Am I being unreasonable? Realtor question UPDATE 24 FINAL UPDATE 36

[crl]

I am pretty pissed off, but maybe I am being unreasonable. We are looking at houses in a market with low inventory. We have a particular neighborhood in mind and the kind of house we want (number of bedrooms and baths) is a little more uncommon in that area so that exacerbates the low inventory issue a bit.

Our realtor has been on a nine day vacation. We were out of town for part of that too. But we are back now and have about three houses we would like to see that have come on the market since we were last available to look.

When we last met our realtor said he would be back either this Saturday or Sunday. I emailed and asked if we could schedule showings for Saturday. He replied that he would not be back until Sunday. I asked about Sunday but he replied that he has a five hour drive and won't be able to show anything on Sunday. (I am not clear on why as he could do a five hour drive in the morning and be available on Sunday afternoon, but whatever.) I replied that I was a little concerned the houses we are interested in might sell quickly given their locations and prices. (Things that are priced right are very often selling within a day or two of hitting the MLS.). His response was that inventory typically goes up in June and July and we can continue looking. He did not offer to schedule showings on Monday (I was thinking that at least if people knew someone was coming to look they might hold off on accepting an offer if they could.)

I don't object to him going on vacation at all and it is completely fine with me if he doesn't want to cut that short to come back and show houses to us. But I think, especially given the market conditions, he should arrange to have someone else in his office show us things while he is gone. If that means he needs to give them a cut of his commission or cover for them when they go on vacation or whatever that's on him, IMO. But maybe I am being a bitch?

Catherine

[arivecchi]

No, you are not being unreasonable. I stopped working with a realtor for that reason. I just did not want to wait around until it was convenient for him.

Do you have redfin in your area? They will show you houses and there is no obligation. Who knows, you may like them enough to purchase through them instead.

You can also call the listing agent directly and set up your own showing. I did that sometimes during my recent search.

[waitingforgrace]

Not at all unreasonable. He should schedule the showings for you and have someone else take you through them. Yes, he's on vacation, but being a realtor is sort of a 24/7 job.

[khm]

Do you have an exclusive buyers agreement with him? I'd assume not, they are pretty rare in most places, I think.

In my market, you can view houses with a different realtor every day of the week. You are under no obligation to any as a buyer (unless they somehow get you to sign an agreement).

Call the list agent, call any old agent! I'm not familiar with redfin, but use that if you have it! :)

[SunGreen22]

I agree, not unreasonable at all. We lost out on a great house because of a similar situation, and though we moved on, I still really regret it. In this market, with inventory so low, I feel like you can't wait around if you see something that meets your criteria. I'd set up something with someone else.

[crl]

We do not have any agreement with him. He has been very helpful thus far though, putting together lots of information about the houses we have seen with him, pulling together stats on things like inventory numbers, price per square foot and so on.

We were hoping the places we want to see would have opens and we could just go ourselves, but no such luck. Dh is working like mad to meet a litigation deadline right now so doing this would be tough for us and it will suck if I have to find someone else to show us these places. . . . . .

Thanks for the feedback, at least I feel a little validated.

Catherine

[arivecchi]

We do not have any agreement with him. He has been very helpful thus far though, putting together lots of information about the houses we have seen with him, pulling together stats on things like inventory numbers, price per square foot and so on.


Just FYI, Redfin has all this information readily available. If you sign up for reports for a certain zipcode, you will get a ton of information about sales and inventory in that market. I found it extremely useful. I would imagine that your market has redfin.

[crl]

Since you all don't think I am being unreasonable, another question.

Would you email back and ask him to arrange for another agent to show us the houses this weekend? Email and ask him to schedule showings on Monday? Find someone else (redfin, listing agent, whoever) to work with for just this weekend? Drop him altogether?

Since it may factor in, he has spent three full days with us showing us houses and, as I said above, has been very helpful with information about the houses printed out and in a binder that he gives us at the beginning of the day, plus market information like price per square foot.

As I said dh is frantically working on a deadline so I don't even know when I will get a chance to talk this over with him. He even mentioned me looking without him and we could make an offer without him seeing the place--that's how busy he is right now.

