Some time ago a house came on the market not far from my own house.  I drove by it almost every day as it continued to sit on the market through numerous price decreases.  One day I looked the property up on the MLS and noted that it had fallen so far in price that it became a short sale.

The listing stayed active for months, but eventually sold for around $410,000.  The original price of the home before price reductions was around $490,000.  From my estimates, the home was probably worth somewhere in the middle.  This wasn’t overly shocking, but what did startle me was what occurred next.

The first peculiar thing was that the sign never went down.  The agent works for a small brokerage with flashy signs and has a habit of not removing his signs after the property sold.  I didn’t think much of it until I noticed that the “sold” sign was removed.  Huh?  Did the property go back on the market?  I thought I remembered looking up the property and seeing that it had closed?

It turns out that the new owners did some minor remodeling and the house is back on the market with the same listing agent as before – but at $495,000!

This strikes me as a bit odd and suspicious.  Wouldn’t the original sellers – who had their credit histories severely damaged by the short sale – be rather upset at this?  Isn’t it a conflict of interest for the listing agent to know that the buyers intend to relist the property with him?

What do you think?