Realtor Pokes Fun at Agent "Overselling"

Real estate agent Jake Palmer of New Brunswick, Canada recently opened a can of worms by whimsically posting a video of a fishing shack he is trying to sell for a client.  Not all real estate agents who watched it thought it was funny.

First of all, the fishing shack is not a residence, it is a shed such as we see in the back yards of many Cape Cod homes.  And it is illegal to sell what is actually personal property (stuff) as real property (real estate).  Palmer eventually removed it from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) after other agents complained about it.  

Palmer's video exposes a deeper truth however, and that is the long established practice of some agents overselling a property.  It's one thing to play up a home's strengths, but to completely ignore major pitfalls gives the industry a bad name.  

Surveys show Realtors are hardly the most trusted profession in America, and consumer sites like zillow and trulia capitalize on that by giving MLS information straight to consumers.  

The buying public increasingly considers realtors to be an obstacle and not a conduit to a sale, which prompts agents to think of new ways to get business, thus the fishing shack listing and video.

Personally, I find the video to be clever and humorous.  As long as agents don't blur the line between what is legal and illegal, it's clever when an agent takes their career seriously, but not themselves.   What do you think?