Preferred Realtor?

Our Board of Directors has selected a "Preferred Realtor" for owners to list their condos for resale. A Board member has obtained her realtor license and now is the exclusive agent for the "Preferred Realtor" at our building. She is the only person allowed to sit in the office to receive open house prospects. There is a huge sign at the corner of our gated high rise property with her phone number listed. The sign is generic but huge---"Condos for Sale or Lease Call for Info 812-555-5555" I have my condo listed with another, more experienced company and my agent must sit in her car to grab her "Open House" customers before they hit the office. I went to the office during Board member's open house time and asked for a copy of all the units for sale in the building. She told me she did not know how to use the computer but she had all the units and prices in her head. She proceeded to "tell" me what was for sale in the building. Bottom line is, my agent advertises and pays for open house ads, cannot sit in the office or lobby for customers, there are no flyers available in the office for all units for sale AND the only signage allowed on site has BOD phone number on it. Do we have a legitimate complaint? What can resale owners do to get some parity here?

Eliz - Most Condo Docs (that I've seen) usually have some serious restrictions on signage. Most of the Condo HOAs won't even let you put a little sign in the window of the unit. What do your docs say about signage?

In addition, I feel that (for the Board to endorse one of their own Board members) that there is a serious breach of ethics here and conflict of interest as well. I think that any professional PM or Attorney would tell you the same. They are treading on thin ice, here.

How to resolve this is another question. I will be interested to see how you all resolve the problem here. You could always vote out the current Board, I suppose. I'll be following this post for sure.

When the developer had units for sale, naturally we had to abide by his advantage of having the sales office and the signage. Well, there was a transition alright, he's gone, the sales office transferred to the "Preferred Realtor" and the Board member has exclusive access to the association front office. We are trapped into listing with the inexperienced new realtor (Board Member) or trying to crash the front door with our selected realtor. Tough luck if you don't go with them. It's a scam, no doubt about it. People are finally waking up to the fact that there are selective units being shown and sold. My realtor just kisses up to them hoping to get a referral, that hasn't happened yet. The Board voted on which Realtor would have "preferred status" claiming we can't have realtors crawling all over the place on Sundays. Well, I say if my realtor can't be in there then she shouldn't be there either. I will keep you posted, owners are organizing and seeking advice on where to go with this. Our Board meetings have never been open, we are just told what to do.

Our turnover of control happened in April, 2004. We have the annual meeting, that's it. BOD meetings are air tight and we are locked out. Can't even get answers or a meeting with our "Problems and Resolutions Committee". Everything complaint goes into the "Drop Box", it is screened by the Community Director and then the president declares each problem as "petty"--period!
The last annual meeting opened a lot of member's eyes and they are seeing our property values going down the tube with each new listing sitting idle with the selected "Preferred Realtor". It's starting to hurt more and more owners who need to sell. They are starting to look around and see that their neighbor's unit sold for less than what they paid and guess who bought them? The last three units were bought by- The President, The President, and the President and Community Director in a partnership. Ain't that just cozy and a little strange? The units just don't seem to sell with the inexperienced "Preferred Realtor" BOD who has exclusive rights to open house and signage. She doesn't even have a clue that she is being "used". They just languish on the market until the President comes to save the day and take it off your hands.
We are organizing to call a Special Meeting to oust the Board, bring in a management company and escort the Community Director out the door. I will keep you posted.

You are absolutely correct. The major problem is that people are not inclined to be confrontational in areas that they are not sure of. I always remind myself that people are taken in by pigeon drop schemes and pyramid investments-it happens every day, people give the opportunist the key to their bank account and it comes in many forms and shapes and they can be at your own front door. Associations with large budgets are being raided just like any other company more and more every day. Luckily, most of the time, there is slip up when they becomes so blantant and arrogant that even the quiet ones will finally speak up.
We are researching deeds and property exchanges, past listing agreements and treads in the market. The pattern of who, what and how it happened is slapping us in the face. Owners generally would like to think that their Board of Directors is taking care of their best interest but when there is a Board that will not become transparent with their actions and decisions, then it's time to take action. We'll see where this goes, we are stepping lightly until the facts and statistics are compiled.

We're working on it. Thanks for the input.