Avoiding a realitor?
 

I am considering putting my house on the market and moving. Part of a much longer story is a long standing disagreement I have with a neighbor who is a big realitor in the area. The disagreement is serious enough that I want to make sure that this guy is not able to benefit at all from the sale of my house.

Obviously, I won't list the house with his company. I don't want this guy in my house (nor any of his employees) and I don't want him getting any part of a commission that comes out of my pocket.

Has anyone had this experience or any thoughts on what I can do?

If he is a big "realtor" with local presence, it may not be a wise decision to eliminate him from the pool. Personal feelings aside, money heals all wounds.

This one is really pretty bad. It involves them messing with my kid. I am very serious about avoiding him.

Your realtor is your agent. In most states, you even sign an agency agreement with that person. You have a right to direct and/or limit the actions of your agent. That being said, you can instruct your agent with exactly what you have said here. And you can go one step further and instruct that all showings must be approved by you. Finally, you as the seller have the ultimate authority for approval or disapproval of all offers brought to the table. You can refuse all offers made by your adversary and his associates.

However, your agent may not want to dick around with these restrictions. It is within their right to resign and tell you to find another agent.

Not really sure there is anything you can do short of a restraining order. I imagine you can include verbage in the listing agreement indicating commissions to "XYZ Realty" will not be honored, but that is going to send up a huge red flag to other realtors (read: difficult seller). Your only other option as I see it = FSBO. I'd find a more creative way to screw the neighbor over, i.e. - sell the home to a family with 12 kids who are into loud cars and motocross bikes.

I'm curious who this realtor is. If he's really a big fish, he could hurt your sale worse than realtors do to FSBO's.

I like the restraining order idea.
FSBO is something I have thought about, but its not a great option for us. I really really don't want this guy in my house. There is a point where you simply have to be a difficult seller. I suppose that I could just quietly refuse any offer from this guy or his associates.

Rick, I would prefer not to name names. He has a C21 franchise here. He is far from the only game in town. There are easily 10 or more other (larger) firms so I may have overstated my case. I am guessing that he plus his partners + associates are about 10-15 folks.

Living well is the best revenge. Do what it takes to get out and get on with life.

What's that old saying? "Cutting off your nose to spite your face"...?

In these times, ANY offer is a good offer.

Take the $$$ and sell the home to a large family of recent Somalian refugees.

Good luck to you. SmileWavy

Just for my education, how can realtor hurt an FSBO?

Not sure, other than refusing to show them.

Realtors hate nothing in the world more than FSBO's. Some FSBO's say in their listing that they'll pay 3% to a buyer's agent, so then some realtors will show the property. But a real FSBO, one that refuses to pay any commission, will be avoided like the plague by all realtors. Why would they show a house they make nothing on? In those cases, technically, the buyer is supposed to pay the realtor's commission. But how many buyers have ever done that? Realtors also hate FSBO's because they mooch off the realtor's advertising in the same neighborhood. When the market was really hot here and a realtor held an open house, the FSBO's also held open houses on the same day to capture some of the foot traffic that was already in the neighborhood.

realtors [ used house salesmen ] willnot deal with FSBO's
they block you from listing the property on the computer lists
or hide and never show them if FSBO listing are required by laws
bad mouth the property to buyer who ask
do any and everything to steer buyers to ONLY listed propertys

I have bought and sold home with out agents
and have come to hate agents
they think only they have the right to sell houses

BTW realtors who claimed to have buyers interested
were offered the 3% buyers agents fee
NOT A ONE EVER BROUGHT BY A BUYER TO LOOK AT THE HOME
all said they wanted a full 6% even if they had a buyer ready
and thus no costs or expence to make the sale

Hire his biggest competitor?

sneak up behind him and cut his achilles tendon. He'll push everything off to the right....give up the game.

FSBO. Don't give him a dime.

Realtors in general are about the most overpaid individuals I can think of in terms of the value of their service. There's virtually nothing they can do that a motivated FSBO seller can't.

This is good advice. List it and level with your agent on what has to be done. Tell him to keep the other guy out of the house.

It's you who approves the final sale.

rjp

he will have already black balled you if he is that big a deal

FSBO is automatically black balled by all realtors

You have a few choices:

1) Go FSBO and handle everything yourself. You get to control the entire process including marketing and who you let in the house.

2) List w/ an agent to put on the MLS. As stated above, you can direct your agent to specifically exclude your neighbor and his brokerage. The agent works for you and can/should do this. You would have to specifically state this in your contract as MLS listings have to follow the strict MLS policy regarding showing availability. Problem is your neighbor might respond by excluding your agent from any of their listings and the agent might not be too keen on that.

3) You can also list with a brokerage that will allow "non-mls" listing for a flat fee. This is like fsbo with Realtor assistance and the typical fee would be less than 2%. You have the brokerage do the marketing, coordiate the showings and handle the contracts. This allows you to cirumvent the MLS restrictions while still having decent marketing and support. In the spirit of full disclosure- I am an Ohio licensed Real Estate Broker. We do this all the time primarily because the seller can't afford the 3% co-op and we sell a good percentage of our homes without a co-op agent.

