Can you fire a real estate agent?

[vash]

A selling agent. Not for me. My agent rocks! She made my neighbors agent look like a fool. My neighbor watched mine go into action and realized it too late. Can you sever that selling contract? Just curious.

None of it is my business.


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[LakeCleElum]

Neighbor likely signed a contract that will spell out the length of the term. Often 60 or 90 days.

[Dantilla]

Read the listing agreement. Some are easy to end early, others need to wait until they expire.

A good realtor will let go of a contract, but there are usually clauses that they still earned their commission if the house is sold within a certain time frame, or they originally showed the home, and the buyer/seller are trying to cut the realtor's commission out.

[vash]

Thanks.

What about BUYING agent. Just walk away? Mine is not great.


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[Bill Douglas]

If they haven't met their obligations sure they can be fired. If the next agent sells the house to a buyer that the first agent has shown around that's when the arguments start.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by vash

Thanks.

What about BUYING agent. Just walk away? Mine is not great.


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That, I think you can.

[BeyGon]

Originally Posted by look 171

That, I think you can.

Yes, the last place we bought, eight months ago, the relator recommended to us didn't seem to pay attention to what we wanted. Kept taking us to places we weren't going to like. Always pushed us saying this one will sell fast, we need to get an offer in today. After a few days I called him and told him we were getting someone else, he was really pissed. Nasty. I was happy we dropped him.

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by BeyGon

... told him we were getting someone else, he was really pissed. Nasty.

This sounds like a guy who would never think of learning from his mistakes.
If this happened to me, my first thought is "what did I do wrong?" and "how can I do better next time?".

Worst thing to do is get pissed. Get pissed at yourself, maybe, but NEVER in front of the customer.

Perhaps his IQ begins with a decimal point.

[look 171]

Well, I have a different take on this. It has a lot of what the market is doing and the way homes sell. Not sure when this happened to you, but in the past 10 years, with the exception of the dip in the real estate market, buyers didn't have time to think. Neither you buy right there or you lost the deal because there are nine other people with offers in hand to present to the buyer. The sooner the seller accepts your offer, the more likely chance you will own a home or complete the deal. Your agent knew that, and all you are going to do is go see many homes and not write until a weeks later, then its all too late. this isn't not anyone's fault, but its just the way the market is. Bidding war sucks. I have to go through this all the time. See the house as soon as we get wind of it and see it at the butt crack of dawn for 5 minutes. Write and hope they will accept our offer and not wait for others. Now, they all wait for all others and have a dead line. See a home on open house on Sunday, offers must be in by 5 on Monday. Not much time to think. He's piss because he did not explain the situation to you and excepted you to understand. Sucks, as a buyer, I know.

[aigel]

Jeff, I disagree. Even in a hot market, the buyer needs to start seeing what they like. It is a process. The average home buyer gets an idea as they shop. If you are an agent and you don't have patience, then you will lose it.

I had a great agent wen I bought my first house. She'd point out if something would sell quickly in her mind, but always added "no pressure, you will have to live in the house, not me, there will be more coming up".

Only a dick realtor wants you to buy ASAP so they can collect and move on.

G

[syncroid]

Cliff, You can fire a buyer agent as long as you do not have buyer/broker agreement in place.
Usually you cannot fire a seller agent depending on how the contract is drawn up.

[syncroid]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Most good real estate agents will not make you sign an exclusive to be your buying agent. In general, that side of the equation is the "easy money", especially in the age of the Internet where many people find listings on Zillow and Realtor.com and then have their agent walk them through it. I don't recommend that *anyone* sign a buyer's agreement - a good agent will not need this - a bad one will, which makes this a red flag in my opinion.

-Wayne

^^^
This is good advice.

[jwasbury]

Originally Posted by BeyGon

Yes, the last place we bought, eight months ago, the relator recommended to us didn't seem to pay attention to what we wanted. Kept taking us to places we weren't going to like.

