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Annoying Realtor Behavior


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I'm not sure where else to post this so posting it in this topic.

 

I am in the process of buying a home and have a place under contract. It is an older condo that was owned by an older couple who passed away and needs a little remodeling work. Regardless of the aging, the home was well maintained and is a good deal.

 

A friend of mine from out of town wanted to see the house simply because he is my friend and curious about it. Plus we wanted to discuss remodel ideas. I asked the realtor if we could meet yesterday so he could see it.

 

Her behavior was annoying and has me wondering. When she let us in, she immediately started talking to me about things that she easily could have emailed the day before or during another time. She kept me engaged and subtley would not allow me to be in the same room as him. The entire time were were there which was only 15 min or so, I never got to be in a room alone with him. When I walked away from her to other rooms, she followed me and kept me engaged and away from him. I know one of us should have put our hand up and said, "Excuse me but we need some time to ourselves...thank you." It was all happening so fast and I was getting irritated, I didn't know what to do and she just kept talking and talking.

 

The whole point of the visit for me was to talk to him about the things I wanted to change and point out ideas. Never got to discuss one thing. Basically he was by himself in every room, took some pictures and we had to talk about it later on our own, drawing pictures and trying to explain ideas to each other.

 

Was she doing this on purpose? Was she afraid he was going to point something out and ruin her sale? Or was she just obtuse. I'm really annoyed right now.

 

Something else she did, she left her car running and parked in front of the house on the sidestreet. Made me wonder if she was trying to send us a message that she didn't want to spend a bunch of time there and wanted in and out. I thought that was a little rude being that she is making money off of me and I didn't spend a ton of time looking at houses forever with her to begin with. This is a pretty easy sale for her.

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I do think most realtors would NOT have a problem doing this for you but would make the time one that wasn't interfering in their schedule, this one did.. so she isn't as nice as you would have hoped.

 

To me this is one of those 'oh well' deals.

 

If this was after you put the house under contract then to she is feeling you put her out, you asked her to open the house and take time from other houses in order for you to do some decorating ideas.

 

If you had asked her to see the house one more time before you put it under contract to take pictures I'd bet she wouldn't have had an issue but now the house sale is almost complete.

 

To me she is lazy but didn't do anything wrong.. I guess in the end it will hurt her since much of real estate business comes in the form of referrals.

 

Congrats on the new home.

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Have you had a home inspection specialist look at the house to call to your attention any potential problems?

 

Yes.

 

Already did all of that.

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Welcome to high level sales. :) It hasn't been my turn yet, so here's my uninformed opinion:

It's not disrespectful to say to the salesperson, "Thank you, me and my friend need to discuss something private. We'll be right with you." and go into another room for two minutes. Doing something like leaving her car running outside is just stupid. Finishing the job and leaving the customer satisfied is what the job is all about. Or I'm sure she had about five closings that day to look after :laugh: or not.

Well done buying the condo.

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Thanks all. Dealing with her and the mortgage broker has gotten on my last nerve lately. I'm trying to play nice....can't wait for the whole thing to be over! Lol

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I had a problem like that once a long time ago. I was looking for property to build a house and found 5 acres and the real estate sign with a phone number on it. I called and got to return call. Called again and the same thing. Did it two more times and said to the lady on the other end of the phone that if she wanted to make a sale, I better have a phone call back with in an hour. Nothing.

 

So I went to another realtor and asked them if they could handle it and found out they could. The got all the information I needed and asked them to handle it. When I got home the original real estate agent called me and I told them "sorry, I got another agent to handle it".

 

Got my land and built a house on it. If this agent is not giving you the service then find another one who can.

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OP, pretty common whenever I use agents, mainly to gain access (lockbox) when I've bought rehabs. I let them know up front that I'll be scheduling in members of my team for their various functions and all the realtor needs to do is let us in and then they can make and take phone calls, catch up on e-mails or whatever and we'll let them know when we're done. This 'deal' usually happens during the pre-contract investigation process so they're up to speed on my style once the contract is let. If they aren't compatible, there's thousands of other realtors who desire a commission out there and I'm an easy commission and a quick sale.

