Listing Pictures & Change to Listing Agreement

Two recent issues have been discussed by the Broker Management team regarding listing pictures and a change required to the Exclusive Seller Listing Agreement.  The issues involve agents inadvertently violating copyright law when using listing pictures from a previous listing and a paragraph in the Exclusive Seller Listing Agreement that affords protection to the wrong party.  Although these issues are separate and unique we thought them to be prudent subjects for this broker update. 

With the number of homes listed for sale today and the extended days on the market numbers for existing and new home sales, the expired home listing market place has become even more active than at other times in our industry.  Sellers become frustrated when their home sits on the market and often times it is the Listing Agent that takes the brunt of the Seller's angst due to the non activity on the home.  When Sellers discard their previous Real Estate Professional for a new real estate practitioner it is quite tempting to use some of the old listing pictures, especially in the case of seasonal pictures that show prettier landscapes or different angles of the home which are not currently possible.  Using pictures of common areas in subdivisions such as the sign or clubhouse may put the real estate agent at risk for being sued as violating copyrights or trademark rights of the owner.

Although this practice has been rather common, it is certainly one of danger to the standard business practice of today due to pending litigation against real estate practitioners and their respective brokerages for re-using listing pictures taken by a previous agent or using otherwise copyrighted photographs in their advertisements including online listings placed with the MLS.  Based on this information the Broker Management team recommends you as the agent take your own photographs and obtain written permission from the owner if using any pictures taken previously by anyone other than yourself. 

With regard to the Exclusive Seller Listing agreement, we have identified a misprint in paragraph 10 that references "Buyer" in place of the "Seller" which should be the referenced party.  The recommendation from the Broker Management team to remedy this error, until resolved permanently by the contract committee, is to add a stipulation to the agreement which reads:

All parties agree that all instances of "Buyer" in section 10, with the exception of 10A, shall be replaced with "Seller".