In any case, price it really well and the buyers will come.

Rent the house out! Make sure the house goes to renters with half a dozen teen age kids. In the garage leave them an electric guitar with amps, a drum set and a couple two stroke dirt bikes. :D

Seriously, you could get back to the guy best by renting the place and by investing only the minimum to keep the house up.

George

I R a realtor, I own the largest real estate marketing team in my Region.
I won't get into all the BS posted about realtors here, as it does apply to 99%, and some even applies to me directly. (over paid part)

Sounds like you're willing to "stir the pot" a little?
List it with clear instructions that this dude is excluded from all transactions.
Your the seller, you make the rules. Period.

BTW, one of the reasons that I'm such a good realtor is because I dealt with the Bustards for over 20 years before becoming one; I tell my staff realtors, "I don't like realtors". I consider myself a marketing expert and focus on 'earning' my income. I've sold FSBO's to clients for zero commission, so WTF? Client needs always come first in my business, in the end, I'm paid very well.

I often list properties on both MLS and FSBO sites to get all the action I can. MLS beats FSBO 1,000% for marketing coverage. List it on MLS for the right price and move on.

Good Luck, the local MLS gossip will be live and active with your listing! This kinda stuff spreads like wild fire. Ha, ha, I love it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1200864171.jpg

My folks listed their main house for sale in April, but they spend all their time now at their beach house. One day my mom came back to the main house, having been gone for a few weeks, to mow the lawn. There was a dog near death in their bedroom. A realtor who had shown the house a week earlier, had left a door unlatched and the neighbor's dog got inside. The dog went upstairs but was afraid to come back down the stairs and so stayed there. Luckily, the toilet seat was up, so the dog was able to get water. But the carpets upstairs were trashed and the whole house stunk. My folks and their realtor know which realtor did this, but she's (the guilty realtor) saying no one can prove it and her firm is refusing to pay for anything. My folks are paying out of pocket now, as they were tired of having the house unshowable while everyone argued about it. They have a $1000 homeowner's insur. deductible, so it wasn't worth it to call them for a $1500 carpet replacement in the upstairs. So selling FSBO would have a benefit here in letting people into the house and always being there for it.

You own WHAT? please.

Paint your house Pink with huge 2 meter Purple Poka Dots.

Somebody a few years back did that in town and boy did everybody know the house and it was out of the way on top of it.
My step Father painted his front garage door (aka thow the bucket at the door style) since he was pissed at the city ... they later came buy and fined him for graffiti.

There has to be some kind of creativeness in all of this!

Definitely, advertise for large family friendly, seller holds mortgage, ect ... find somebody that would make your neighbor reaaaalllll happy :D

Do the reduced charge mls - find out what commissions are being paid on the buyers side (3.0-4.0%) and make sure you are in the top tier (it was 3.25% here - I listed on mls at 3.5% buyers side commission)

Realtors are money motivated - sometimes even worse than others. Sell the house - get the fuch out - it's you that's leaving and getting the last laugh.

Disputes can be entertaining at times.

Friend of mine/old boss lives right next to this little spat.

"Murdoch�s estate is a bit more modest than Joel�s. Purchased from lawyer John van Merkensteijn and his wife Elizabeth, the white-shingled, 11-bedroom mansion was the subject of some attention a few years ago, when a next-door neighbor had�claiming that it was art�hung toilet bowls from trees along his property and arranged orange safety cones and refrigerator parts in his front yard. Village officials had planted bamboo plants to block irate neighbors (including van Merkensteijn) from being able to see the neighbor�s sculptures. However, the neighbor then ripped out the bamboo plants, prompting officials to arrest and jail him. Murdoch wasn�t part of the original controversy�which started when the neighbor complained that van Merkensteijn had shined his lights too brightly on the neighbor�s property�and if anything, Murdoch had tried to quell the strife, including by keeping the lights low after he took possession of the mansion."

Bruce,
I OWN 50% of the Kent Redekop Team marketing company.
We are the No.1 Real Estate Team in the entire Shuswap/Revelstoke Region.
Almost double of No.2.
What's it to ya? Please!
Rob

Great advice. I think I will rent it or sell it to the most annoying people who ever lived.

My main issue is that I don't want this guy having access to my property. As it is, he walks on my property like he still owns it. You can't imagine how annoying this is. I hate this guy his kids and most of all his wife. They have basically made life living hell for my daughter for not good reason other than an argument my wife had with them. It just doesn't seem right to me that the guy could come waltzing in to show my house at will.

If you use a lockbox, you're gonna have a hard time keeping him out. And if he's the nosy, annoying type, you're gonna really have a problem.

Restraining order :D

plant a $20 bill on a table ...
put the guy's poster (marker in moustache and devil horns) on the wall ...
turn on the sprinklers when he walks on the property ...

many fun things you can do :D

I double checked with my Century21 office.
You can list the property with a Realtor and have this guy excluded.
That will be a real kick in the nuts for him and everyone in his industry will see it.

As for all the cheap shots against Realtors here; please remember that I resemble those remarks. Ha, ha!

Lonewolf? WTF is your problem?