^regardless of whether the market climate is hot and offers come in fast, with bidding wars, etc...this Realtor is not doing their job as buyer's agent if they are bringing you properties that aren't aligned with your stated needs/wants.

We were searching for a new home and found one we liked on our own, but had a friend come in as our buyers agent who had newly started in the profession. We figured we'll give her a shot. We made an offer on that place and it wasn't ultimately accepted. We had no formal agreement with her, and she continued to try to help us, but she was bringing us crap properties. She completely missed the mark as to what we wanted.

Something came on market that I saw the day it was listed, I arranged the showing myself with the listing agent, made the first offer and ultimately bought it...our friend was pissed that we didn't do it through her, but she didn't earn it.

Also, all else being equal, the listing agent might prefer a buyer without an agent so they don't have to share the commission.

[BeyGon]

Originally Posted by look 171

Well, I have a different take on this. It has a lot of what the market is doing and the way homes sell. Not sure when this happened to you, but in the past 10 years, with the exception of the dip in the real estate market, buyers didn't have time to think. Neither you buy right there or you lost the deal because there are nine other people with offers in hand to present to the buyer. The sooner the seller accepts your offer, the more likely chance you will own a home or complete the deal. Your agent knew that, and all you are going to do is go see many homes and not write until a weeks later, then its all too late. this isn't not anyone's fault, but its just the way the market is. Bidding war sucks. I have to go through this all the time. See the house as soon as we get wind of it and see it at the butt crack of dawn for 5 minutes. Write and hope they will accept our offer and not wait for others. Now, they all wait for all others and have a dead line. See a home on open house on Sunday, offers must be in by 5 on Monday. Not much time to think. He's piss because he did not explain the situation to you and excepted you to understand. Sucks, as a buyer, I know.

Well no, this is what I posted, perhaps you didn't read it. It is a good time to be a buyer. I pay attention to what is for sale and was checking them on line every day.

Yes, the last place we bought, eight months ago, the relator recommended to us didn't seem to pay attention to what we wanted. Kept taking us to places we weren't going to like. Always pushed us saying this one will sell fast, we need to get an offer in today. After a few days I called him and told him we were getting someone else, he was really pissed. Nasty. I was happy we dropped him.

[look 171]

MAybe I need to clarify. I am not saying that's right, I know why they are pushy and need to do it to close the deal or just to get an offer accepted. Sometimes there is no wait time and the house is sold to someone else within a half a day or hours for some instances. I know buyers need to buy the house they like, hell its a lot of money and the damn thing belongs to you for the next 30 years or more.

One of our way of getting properties is to write a strong offer and get accepted and use inspection to get out of it if something was found not to our satisfaction. I was not Ok with doing that and lost a lot of bids for a couple years. She finally convinced me to write, so we did. Since then, I have never pulled out of any of our accepted offers and always with all contingencies removed to make sure the selling party knows we mean business. No falling out of escrow, not fun for both of us.

I am in a different buying situation then most. If the house doesn't fit my needs, I will make it fit. When I am not buying for myself to live in, its a lot easier.

Good agents in normally market (or not), should view the home before dragging their clients out to see it because they know what their clients are looking for. With the info and pics on the internet, that saved them a lot of driving and sometime its hard to see a home on the screen.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by vash

Thanks.

What about BUYING agent. Just walk away? Mine is not great.

Yep. If there is no signed buyer-broker agreement, then no real explicit "agency" exists. However, there may be instances of "implied agency" without a written agreement.
This is typically only something the agent has to worry about (giving bad advice/direction that results in damages of some sort to the buyer, etc.).

The only time that it would really be an issue for a buyer (even with no contract in place), is if the agent shows you a house, and you cut them loose, then buy that same house later. If that happens, you may be on the hook for "procuring cause" if that agent were to find out. Even then, it's difficult to enforce/prove, and even rarer still that it affects the buyer's wallet. Of course, it's best to confirm the statutory regs/definitions of your state/jurisdiction. Just don't be that guy anyway...

