problems with realtor

[catmom]

Help! We are in the process of looking at houses, though we don't plan to put our current house on the market until/unless we find something we like. Our realtor has become a real problem for us. She is a VERY successful agent, and is the mother of a friend of DH and me, and she helped us buy our current house. The problem is that it is much too hard (IMO) to reach her... I feel that returning phone calls the next day is not acceptable when you are trying to get someone to show you a house that may well be gone by then. The problem is that I am afraid to switch realtors, because I'm afraid that she (and her friends) may refuse to show my house. I desperately do not want to piss her off, but really, for the amount of money we'll be paying her when the house sells, we're not getting the kind of help I would expect. Plus, I have tried to talk to her 3 times about how to price our current house, and she always says that she needs to look up the comps but then never does it. How am I suppossed to know what we can afford if we don't have a clue what our house would sell for? I think part of the problem might be that most of her listings are much, much pricier than our house, so maybe she doesn't feel like we're worth her while. We even asked her if she really had time to take us on (since we had so much trouble reaching her), and she said that she did.

So what would you do? Switch agents and just hope that all the agents in her office don't refuse to show our house? Stay with her and hope for the best?

Oh, FWIW we haven't signed a contract with her (and she hasn't asked).

[Jenyfer9]

If I were you, I would switch realtors to someone that you feel more comfortable with. I wouldn't worry about a backlash against showing your house... you said yourself that she (your current realtor) deals with higher end properties, so perhaps she wouldn't be showing her clients your house anyways. I can't imagine other realtors in her office playing that kind of game if you did decide to go with someone else.

If she isn't doing the work that you need done, then you need to find someone else.

[~queen~]

I would definitely switch to another realtor who you feel more comfortable with for both buying and selling your house.

I also cannot imagine realtors playing games with houses, especially since almost every listing in the MLS is public information.

[littlelove8138]

i would switch as well. there is no reason to work with someone who won't call you back.

and i agree with queen everything becomes public information so there would be no reason to play games like that.

[laura]

If you switch to someone else, why couldn't that person sell your house for you?

[mindy75]

I'd tell her my concerns and then switch if she couldn't work it out. It's my experience that a realtor is supposed to make each client feel like they are the most important client he/she has. If she's overextended herself, then that's her problem. You are entitled to an agent that can take the time to make you feel like she truly is all about you. Our last real estate transaction was fabulous. We went with a real estate team. One agent held our listing and acted as our agent as sellers of our other house. The other agent in the team acted as our agent in the process of finding and buying our new house. They also had a really great office staff to handle minor questions and paperwork.

[catmom]

Thanks, ladies. I think the last straw was this morning... we told our realtor that we saw a place at an open house that we were very interested in, and instead of showing it to us herself, she had her assistant take us. She was an hour late and dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt and flip-flops, and her excuse for being so late was that she "had to drive a friend" home and didn't know that the morning rush hour was going to be so bad (um... we live in a city with some of the worst traffic in the country, and it was 20 miles out of the way). We were pretty pissed about that, since my DH took leave from work so we could go see the house. Plus the owners were there and I was pretty embarrased to be there with this person who looked like she just rolled out of her dorm room, plus the reason I wanted to see it with the realtor was that I wanted her advice about things concerning the house and about how much to offer. Anyway, now I just need to figure out a tactful way to tell her we won't be using her anymore. It's particularly bad because her daughter is a school friend of ours and we have known them for years. But I'm not about to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to be blown off over and over like this.

[jesvet]

It almost seems like she thinks she is doing YOU a favor. Yikes. Time to find a better professional.

[mamax2]

My first thought is that maybe the Realtor doesn't believe you're a serious buyer and therefore she's not bringing her A game, kwim? The fact that you don't currently have a home on the market and aren't planning to put it on the market unless you find something else kind of makes your interest level seem low. HOWEVER, you certainly deserve to be treated with respect and professionalism - even by her assistant. If you're not getting returned phone calls and she's not answering your questions in a timely manner, I think it's o.k. to move on.

As for what to tell your friend, I'd probably say something like "We're kind of all over the place right now and I know your Mom is super-busy. We didn't want to over-extend her so we're going to work with someone a little less busy." Even though that's not the whole truth, it lets your friend and her Mom save face by you taking the 'blame', which is worth it IMO to preserve a friendship.

[hisdaffodil]

May be a dead topic here...

But in the business myself, I would even advise you to switch. If I ever treated one of my clients that way, I'd expect them to dump me!!

And to be honest, most of the time, family and friends get the worst service. KWIM? People assume that because they are friends/family, they don't have to be as on top of it, or as professional, because you were a shoe-in to use them. Whereas a client they had to pamper and persuade gets their full attention.

Basically she thinks she's going to make money off of you just because you know her daughter, so she's not treating you as well as a client she "worked to get."

If you've signed anything like a listing agreement or a buyer's agency agreement, you simply have to write cancel on it, sign it, and turn it in to her, her office, or her broker.

As far as her daughter... I'm sure she's aware of her mother's activity level and business. Just let her know that you think she's too busy and would feel more comfortable with someone "more familar with our price range."