Thanks,
Catherine

[Octobermommy]

Being out of pocket for 9 days for a realtor without a partner to help with showings is unreasonable. I'm surprised he doesn't have this relationship with a fellow realtor in the same company. If one of these houses sell that you would have wanted it doesn't have much impact on him but a huge impact on you. I would simply tell him you need to see houses this weekend and could he please arrange showings for you. The very least he could do would be to call the listing agents and have them show the houses for you. They should be happy to do that as they will be receiving commision from the sale.

[pomegranate]

You are not unreasonable at all! First check if there are open houses for the properties you're interested in, so that you can just check them out without a realtor. If not, your realtor must have an assistant or colleague who could show you the houses? Especially if they are part of a larger office where they probably exchange backup for each other when they go on vacation. If your realtor won't show until Monday, I'd say find another realtor!

[niccig]

You are not unreasonable at all! First check if there are open houses for the properties you're interested in, so that you can just check them out without a realtor. If not, your realtor must have an assistant or colleague who could show you the houses? Especially if they are part of a larger office where they probably exchange backup for each other when they go on vacation. If your realtor won't show until Monday, I'd say find another realtor!

:yeahthat: Your DH isn't always available, especially during the week. If he can make this weekend, then tell the realtor he needs to find a way to make it work or you'll find another realtor.

[brittone2]

Not unreasonable. If he can't cover, he should have a coworker or someone who can take you into a house that you want to see pretty urgently. I would think that type of thing would be pretty common especially over the summer months when people vacation a lot. No problem going on vacation as a realtor, but you would hope they'd have someone who can still take you into homes...even if that means they throw them a few hundred dollars for their time or something out of their commission.

[echoesofspring]

I don't know, he doesn't sound that hungry to me. Certainly everyone should get to take a vacation, but I don't think it's very good business that he has no back up plan for when he's gone. Also, I don't know what sort of information he printed out for you, but you can get a ton of info online about properties on your own - zillow, etc., so you might be able to get a lot of the info he's shown you by yourself for these properties.

I would ask him to arrange for someone else to show you the houses and if he's not willing to set that up I'd find someone else to show you the houses. You don't necessarily have to make a decision about whether to continue working with him or not, but I don't think it's unreasonable to continue your search even if he's not available.

[codex57]

I don't know, he doesn't sound that hungry to me. Certainly everyone should get to take a vacation, but I don't think it's very good business that he has no back up plan for when he's gone. Also, I don't know what sort of information he printed out for you, but you can get a ton of info online about properties on your own - zillow, etc., so you might be able to get a lot of the info he's shown you by yourself for these properties.

I would ask him to arrange for someone else to show you the houses and if he's not willing to set that up I'd find someone else to show you the houses. You don't necessarily have to make a decision about whether to continue working with him or not, but I don't think it's unreasonable to continue your search even if he's not available.

This. My mom's a broker. Well, I am too although I don't really use it. Plus, I grew up in an extended family full of small business owners. You're never really "away" on vacation.

He's not hungry. Just say that your schedule only gives you the weekend to look. Ask him to arrange someone. If you want, you can tell him which houses you're interested and he can call and set up stuff for you. He doesn't need to be there. If he contacts the selling agent for you, he can still get his commission without having to show you anything. He can deal with negotiating and all that when he gets back Sunday.

If he doesn't want to, drop him. Sure he did work, but agents lose clients all the time after doing "work" or even shelling out money for stuff. That's the business. Don't feel guilty.

[crl]

Thanks you all. I am sure we could get the information he provides on our own, just want to mention that he does provide it to us (we spent one day with a realtor who gave us nothing about the houses, showed us things that didn't meet our criteria while not showing us thi gs we had specifically asked to see, and didn't even bother to walk through the houses with us; so he has been a big improvement over that experience).

I will try to get dh to give me five minutes on the phone to find out his exact availability and how he thinks we should proceed.

I appreciate all the feedback!
Catherine

[mackmama]

Since you all don't think I am being unreasonable, another question.

Would you email back and ask him to arrange for another agent to show us the houses this weekend? Email and ask him to schedule showings on Monday? Find someone else (redfin, listing agent, whoever) to work with for just this weekend? Drop him altogether?

Since it may factor in, he has spent three full days with us showing us houses and, as I said above, has been very helpful with information about the houses printed out and in a binder that he gives us at the beginning of the day, plus market information like price per square foot.