 

Now, if a realtor went sideways on me after the contract was let, I'd give them one chance to redeem themselves by simply saying 'we're working here; please excuse us' and, if that didn't work, I'd call their broker and have them replaced. They make good money on my deals and they work for me, like any other contractor, and I do fire people who don't work with me. Been doing it for decades.

 

Good luck.

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I've sold a few of my homes and each time there were only 2 visits allowed - one for the initial look and one for the home inspection. perhaps she was actually allowing you in when she shouldn't have? and leaving her car running, and being with you was a 'hurry up' mechanism because she was doing something she shouldn't be? I had an agent take someone onto my house property once (without permission) and I was mad when a neighbor told me because you're not allowed to keep going back through the home that way with the buyer - normally.

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There is no "two visit" rule anywhere in the realtors regulations of conducting business.

 

If the buyer wants to visit it 5 times , they can without the realtor playing "you are an inconvenience to me". The key is to answer all questions honestly, help with any structural inquiries and to allow the buyer to be at ease on "THEIR" investment.

 

This Realtor was out of line. As the buyer, you are the boss.

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There is no "two visit" rule anywhere in the realtors regulations of conducting business.

 

If the buyer wants to visit it 5 times , they can without the realtor playing "you are an inconvenience to me". The key is to answer all questions honestly, help with any structural inquiries and to allow the buyer to be at ease on "THEIR" investment.

 

This Realtor was out of line. As the buyer, you are the boss.

 

 

 

no, there is no rule, lol. but the home is still owned and as an owner I have never allowed buyers to keep coming through. why do they need to? if they have done the home inspection they had hours to be there and could have set up family visits for that time. the agent has to keep asking if they buyer wants visits and it's an inconvenience to the seller. besides, if you're under contract why would uncle harry for Indiana need to come through?

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Owner-occupieds get 24 hours notice, just like my tenants do, and that's in the contract. An example would be if I need a HVAC guy on site to estimate upgrades/repairs or a kitchen contractor to estimate replacement costs. Invariably, most professionals are fast and are in and out in less than 30 minutes. The OP was buying a dead person's house. Unless there were ghosts in residence, the place was empty.

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You were definitely being rudely rushed through that house visit. Motivation? Either...

 

1) the agent was incredibly obtuse and socially inept, OR

 

2) the agent wanted to quash any anti-sale input she feared might be coming from the friend or the visit generally, OR

 

3) the agent sees no need to be polite and helpful to you, the buyer.

 

Actually, it could be all 3. Next time, I am sure you'll break in so you don't get rushed like this again.

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If the home doesn't sell within her contract period, definitely do not relist with her. They don't want the person's things in the house or their pets or themselves, but this was your friend and unless your friend might buy the place, why was the agent even invited? She may have thought he was really a potential buyer and didn't want you to blow it by saying too much -- as if you want to stick it to a friend.

 

When I bought my house, my agent was very annoying, telling me I would never find the house I wanted in my price range, that it didn't exist. The day after our contract expired I found it on my own, a For Sale By Owner. Sometimes real estate agents only impede you and cost you money.

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no, there is no rule, lol. but the home is still owned and as an owner I have never allowed buyers to keep coming through. why do they need to? if they have done the home inspection they had hours to be there and could have set up family visits for that time. the agent has to keep asking if they buyer wants visits and it's an inconvenience to the seller. besides, if you're under contract why would uncle harry for Indiana need to come through?

 

Appreciate your personal expereince in being the "seller/owner",.This is about the REALTORS role and ability to be accomodating to the BUYER.

 

Bottom Line: The ONLY inconvience to a SELLER is to not have the house sold in a timely manner. Time is money.

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There is no one living in the house. The old lady died.

 

My realtor didn't make it to the inspection. She couldn't make it the day I wanted and wanted it later...i said i was doing it sooner and wothout her. So she was not even "inconvenienced" to come to my inspection.

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Was she doing this on purpose? Was she afraid he was going to point something out and ruin her sale? Or was she just obtuse. I'm really annoyed right now.

Those were the only two possibilities I could imagine, too.

 

They make good money on my deals and they work for me, like any other contractor, and I do fire people who don't work with me. Been doing it for decades.

I agree with your businesslike approach. The one slight modification: I am very clear that when I'm using a realtor as "buyer", that realtor is technically working for the seller, since it's the seller's proceeds that pay the commission. This comes into play in a minute...

