OK I am starting to come unglued here.

The realtor sent over his Agents Agreement and will not send over the contract for sale until I have signed it.

I have held off over the weekend in order to think about it some. Then today I had to work in the field as we had two guys call in sick. Its been hectic to say the least. Mr. Realtor called me 8 times today wanting the signed realtors agreement.

I sent him this e-mail:

I am still wrestling with the fact that this entire transaction is based on deceit and misinformation.

Your original E-mail to me never indicated that I had met the Doe's prior to your e-mail, you led me to believe you had a new client for me that you were working with for a while.

Quoted E-mail
_____________________________________

Jim, my client would like to see your house but unfortunately neither of the times you gave would work. (A Friday afternoon and Sunday morning) They would like to see it as soon as possible one evening if that could be arranged with the neighbor. They have driven to the house and are very interested. I have been working with this couple for a while and they are ready to make a move. They are prequalified with a mortgage broker. If we could take a look as soon as tomorrow evening that would be fine or at the latest the first of next week. I will be out of town beginning friday evening and will not be back until Sunday evening. Let me know what will work.


Best Wishes,
xxxxxx
Broker Associate
xxxxxx
__________________________________________________ ____

Furthermore on the phone you indicated they had never seen the inside and wanted to see it and that was an outright lie. I feel you worked me for a commission. I still do not understand why the Doe's felt they needed a realtor in this transaction, I am normally reasonable person and right now I am feeling very uncooperative and its all because of your actions. If the Doe's would have contacted me with an offer and asked for the living room set and other considerations I would have worked with them.

This is the last contact I had from them:

I appreciate the time you took to let us take a look at your home on Friday. My wife and I are looking into a couple of homes in the area and like yours as well. It is just above the amount that we thought we wanted to spend but we are going to look into some options. I will be in touch to let you know if we would like to make and offer or if we are not able. Thanks again.

xxxxxxx

______________________________________

Notice Mr Doe said HE would be in touch with me. So when you contacted me I thought this was a whole new deal not the same one I was working with already.

Now I see that you have called me 6 times today looking for me to sign your Agent agreement in addition to 3 calls on Firday and possibly 2 calls over the weekend. What kind of high pressure is this? Why are you pushing so hard for that signed Agreement?

I am trying to come to terms with all of this and I have to admit I am not thinking very straight and I have been trying to get some space to think this over even though you all calling me every hour.

A couple of times this weekend I told my wife I would prefer not to sell based purely on principle, the principle that this is all based on one big lie.

Do I think the Does were involved in this? No I think you as a realtor decided to work the best angle for you to get paid because the Does were not buying a MLS home and were buying a FSBO.

I will be in touch by Wednesday and if I have decided to sell at this price under these conditions I will fax over your Agreement so you can send the contract for sale.

Mr. and Mrs. Doe, I am sorry I am putting this stress on you, please be patient with me. Renee and I liked you guys a lot and would really like to see you get this house, its a very special house to us and we are glad to find owners we know will enjoy it. Just let me think for a day or two more about how to deal with Mr. Crappy Realtor and I am sure once I am cooled off everything will go smooth. I just do not like how I am being rushed to move without thinking and pushed to sign documents fast and fax them right away. I am also pretty upset about how I was approached by Mr Dirtbag Realtorl and I am having a hard time coming to terms with giving him a commission for this.




Thats all fine and dandy at the same time Mr. Crappy Realtor puts the pressure on me further to sign his agreement, his e-mail sent while I was typing my e-mail:

-------------------------------
Jim the Does are still interested in your house but if we do not hear from you by !2:00 P.M. April 29,2008. Then we will withdraw from this deal and they have another house they are going to make an offer on. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks

----------------------------------------------

What kind of crap is this? They set the closing in late June its not like this is a fast deal going on here.

I am ready to tell this clown to take a hike. Sale or no sale. If the Does want the house they know where to find me.

Jim, I understand why you want to dig your heels in. Stuff like this puts me into combat mode.

There are a few things it seems you can do.

1) Amend the agent's agreement so your asking price is the net price after commissions;

2) Run this full situation past your lawyer. They should be able to review it in half an hour and tell you what your legal position is;

3) If your lawyer says you are on solid ground, have lawyer send jerk broker a letter. Jerk realtor has the ball, but you might have the bat;

4) Report jerk broker to the board of realtors and BBB.

You could also just sign the agreement and get out from under this, but I have the feeling you might not respect yourself in the morning.

Best,
Jim

No.

P.S. I only read the title:D

I would not enter into an agreement and allow someone profit from their blatent dishonesty if I could avoid it. Jim, you're a standup guy, and there will be other buyers if this doesn't work out. Can you work out something directly with the Doe's? Good luck!

Jim,

I was getting jerked around on a home sale in NY last year.

Market was eroding under my feet like quicksand.

Everyone was telling me I was lucky to have a deal and to just suck it up.

One Friday night I looked at the wife and said f' this I'm killin the deal.

Next day I get a call from a guy who had looked at the house months before. He offered me 10k more than the a55hat I just decided to boot. Closed in 3 weeks.

Now that worked out for me. No guarantee it works for you but sometimes you gotta stick up for yourself.

I'd call the people and tell em straight. You looked without a broker, never mentioned him, the guy is unethical, you wanna do business with someone like that go right ahead, but I will not.

I would make sure the Doe's had copies of all the correspondence so that they understand why they are having trouble buying the home they are interested in.

Word of mouth gets around in the RE industry.

Tell him to f-off, then contact the sellers and tell them why. That way they don't get the BS story from their realtor. Tell them that you'd be happy to work with them, and that their realtor's deceit and greed are destroying the deal.

