Realtor® A was representing a buyer for the purchase of a property on 123 Main Street. The Buyer loved HGTV and millennial gray, so he wanted to flip the home as soon as possible after settlement and wanted Realtor® A to represent him for the flip. Realtor® A was excited about this opportunity and could not stop talking about it. When submitting her offer, Realtor® A told the listing agent, “My client wants this property to close quickly. He’s planning on flipping it over just in time for the spring market.” The listing agent took the offer to the seller, who accepted it right away. When delivering the ratified contract to Realtor® A, the listing agent said, “My Seller believes that investors make the world go round and wants to support the buyer’s business. We’re happy to cooperate to get this home to settlement ASAP so the Buyer can get started on his work.”  

True to their word, the property settled quickly. The property was in excellent condition and the buyer decided he didn’t want to make any major renovations, so he instructed Realtor® A to put it back on the market immediately as-is. Because the buyer did not make any changes to the home and the turnover happened so soon, Realtor® A thought it would be a waste of time and money to take new pictures of the property. Thus, she used the pictures from the listing for the flip.  

When perusing through the MLS later, the listing agent saw Realtor® A’s listing for 123 Main Street and filed an ethics complaint with NVAR for the unauthorized reuse of his photos.  

The Result: Realtor® A was found in violation of Article 12, Standard of Practice 12-10(4) of the Code of Ethics, which reads:  

REALTORS®’ obligation to present a true picture in their advertising and representations to the public includes Internet content, images, and the URLs and domain names they use, and prohibits REALTORS® from… 

4) presenting content developed by others without either attribution or without permission; or… 

Realtor® A argued that the listing agent implicitly authorized the reuse of the listing photos, relying on the listing agent’s statements at the time of ratification. However, this argument was insufficient as Realtor® A never expressly or specifically asked the listing agent for permission to reuse the photos, nor did she give credit to the listing agent in her new advertisement. The success and cooperation from the initial purchase did not extend to the new transaction, and thus, Realtor® A’s actions when creating the advertisement were not honest or truthful.