not performing the services agreed to. Each state has their own set of rules.

Thank you for the reply.

I live in Florida, and I do not know about the rules here unless I speak to an attorney, an agent, or post my problem as I did on this forum.
Please let me know.
And again, thank you for the reply.

Paziu

You should immediately call your agent and get it put into the correct zip code.

Both the seller and agent should review the MLS brief to make sure all the information is accurate.

If you're unhappy with your agent you should talk with him or her about the situation. If you want to get out of the listing contract I believe either your agent or his broker would have to agree to a cancellation.

How much longer until your listing expires?

Hello,

Thank you,

I was under impression I did review the MLS.
Looks like I did overlook the ZIP since it is not located along with the address and it is really difficult to find even if you know what to look for....
I will be talking to my agent tomorrow, I want to see how it is possible to not to review the MLS before and/or after putting it into database... not to review it for three months while serving only 3 - 4 zip codes in this area. ( mine came out to be 100+ miles away ). The contract etc. shows correct information, so I was under "impression" the MLS also. The contract expires in three months ( 6 total ). On the other hand, maybe I did not need to even drop the price once and the house would be sold 2 months ago for 20 grand more than it is now. On the other hand you are 100% right, ALL the information should be checked once the MLS printout is ready, but zip is really easier to miss than the city and street number.
I got still 2 options, either I stay with them or just drop the contract. Either way, time and money is that what I lost, because of simply trusting others and not noticing the wrong zip code...

Thank you for your reply,

Paziu

Also, the realty agent is responsible of creating the MLS, not me, They are getting paid quite good money for selling a property. They should check 10 times the data input before hitting the APPLY button to at least not to look like unprofessional and unresponsible butt-heads.

Paziu

In my area here ( Long Island), when buyers use an agent to find a home, the zip would have nothing to do with their search, here the wrong zip would do NOTHING to keep a house from selling IF it is priced right, Why? Because all the agents on LI ( thousands of them) do searches by town names. And for that matter so do the customers.
I our area we link to public record, and sometimes THEY have the wrong info also. Yes your agent should have double checked.Could it have affected the showings? Maybe, maybe not, but maybe there are other reasons also that no one is looking. The market is slower than it was this time last year, and if you listed it in November, many buyers are busy with holiday plans and not looking as hard.

Sellers are quick to blame the agents when homes have not sold, and in some cases this is true, but in many cases there are alot of other reasons homes do not sell. My Mom sold her home in Fla many years ago and it took almost a year... why? because it was a slow market there at the time.

I was going to say we always send a copy of the MLS and other websites to the client to review to make sure they are correct, but it looks as if you missed it, too. I don't know how your mls searches, but ours doesn't use zip. There are also about 6 other websites that people use to search for a house in my area and none use MLS, just town. Not knowing or having seen your house I don't know why no one has shown it, but I have had houses for 6 months with the correct town and zip in mls that got shown one or two times because of price. Local agents should know the house is for sale. I think you both overlooked the zip code error, I would put the mistake 60/40 on the broker . But maybe that's because I am a former newspaper proofreader and I know people make mistakes.

Tell us what you really think!

They only get paid if it sells. And there are times when they REALLY earn the money.

Hello

Thank you ALL for your replies.

BarbaraT, Well you might be right if we talk about a Town. The area I live at has the same name as the City 10 Miles away, where you will find 1000 listings when looking for a single family home even in a specific price range when looking by " Town name ". No agent will look by City name, since there is simply toooo many houses/properties for sale. You would spend few months to visit all of them - it is not Long Island - It is south Florida. The truth is, mistake was made first by the agent, and I, as a customer did not find the error that was made. It is happens non-stop that customers are being overcharged for services etc. - they simply do not notice it.

Thank you Barbara and all of you.

Paziu

When some computer systems/databases search by "Atlanta" - they search by a set of zip codes that are assigned to Atlanta and return just results within these zip codes.

I'm not sure that if I was looking for a house in FL I would have any idea what zip code to search. In fact I wouldn't even have any idea what most zip codes to search on Long Island, and I live here.

You say "it happens non-stop that customers are being overcharged for services etc. - they simply do not notice it." What happens non stop that customers are being overcharged for services and what does that have to do with real estate?

In our MLS system, the Zip code has no influence into which MLS Area the property is placed.
The Tax Schedule Number of the property determines the MLS Area.
People/agents make mistakes, it's always advisable to double check data for accuracy.

Agents who sell homes in the area do not even look at zips, and THEY are the ones who do the searches not their customers. Customers come into this town to search for homes if they want to live here, not one 100 miles away.


As for your negative feelings about RE agents, I think you are way off base, there are good and bad in all professions.

I would fire that butthead agent. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but an incorrect zip code is just sloppy.

Regardless of what the experts here think, zip codes are important.

Even if I was the list agent I would expect to be fired.

Zip codes mean very little when it comes to doing an MLS search. The majority of agents are more likely to search by Area or Schools. I have seen streets where one side of the street is in one zip code and across the street is a different zip code. This seems to be the professional consensus.

The agent made an error in proofing the entry. Perhaps you do not understand that it is often difficult to proof your own entry because your mind often reads what you thought you entered instead of what you accidentally entered. The client missed this as well so maybe you can call the client a butthead as well! Maybe it was not the agent that entered the data and whomever it is in the office that enters the data simply flipped a couple of digits! As simple data entry mistake is hardly reason to call the agent butthead nor is it reason to fire an agent. Any agent that feels this is a reason to be fired should pull their own head out of their butt!

While zip codes are a searchable field in our MLS (as well as yours) how many times to you do a search for a specific zip code.

I believe about 99% of searches are for 1. area, 2. price, 3. square feet, and 4. MLS areas.

You may want to fire your agent but that might not be an option.

If you'll read your association's listing agreement you may find the words: "sole, irrevocable, and exclusive right to sell"; that's how most exclusive right to sell listing contracts read.

An incorrect zip code is sloppy and a mistake but not a fatal one for a sale in my hardly ever humble opinion. :rolleyes:

I belong to two Multiple Listing Services both of which have their own numbering system to designate geographical areas. While I can set search parameters for any data entry field in either MLS, I know of no one that uses zip code. A school district, town (as in a political area with in a county, not a postal city), price range, characteristics of the house (GLA, bedrooms, baths, etc.) and lot size are popular search parameters.

Before you fire the agent I would suggest you ask for a Comparative Market Analysis to see if your price is positioned competitively. If you started too high (a common mistake: usually accompanied by the reasoning "I can always come down but never go up"). Even as an agent with a few years experience I made that mistake in selling my own personal residence about 7 years ago.

I'm amazed and disappointed so many agents here have no problem with a careless mistake like this.

Perhaps if it was their own residence for sale their view would be different. Regardless, I'm done here.

It's already been explained to you that practically no one does searches by zip code. What do you want? For the agent to be fined? Hung? Drawn and quartered? My Dad was a proofreader back in the 1940s. He proofread an ad for Buick. It was supposed to say "when better cars are built, Buick will build them." What it SAID was "when better cars are built, WILL Buick build them". Big difference, huh? He didn't catch it. Did YOU? We're trying to point out to you that the mistake the agent made, while a mistake, probably has NO EFFECT on any search done for a house in your town.

homeaide,

Wow! So how does it feel to be perfect and without errors!

This was a simple error that had no effect on the listing as nobody with you as the exception uses zip code for a primary search in MLS. It is time for you to come down and join the rest of use in the real world where mistakes sometimes happen.