The Realtor is a jerk and already proven to be a liar. He may not have the Doe family as buyers but as friends or even accomplices. Tell the jerk to bring over a sellers agreement with a signed contract and a deposit or no deal. Otherwise, you may find yourself locked into an agreement to pay him a fee when you find a real buyer within the next 3-6 months. BTW, you can get an agreement that says you'll pay him the commission ONLY on that one buyer.
Also, you should net what you quoted the Doe family after the commission is paid. The Doe family should have dealt with you direct. If they want to go thru the Realtor, let them pay for it.

I say F the whole deal. The realtor is scum and is applying high pressure tactics. I would review everything with your attorney and make readjustments to the price the have the buyers pay all of the commission.

I would ask your attorney where you stand if they want to deal with you one on one without the scum bag since they saw the house before they employed Mr. scum bag. You might legally be able to bypass they guy yet.

Be prepared to hear from the realtor...
"you will never find a buyer for your home"
"Mr and Mrs Doe are buying a house next week and it is not yours"

Speedy:)

Agreed. He lied to you and now he's trying to pressure you into a quick sale? F him.

You shouldn't be. You're not the conniving one. You're being taken advantage of.

I can certainly understand if you just decide to hell with it all and sell the house, realtor involved. We don't really know your financial situation, etc.

But at the same time, having listened to you post for the last couple years, I agree with Jim a few posts above--you might not be happy with yourself if you do. Still, no sense in winning a battle, only to lose the war.

I'd contact the Does to let them know what's up. But just be prepared--you never know if they're just as dishonest as the realtor.

Best of luck. Even if you decide to sell to the Does via the realtor, don't get pressured into it. You're still the one who owns the house.

that would be a deal breaker for Jim
perhaps because it is their job
The FSBO definitely are blacklisted by realtors. They may deny this, but they are lying if they do
notify the Does first, don't tell their realtor anything at all, let the BBB and Board of Realtors notify him.

Walking away from shady characters and sketchy deals is generally the correct course of action.

Here is the solution I am coming up with.

I was tricked into, initially a $5K commission with the realtor, I reduced it to 3K but it still sucks.

I am approaching the Doe's with tis deal, I am knocking 2K off of the agreed price and telling them they can deal with paying the realtor.

NC is a lawyer closing state and I am already in touch with the lawyer. I am having the lawyers office draft up the sale papers instead of the realtor, he is done working on this deal as far as I am concerned. Once the contract for sale is complete I will offer it to the Doe's and tell them exactly what I typed here, its the same deal, actually the Doe's are getting $2K off the price of the house and the realtor can get his commission from them, not me. I am not paying this guy anything, its a matter of principle now.

I should have the contract for sale drafted up by lunchtime tomorrow and presented to the Doe's in the afternoon.

BTW- I have been copying everything the realtor has sent to me to the Doe's, even though he neglected to send copies to them I made sure they saw what was going on.

Now your talking, get your Atty to handle it, now you have someone working for you, finally!!

When I bought my house from a private seller I had my Atty draw up the purchase agreement, they didn't have an atty, it was procession at closing, they said don't we get the customary 30 days to leave, My Atty said sure, but its $700 rent for that month, they were out at closing!! I have had so many agents tell me that we always give sellers 30 days after closing to leave with no rent, I said you can give them free rent but not me. I DON'T THINK SO!!

Good on ya, Jim!

I do not know if you read this through Wayne, the realtor lied to me and withheld vital information when he set out to negotiate a commission for himself.

Honestly, the deal is not a good one, its o.k.

It's just business, Jim. Get the price you're comfortable with, take the money, and move on. Lawyering up was a good move. Best wishes on getting it done. :)

I'm going to disagree with Wayne on this one. Jim's in a market that isn't "tanking" imo, and I would do the exact same thing in Jim's position. I'd take a personal loss (up to a point, and I don't think Jim's even in a "losing situation" here) before I'd allow a deceitful realtor to profit from his blatant dishonesty with "me" if I were in a position to do so. Hope it works out for you Jim, and the Does too...good luck!

ps: Wayne is also correct about "vacation homes", but the market Jim is likely targeting probably consists mainly of locals looking for a place to live full time.

There's the point.

Jim has no issue paying a realtor who brings him a buyer, this one did not bring the buyer.

The buyer has the right to get help from anyone he choses, but why should Jim pay for that help? I don't ever recall a seller paying for my attorney fees nor would I expect it.

In general I do agree that if the sell price minus the commission was within Jim's acceptable range then do the business and move on.

But I'd have a hard time with this one as well, purely on principal. I've spent way more doing things on principal than if I just sucked it up but my self respect has a pretty high price tag.

I killed a deal on the second NY property, was 40k more than I'm getting in the current deal. 1st deal smelled real bad. The buyer wanted a 100k seller concession. I am convinced the bank would have never seen payment 1 from these people. They would have taken their 100 and been in the wind.

I went with the original deal, as a few of you put it, its the bottom line that counts and the bottom line is I have the house sold, I sold it for a decent profit, and I can move on and get off this emotional roller coaster.

Wayne I know you like slamming vacation homes but be aware, this was not your typical vacation home, the young couple that purchased it will be raising their family there.

I purposefully did not buy in a touristy area, I bought in a small town where vacation homes are around but not the norm. I think I had the only house in the cove that was not being lived in full time.

As far as the realtor is concerned, I e-mailed back and forth withe the buyer and he feels he may be at fault here, he cannot remember if he told the realtor if he saw the house previously, while this all may be a ploy, which I think it is, I just want to move on.

$3K in commission is not going to break me and if that looser has to resort to lies to get paid in the real estate business I am sure he will have a short career or a pathetic one at best.