It's one of the biggest things you do in a lifetime - buy and sell a house! It's one of the most stressful and feared things for anyone. You need someone responsive that you can trust with this big move.

[hisdaffodil]

Oh!

Another option, depending on how nice this lady is...
You could always ask her to refer you to another Realtor. Just let her know that your styles aren't meshing and you'd like to use someone else and would appreciate it if she could refer you and still get a cut.

This way she doesn't lose all the business from you, so your friend might feel better.

Just depends how easy she is to approach about all that.

[ks_piper]

I think you need to find another realtor.

We're currently selling our house/buying another house. We're in a low price bracket for selling (under 100K) and went with the biggest name in our local real estate market. She's a friend of my parents and her husband is my dentist.

We have gotten her full attention and that of her assistant 100% of the time. It's not like their making a ton of money on our deal - our house it selling right around 80K and we're only buying a house worth 180K - they deal with much pricier properties most of the time - - but she's given us her all from day one.

You owe it to yourself to find a more dedicated agent.

[dizylizy]

Need advise-
DH wants to get a new realtor. Reasons-
1) kinda laughed at him when he said he wanted to low ball this house. I don't think she was comfortable offering 50K less than the asking price. I think 50K was a bit much off. She told him to rethink his numbers. (we did and are putting an offer in today)
2) we told her yesterday we were putting an offer in today and wanted it in my noon so the expiration time would be 8pm tonight. Well, DH didn't get the contract from her until noon and not back to her until almost 2pm (both of us in meetings and needing to fax around to get our signatures.) so expiration date is really tomorrow at noon.
3) He told her when we started working with her ther he wanted to low ball the asking prices.
4) she has been sending houses out of our price range. Which I am sure will not want to take a 50K less offer.
5) did not look in the area we asked her to look in. We have been looking ourselves. Not that DH likes the ones in those neightborhoods... so not a huge deal. (But I did remind him of where we wanted since HE started looking in an are too far for me to drive to work :) )

Not sure what to do. we did not sign any forms with her so I think we can go with someone else. I told DH we wouldn't go with someone else with out giving her the courtesy of reasons why.
What to do...

[lml41981]

Depending on the laws in Colorado, she'll still get the commission on the house you're putting an offer on if you end up buying it...and any house you'd end up buying within a certain time frame if she was your Realtor when you looked at it.

It sounds like she's not listening to your nees WRT the location and price range.

[villanelle75]

I know the laws vary, but I believe the most common rules say that any house you buy that she has showed you, she gets commission on. If you don't get this house, then you can probably ditch her and move on.

It would certainly be good of you to tell her why you are moving on, but I guess you don't' have to. OR you can call or email her and tell her you have issues with X, Y and Z and that if it continue,s you will be finding another realtor. That gives her a final chance to fix these issues.

[laura]

I would be more concerned about being up front with your new realtor that you have worked with someone else. Our friends got into a tight situation w/ this when the previous realtor (and he really wasn't their realtor at all - he took us all on a 1 day house hunting trip paid for and arranged completely as part of our relo pkg) came back on the scene and demanded partial commission. Their realtor ended up giving in to him basically just to keep her reputation up in the realtor community, but it was a PITA for them all around. There was nothing *legally* the guy could do, but he was just a jerk; and they did not end up buying anything remotely like what he showed us, nor did they look at any overlapping properties w/ their new realtor.

[mamax2]

3) He told her when we started working with her ther he wanted to low ball the asking prices.
4) she has been sending houses out of our price range. Which I am sure will not want to take a 50K less offer.

dizylizy ~ Maybe she's sending you stuff out of your range thinking that by the time you make an offer it will be in your range?? Honestly, as an agent, if a Buyer told me "Yeah, I plan to low-ball everything", basically you're telling me that you're 1) not that serious of a buyer and 2) going to put me through the ringer writing multiple offers just to see if one sticks.

Truth: It IS a buyer's market. But the reality is that sellers haven't totally caught up with that. There are soooo many buyers out there right now who think they can get the deal of the century and it's just not like that in most markets. So, coming in telling your Realtor you're planning to make multiple low-ball offers DOES make you seem like a somewhat less serious client. That's just my $.02.

Finally, the laws of agency vary widely by state. I would 1) check to see if you've signed a buyer's agency agreement. Then, if you haven't, I'd check to see if you've been presented with one and waived your right to sign (and thus a presumed buyer's agency may exist). Finally, if you decide not to work with this Realtor going forward, I think it pays to tell her why. Constructive feedback makes for better professionals.

[dizylizy]

Mamax-
Thanks. I talked with Dh this weekend about our parameters. I think he is wanting a "deal of the century" but where we are looking, may not happen, so HE needs to change his mind. I talked a bit with the realtor on Saturday about our wants and desires again. she is better about looking in our range.
I don't want to be putting in lots of offers only to be rejected. It is stressfull for me.
I am thinking she is doing a good job and listening so I don't feel the need to change. augh the stress of buying a house...