Exaggeration in Advertising

In his efforts to sell a furnished apartment building, REALTOR® A, the listing broker, used newspaper advertising describing the property, including such phrases as “modern furnishings . . . most units newly equipped with ranges and refrigerators . . . excellent earnings record.” Buyer B saw the ad, called REALTOR® A, was shown the property, signed an offer to buy, and wrote a check for a deposit. A few days later, he made a more careful inspection of the property and its earnings statements, and filed a complaint against REALTOR® A with the Board of REALTORS® charging misleading and exaggerated advertising.

 

The complaint was referred to the Grievance Committee which, after its review and evaluation, referred it to the Secretary directing that a hearing be scheduled before a Hearing Panel of the Professional Standards Committee.

 

The Hearing 

At the hearing, Buyer B stated that because of certain pressures on him at the time, prudently or not, he had acted hurriedly in his business with REALTOR® A; that if the principle of caveat emptor governed the situation, he recognized the weakness of his position; that he also understood that his legal recourse was questionable; but that from the standpoint of ethical conduct he felt he had a grievous complaint against REALTOR® A that should be addressed.

 

He explained that he had been looking for just such an investment property in the general location; that the price appealed to him; that he had only a very limited time available on the day he was shown the property; that the three apartments which he was shown were attractively furnished and obviously had nearly new equipment in excellent condition; and that he had thought it advisable to make an offer, feeling that he could place full reliance on REALTOR® A’s representation of the property both in his oral statements and his newspaper advertising.

 

His second, and more thorough, inspection revealed that the three apartments shown to him were the only apartments in the building with modern furnishings; the other nine had unattractive, badly worn and outmoded furnishings, with kitchen ranges and refrigerators more than ten years old. Moreover, he said, the earnings record of the building, which by ordinary standards was satisfactory for the two years immediately preceding, had shown high vacancy and a loss in two of the ten years of the building’s life, had shown a definitely low return in three years, and had never shown an earnings record that could be described as “excellent”.

Upon questioning as to whether full records of income and expenses had been submitted to him before he signed the contract, Buyer B said he was shown only the statements for the two proceeding years by REALTOR® A, who said that the other statements could be obtained for him, as was later done.

 

Responding to Buyer B’s specifics, REALTOR® A pointed out that the complaint did not charge him with misrepresenting anything in his oral statements to Buyer B; that the complaint, therefore, was based solely on his advertisement which he felt did not depart from accepted standards in advertising; that since the building was about ten years old, he felt free to say that all of its features, including the furnishings, were “modern”; that when he stated “most units newly equipped with ranges and refrigerators” he based that, too, on the fact that the building was about ten years old; and that, in his opinion, the earnings record of the building for its entire operating life, since it had shown a loss in only two of its ten years, could reasonably be described as “excellent”.

Questioning of REALTOR® A revealed that the three apartments shown to Buyer B were, in fact, furnished with better and more modern furniture than the other nine apartments, and that these three were the only apartments in which the original ranges and refrigerators had been replaced. REALTOR® A’s comment on this was, “Naturally, in showing the building, I directed attention to the most attractive features. This is just ordinary competence in selling.”

 

The Conclusion

It was the conclusion of the Hearing Panel that REALTOR® A’s advertising used exaggeration and had not presented a true picture in his representations to the buyer. REALTOR® A was found in violation of Article 12.