As I said dh is frantically working on a deadline so I don't even know when I will get a chance to talk this over with him. He even mentioned me looking without him and we could make an offer without him seeing the place--that's how busy he is right now.

Thanks,
Catherine

I would email him and be honest. Say that you would like to understand his backup so that you are able to see homes when they come up so that you don't miss out on opportunities like you did recently. I don't think your expectations are unreasonable. You could also call the listing agent if this happens again and say that you are working with another realtor but that he's out of town and you want to see the home.

[citymama]

Totally not unreasonable. Our realtor was a complete professional. Whenever she was out of town, even for a weekend, she would prep another agent in her firm to help us with anything, and make sure we had each others info and that the other agent was well versed with our background and preferences. Get a new agent, pronto.

Are you looking in SF?

[MamaMolly]

:yeahthat: Your DH isn't always available, especially during the week. If he can make this weekend, then tell the realtor he needs to find a way to make it work or you'll find another realtor.

I agree. Give him the chance to keep your business but don't feel obligated to stay with him. You don't have to threaten or anything, just let him know you appreciate all he has done and would really like to stay with him or his agency, but you are operating under some heavy restrictions which he has to respect as well.

It is a business arrangement, not a social one.

[KLD313]

There's no reason he can't get someone in his firm to show you the houses you want to see. When we were looking and needed to see something ASAP and my realtor couldn't take us she called the listing agent and had show us the house.

[crl]

Dh is waiting for comments on his work. Once he finds out what his weekend is going to look like, we will decide what to do next. I am super frustrated with this, but it is piling on top of other unrelated things and I told dh I'm just going to ignore the whole thing for my sanity until we know what his weekend will look like.

I really appreciate the feedback. Dh is way less peeved than I am so I am very glad to at least know I am not being totally unreasonable in my expectations.

Catherine

[codex57]

Your DH doesn't have time or mental capacity to get peeved. I've done litigation. This is the furthest thing from his mind right now. He prolly might be relieved if you just asked to see houses alone (instead of him bringing it up) if he's that busy at work.

[AnnieW625]

If in the end he really wants a sale then he needs to have another realtor show you the places you want to see, but honestly I would probably get someone new. There is probably another realtor who knows the area just as well.

We didn't use one, but the reviews of the local Redfin agents are usually very favorable in my area. If he isn't available to show you those houses then he doesn't deserve the commission on the property, and IMHO if he took 9 days vacation and didn't have a partner helping him then he doesn't really need it.

[larig]

Not at all unreasonable. He should schedule the showings for you and have someone else take you through them. Yes, he's on vacation, but being a realtor is sort of a 24/7 job.

a big :yeahthat:

[crl]

Well, we decided to see if a Redfin agent could take us to showings this weekend and one is now setting things up for us. Unfortunately in the interim we missed one of the houses as they are "reviewing offers" today. I am beyond furious with our original realtor, who as far as I am concerned is now fired. Making matters worse, that house was listed by HIS agency so he could have easily had the listing agent show it to us ASAP (before we even got into this weekend I had indicated I was available to go over Thursday or Friday.)

So pissed.

Thank you all!
Catherine

[TwinFoxes]

Oh no! That is horrible about the house you missed. I'd consider him fired to. Good luck with Redfin, we used them to buy, no regrets at all. Not a lot of hand holding, but I didn't really need it.

[AnnieW625]

That is annoying. Good luck with the new agent and looking at houses.

[Mommy_Mea]

Well, we decided to see if a Redfin agent could take us to showings this weekend and one is now setting things up for us. Unfortunately in the interim we missed one of the houses as they are "reviewing offers" today. I am beyond furious with our original realtor, who as far as I am concerned is now fired. Making matters worse, that house was listed by HIS agency so he could have easily had the listing agent show it to us ASAP (before we even got into this weekend I had indicated I was available to go over Thursday or Friday.)



Wow, I would be livid too!!

We used Redfin to purchase our house, and we were super happy. I am a big fan! I hope it works out well for you, that one of the two remaining works out for you...

[arivecchi]

Redfin is the way to go. Good luck!

[ShayleighCarsensMom]

Catherine,
As a realtor myself I think it's rather alarming that he takes a 9 day vacation and doesn't have someone filling in for him.
In my market area thinks are selling super fast and over asking if it's priced right. It's tough to drop everything right now and show clients, but that's our job. If he's not offering to show you the homes in a reasonable time period, find someone else who is, but do let him know.
I hope that helps!