 

There is no "two visit" rule anywhere in the realtors regulations of conducting business.

Totally agree. In my deals, it was quite common to request to go back a few times to take measurements, check on appliance model numbers or whatever. I was usually buying an empty place (and would have been greatly respectful to an owner/occupant if there had been one) but my realtors never batted an eyelash in allowing me access, and made it their business to make it easy for me to get my planning done.

 

My realtor didn't make it to the inspection. She couldn't make it the day I wanted and wanted it later...i said i was doing it sooner and without her. So she was not even "inconvenienced" to come to my inspection.

Back to the idea (in my area, anyway) that the realtor's commission comes out of the seller's proceeds, so they technically work for the seller - even the realtor who represents the buyer. (We have to sign a legal disclosure form acknowledging that we understand that even the buyer's realtor is acting as a legal "agent" of the seller.) When we were having our most recent inspection done, our realtor actually recused herself from being present. She basically said: since I get paid only if the sale goes through, I want to get out of your way when you're going through the place and talking with the inspector, so there's not even a hint of conflict of interest, as if I would try to talk you into something that you might decide against at the advice of the inspector.

 

Just a twist on the "realtor not being there for the inspection" issue.

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This realtor is not the realtor for the seller. This is not her listing. She is representing me...the buyer. The one with the money. If there is no buyer, there is no sale. :) so she does work for me.

 

Her not being at inspection was my choice. I could have put it off to a day convenient for her but chose not to.

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Unless she's a broker (varies by jurisdiction) and/or you have a buyer-broker/agent agreement, I'm chagrined to report that in fact a 'buyer's agent' is a sub-agent of the seller, as covered by another poster. That's not really germane to the issues here, but could be, if indeed you have a contract. If so, and her actions have damaged you, you could seek recovery under the contract terms directly from the agent, as opposed to going after the selling firm in a traditional sale. As an example, the last broker I used I paid ~2K on close, in addition to monies paid to complete the sale (sales price and closing costs), essentially for bird-dogging the MLS, letting me into properties to survey, and smoothing over a few rough edges. In a 'traditional' sale, the 'buyer's agent' is paid out of the sales commission from the sale; that's the sales commission charged to the seller. Follow the money. It never lies. Most of the time what's happened is I deal with the listing broker or agent and they assign a 'ghost' in-house agent to me for paperwork purposes and I never see or interact with that person. I prefer to work with a broker under contract. Less ambiguity and usually things get done faster, which is what I'm primarily interested in.

 

Yeah, no real need to have the agent there for a walk-through IMO but some firms require their agents to do an inspection report, essentially mirroring the walk-through. Some will just phone it in. Others go by the book. Depends.

 

Fastest close? Did the inspection at 11:30am, wired the money to the escrow company at 1pm, had clearance and keys by 2:30pm and was in taking down walls and tearing up floors the next morning.

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This realtor is not the realtor for the seller. This is not her listing. She is representing me...the buyer. The one with the money. If there is no buyer, there is no sale. :) so she does work for me.

 

Her not being at inspection was my choice. I could have put it off to a day convenient for her but chose not to.

I'm very clear that's who you were talking about. I was just pointing out the legal relationships involved. It twisted my head the first time, and I had absolutely ethical realtors on my side of the deal, but the fact is, I still had to sign that document saying "I understand that my realtor is acting as an agent of the seller..." or something to that effect. As carhill puts it, it's not really germane to your fundamental issue, so I'm not trying to do anything other than contribute an interesting perspective.

 

If there is no buyer, there is no sale. :) so she does work for me.

...except she keeps her car running while you are visiting the property, and completely interferes with your ability to discuss your use of the property with your friend. It sounds like she is motivated to push you through the sale as quickly as possible, and to minimize your ability to spend some time thinking about it, and to get outside advice. Effectively who does that benefit then?

 

If you truly were having second thoughts, and you called her up and said "What do you think?" - what do you think her motivations would be in giving you advice? Who would she be working for then?

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...except she keeps her car running while you are visiting the property, and completely interferes with your ability to discuss your use of the property with your friend. It sounds like she is motivated to push you through the sale as quickly as possible, and to minimize your ability to spend some time thinking about it, and to get outside advice. Effectively who does that benefit then?

 

 

I agree with this ^

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