Inactive Agents seem to be in Full Bloom! Be careful who you give showing instruction

**realestatefla1** · 05-31-2007, 05:03 AM

Inactive Agents seem to be in Full Bloom! Be careful who you give showing instructions to!

It must be me! I have a real problem allowing another Realtor to show our listing is they`re "Inactive", i was taught that it was a FREC (Florida Real Estate Commission) violation when I went to Real Estate School! Yet,during the last week I`ve encountered three agents who have called our office seeking to show our listings! The first agent was in Orlando, the Broker for this person swore to me that they had NO idea that the agent was in fact "Inactive". The second Realtor, was in Ocala and she openly admitted to me that indeed she has been "Inactive" for two years, but her Broker doesn`t have a problem with it,finally the third agent who resides in Hollywood, Florida had the gall to start yelling at me for preventing her from showing our listing!
The following conversation transpired yesterday afternoon:
Me: My office informed me that you`re showing "Inactive" since Sept.2004, we can`t give you instructions, sorry about that!
Inactive Agent: WHAT?! I can show a home, my Broker has no problems with me taking clients out, what`s the problem?!
Me: Tell your Broker to call me and I`ll tell him the problem, I can`t take the responsibility for allowing this to happen! If you have other properties to view, than I suggest you show them!
Inactive Agent: Don`t you want to sell this home? I`ve been active for awhile with no hassle, i`ve written contracts and nobody has said "BOO". I work for a company that has alot of "Inactive" Realtors, we can`t afford the Board Dues! Why are you so strict!
The truth is i`m positive that this Agent gets away with this behavior all day long. I had an offer sent to us last year from an "Inactive" agent who somehow was able to view our listing with their client, faxed us an offer and I actually called this person, to find out what company they were with!
I figured they somehow omitted it by mistake! When I spoke to the agent they seemed nice enough made no qualms about the fact that they weren`t with a Broker, but insisted that the offer was valid! I explained that the offer was valid, but we couldn`t pay this person a commission without knowing who the Broker was, they became enraged at me and get this, told me that they`ll report me to "FREC" for not presenting their offer.
I gave them the telephone number to FREC and to our attorney and encouraged them to call. Several weeks later this person was arrested for fraud, seems that they were taking deposits on houses from unsuspecting buyers and failed to deposit the money into an escrow account, instead they had these people writing checks directly to them.
I don`t know about you, but in all sincerity, be very careful who you`re giving showing instructions too, you never know who`s on the other end of the phone!

**michael krotchie** · 05-31-2007, 12:51 PM

Yeah definitely something we should be careful of, thanks for the story.

**TheHiltonHeadSpecialist** · 06-21-2007, 06:07 AM

I would have takin the offer. No foul there but not paid a commission to the inactive agent if the deal actually worked.

**shade91** · 06-24-2007, 01:14 AM

If they're unable to pay the board dues then they obviously must not be much of a realtor. I would have just reported the broker to the RE commissioner.

**Rich_in_CT** · 06-25-2007, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by shade91

If they're unable to pay the board dues then they obviously must not be much of a realtor. I would have just reported the broker to the RE commissioner.

I was thinking the same. If they aren't selling enough to pay their dues they probably aren't going to make the sale happen anyway so chuck 'em to the commission and keep it moving.

**Patrick Mc** · 06-27-2007, 08:40 AM

Yes, be very careful. We've recently received warnings to confirm with the brokers office that the agent calling for a showing is actually an agent from that office. People have posed as agents in order to gain access to a property.