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Hello All,
I have a question about "firing" a realtor. I hired an unexperienced agent, who has made the buying process difficult. He has missed essential deadlines, does not have enough knowledge to recognize critical situations, and has no sense of urgency to react to such situations even when given “heads-up” to be proactive. Although there is a tiny chance that in the next 5 days things will turn around, I believe the sale (short sale) may be lost.
I still want the house. The question is, if the sale falls through, can I attempt to buy the same house and cut him out of the process? I mean, if I do not close, is the contract terminated and I am at that point free of him and can purchase any house, even the one previously contracted with another agent or alone? Or, if I'm set on that particular house, I'm obligated to deal with him or his agency to make a new offer?
He'd probably have a pretty strong case for procuring cause which would complicate payment to a new buyer agent...especially in a short sale. So what I suggest you do is call his managing/principal broker and ask them to step in or assign another agent to represent you within the company. Your representation is legally with the principal broker.
Thank you, I suspected that and unfortunately I am bitter to the point where I do not want to deal with the agency at all. I spent several months wanting to call the broker and feeling "bad" about reporting this agent and taking care of my own interest.
However, if that is the only way to pursue the purchase of this particular home I will do as you said and communicate directly with the broker. Thank you for your quick response!
Thank you, I suspected that and unfortunately I am bitter to the point where I do not want to deal with the agency at all. I spent several months wanting to call the broker and feeling "bad" about reporting this agent and taking care of my own interest.
However, if that is the only way to pursue the purchase of this particular home I will do as you said and communicate directly with the broker. Thank you for your quick response!
It isn't that it is the only way. You can fire your agent, but it would probably mean that you would have to pay another buyer agent out of your own pocket.
I disagree with what the others have said. Payment is contingent on procuring cause which has been explained on the forum a million times, but it essentially means "an unbroken chain of events". If your contract falls through, the chain to purchase is broken as you won't have a contract anymore.
I'm not giving legal advise and if I was that original agent, I would be upset for not getting paid, but I don't see a court awarding any payment to an agent who didn't do their job and helped cause a contract to fall through. That's not procuring cause.
Just curious.....what sort of essential deadlines and conditions do you perceive were missed?
Well, this was a short sale. I asked repeatedly, what do you need, do you have a checklist?
and I received the same response every time: relax, when I need something I will let you know.
1.So 2 months after the contract was signed and offer was accepted by seller's lender I received notification of approval and my agent excitedly told me we can close in a week.
I told him impossible, the bank will not be ready. he said why not and I told him the bank does not even know about the existence of this property. Turns out he was supposed to call the bank (I listed him as the authorized agent) as soon as we signed the contract and never did that so nothing was initiated.
went to the lender/seller bank for extension. got it.
2. realtor had no knowledge of the required inspections. again, scrambling to get a termite inspector on site within a day.
3. appraisal from VA came in low. the numbers were not releasable for 48 hours, however the agent was given a courtesy "heads up" so that he could run comparables and defend the price. He told the rep that was curteous and went out of way to give him this opportunity that he will wait for the official numbers!!
Okay... then it's too late to dispute them and the appraiser put in the Notice of Value that nothing was received from my agent so his appraisal stands.
Now we are trying to get the selling bank to sell shorter. If they disapprove our new offer, I still want to go for the house once back on the market. But I want that agent far away from me and the transaction.
I disagree with what the others have said. Payment is contingent on procuring cause which has been explained on the forum a million times, but it essentially means "an unbroken chain of events". If your contract falls through, the chain to purchase is broken as you won't have a contract anymore.
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I like the way you phrased it and that is exactly what I was trying to ask. IF the sale falls through, is the chain broken enough for me to ditch this agent?
Well, this was a short sale. I asked repeatedly, what do you need, do you have a checklist?
and I received the same response every time: relax, when I need something I will let you know.
There is no standard short sale buyer's checklist. However, your agent should have at least coached you on the issues involved with short sales such as their unpredictability and low odds of closing. The listing agent is actually the key player here, working with the seller and their lender.
1.So 2 months after the contract was signed and offer was accepted by seller's lender I received notification of approval and my agent excitedly told me we can close in a week.
I told him impossible, the bank will not be ready. he said why not and I told him the bank does not even know about the existence of this property. Turns out he was supposed to call the bank (I listed him as the authorized agent) as soon as we signed the contract and never did that so nothing was initiated.
went to the lender/seller bank for extension. got it.
I agree, your agent should have been in communication with your lender regarding your status, and that closing in a week for most lenders is difficult, if not impossible. However, it's unlikely your lender could have done much even if contacted when you signed the contract. The contract would not have been final until the seller's lender approved the short sale. You would have needed an extension anyway unless you were paying cash.
2. realtor had no knowledge of the required inspections. again, scrambling to get a termite inspector on site within a day.
Hard to understand why your agent would not be aware of required inspections.
3. appraisal from VA came in low. the numbers were not releasable for 48 hours, however the agent was given a courtesy "heads up" so that he could run comparables and defend the price. He told the rep that was curteous and went out of way to give him this opportunity that he will wait for the official numbers!!
Okay... then it's too late to dispute them and the appraiser put in the Notice of Value that nothing was received from my agent so his appraisal stands.
There are a couple of ways to play this. One, is to treat this as an opportunity to negotiate a lower price. You really don't want to pay more than market value, right? However, there is risk that the seller's bank may not agree. Perhaps your agent was hoping for a lower value to give you leverage to renegotiate.
However, if you really believe that the appraisal was not accurate and below actual value, it may have been better to supply your comps in hope of getting a more accurate result.
Now we are trying to get the selling bank to sell shorter. If they disapprove our new offer, I still want to go for the house once back on the market. But I want that agent far away from me and the transaction.
well, for the first item, the non-communication with my bank led to 2 weeks of delay between loan initiation, receipt of loan documents, return of loan documents to bank, input into system and assignment to processor. With FedEx and my immediate action, there was still quite a lag that could have been avoided.
I do agree that the lower appraisal would be to my benefit, but the price was very good and impressively lower than sale of the home 5 years ago when it was built. in comparing the appraiser's numbers to ones obtained eventually from the listing agent, he took all the lower values to incorporate into the report in addition to citing only costs of sale of distressed properties. the listing price was actually average in that area and reflected prices from other short sales as well as regular sales.
I'd like to add that whenever my agent did not know the answer to my questions he resisted asking the broker (because he did not want the broker to know that he is struggling) and instead encouraged me to keep calling the listing agent. ?? umm... i hired you, not her (athough she was quite knowledgeable) but I felt that my interested was never defended, in fact he sometimes argued against me. Based on that, I do not want any more relations with this agent.
Do you think if the renegotiations for the lower offer fail I am able to get out of this agency and go elsewhere to buy this same house?
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