40-year listing agreements

Has anyone seen the news about MV Realty and the ‘liens’ or 'memos' they have filed in the real estate records against thousands of homeowners in Georgia??We have run across these filings on a couple closings in our office.?

MV Realty will contact a homeowner, usually elderly, and pay them $500 to $2,000 in exchange to agree to have MV Realty be the listing real estate agent on the house, if the owner ever sells it.??

What is not made clear to the homeowner is that they are signing a Memorandum of Homeowner Benefit Agreement, which is a document giving MV Realty a ‘covenant running with the land’ for the amount of any commission they may have earned for a term of 40 years.?

MV Realty will then only release their claim for $10,000 or $20,000, depending on what they think they may have earned in commission.??

Lien laws are not supposed to protect someone from getting what they think they may get in the future on a sale. So the Georgia legislature passed a law this year making the Memorandum of Homeowner Benefit Agreement not enforceable as a lien on the property.?The vote in the state senate was 52 to 1. These agreements were so bad, they cut across all political lines.??

Never agree to anything for 40 years. It’s better not to agree to anything unless you have talked to an attorney. If you know a real estate agent with questions about liens and agreements, Origin Title and Escrow can help.