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Most good real estate agents will not make you sign an exclusive to be your buying agent. In general, that side of the equation is the "easy money", especially in the age of the Internet where many people find listings on Zillow and Realtor.com and then have their agent walk them through it. I don't recommend that *anyone* sign a buyer's agreement - a good agent will not need this - a bad one will, which makes this a red flag in my opinion.

-Wayne

I would offer a counterpoint to this. There are surprisingly a LOT of potential buyers out there that have no qualms about pumping an agent for info, and having them show several houses, sometimes over weeks or months. Then they will turn around and submit an offer on something (or already have an offer on something) via their existing buyer-agent, whom they failed to disclose up front (usually a close friend or family member). Or, they will waste days/weeks/months of a buyer-agent's time, only to then submit an offer directly to a listing agent (thinking that can get a better deal by doing so). Does the agent have legal recourse in some situations? Yes, and sometimes a compromise is worked out between buyer/seller agents behind the scenes. In cases where the buyer-agent didn't show the subject property to the buyer previously, they are basically screwed.

Everyone poo-poo's RE agents, and often with good reason. However, the lack of loyalty, consideration, and basic business ethics is pretty shocking amongst the home-buying public as well.

So, the use of a buyer-broker agreement can be a useful tool to separate the "contenders from the pretenders" so-to-speak. Do some lousy agents use them as a crutch? Sure. However, when I was slinging residential, I had no problem asking for buyers to sign a buyer/broker agreement, and never had any legitimate buyer push-back. However, that was only after meeting with someone at length and building a rapport. If I was fairly confident of their intentions/vetting (referrals, etc.), I would at least ask them point-blank if they were working with any other agents.

Also, it could be argued that the "easy money" is with listings. All a listing agent has to do is attend listing appointments, and do a bit of marketing (which is usually sub'd out). Granted, there is usually more up-front costs to the agent on the listing side, but they are not shuttling multiple different clients all over town, to see countless houses on a daily basis. IMO, the process of securing/vetting a legitimate buyer, finding a property, submitting an offer, and having that offer make it all the way to a successful closing is much harder than listing a property and waiting for the offers to roll in. YMMV...

[greglepore]

Eric hit it on the head. Often, you'll spend months showing a client properties, often ones that they want to see but that you know won't work, and then on a whim they'll buy something with another agent. Yes, in the age of Zillow anyone can search for properties, but often they don't want to, so the agent does the legwork, and makes the calls and finds out about zoning and reads buyer's disclosures and...

Listings require up front work, but less day-in-out activity. The real plus is that they generate other traffic for the agent. Many realtors that have experience and a client base will farm out their buyers to another agent for a small slice for this reason. Working with buyers is a PITA. And people have such a low opinion of realtors that they're often rude as hell.

[Dantilla]

Once you find a good realtor, treat them well! I used to flip fixer-uppers, and worked closely with a great realtor.
She found me bargains, and earned her commission both when I bought, then again when I listed with her to sell.

We both did well. And we both had fun.

[vash]

I'm buying.

I had my agent add $900 to my offer to make it look more attractive. Didn't ask me until I saw the offer contract cover sheet. Tiny bit of cash in the grand scheme but I think it warranted a discussion. She went straight to Docusign at the get go despite me stating I would like a face to face explaining some of the boiler plate details. At least on the first one. I got uncomfortable and jumped off. Ended up we would have been way high. House went below asking btw. I don't mind searching Zillow, but I think an agent should vet the property a tiny bit. She sent us to one and then asked us about it. She never went by. She "zillowed" it to us.

The agent that help me buy my current house saw every home before she came to pick us up and take us to it. She automatically got the nod when it came time to sell. I was afraid our house was too small a deal for her BIG clients. But no, she treated us the same. Maybe better since my place wasn't gonna sell itself. I'm loyal to her until one of us quits. .


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