Valerie
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ShayleighCarsensMom]

Also, fwiw, as log as they haven't accepted an free on that house, you can still see the house and place an offer. :-)


Valerie
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[strollerqueen]

Catherine,
As a realtor myself I think it's rather alarming that he takes a 9 day vacation and doesn't have someone filling in for him.
In my market area thinks are selling super fast and over asking if it's priced right. It's tough to drop everything right now and show clients, but that's our job. If he's not offering to show you the homes in a reasonable time period, find someone else who is, but do let him know.
I hope that helps!


Valerie
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
OOO, Val, can you read my post and weigh in, please?

[boilermakermom]

Yes, I would be upset. He doesn't want the sale enough. He should have replied with, 'i am on vacation, but give me the addresses and I will have a colleague meet you there.'

I would ask him to arrange it. If he says it isn't possible, I would find a new realtor.

[kara97210]

Call the listing agent, or your new Redfin agent, and go see the house!

When we went to see our current house there were 3 offers - the house went on the market on a Saturday and we went to see it the following Tuesday. We walked through and we loved the house so our agent pulled everything together and we made an offer that afternoon. In the end there were 5 offers, and we we got the house. The whole process moved really quickly (a little too quickly for DH's comfort:)), but we love our house and are really happy here. Definitely try and get in to see the house!

[crl]

Thanks you all. No, we can't get in to the house. They are refusing showings while they are reviewing offers. I would assume they have multiple full price or over offers. Given the location, size and price I am not at all surprised. Assuming there aren't any structural issues, it could get a new kitchen and new baths, plus fresh paint (all of which it appears to need) on top of the full listing price and still be under the market price of the area by a bit. Maybe we would have hated it though.

We have a few others to see today.

Thanks everyone,
Catherine

[theriviera]

I'm late to this post but man, I'm pissed on your behalf! When we were looking earlier this year our realtor had someone on his team (his assistant, I think?) go knock on every door in the very small area that we had targeted. We bought our house off market, which would not have happened without our realtor.

Redfin sounds awesome, but if inventory is that tight, you might want an agent that has a really good pulse on the market. Do you know if homes are selling off market? We figured it out after seeing stuff show up in our Redfin feed as sold even though we never saw a listing.

Our agent actually sold our last house and I picked him after interviewing 4 realtors. he sells a lot in the area and he works for an agency that handles a lot of transactions.

[crl]

Final update here. Thanks everyone. The house I started asking about seeing on Thursday mentioning that I was available immediately and asked specifically for showings on Saturday or Sunday has sold. It had twenty-three offers by Saturday morning and they declined anymore showings at that point. We know this because our Redfin realtor told us. The good news I suppose is that we probably would not have gotten the house anyway. The bad news is that our other realtor compounded things, IMO, by telling me via email today that that house had sold before it was listed. I really dislike being lied to.

Dh feels that we are obligated (legally) to continue to use him if we continue to pursue one house that we had put an offer in through him before. (Sellers countered, but really high in our opinion so we dropped it while looking at other properties.) So if we resume negotiations on that house it will have to be through him. But I have no intentions of having him show us any more houses or otherwise working with him.

Dh still isn't as pissed off as I am--his view is that this is just par for the course and he didn't expect any better. Nonetheless he is willing to go with my preference on this; as he put it, "I'm not married to him, I'm married to you ." Smart man. I am glad at least you all have made me feel like I am not crazy to be so put out over all of this.

At any rate I am going to try to focus my energy on actually finding a place instead of stewing over this.

Thanks again averyone!
Catherine

[vonfirmath]

I can not hardly fathom receiving *23* offers. Or having to choose one out of them!

You must have a really tight market!

[crl]

I can not hardly fathom receiving *23* offers. Or having to choose one out of them!

You must have a really tight market!

Low inventory and this was a great location at a really good price. I don't think it is at all common to have that many offers, but most things are selling within a few days if they are priced well.

Catherine

[katydid1971]

"I'm not married to him, I'm married to you ." Smart man.

Love this!!!
Hope you have better luck next time.

[khm]

Low inventory and this was a great location at a really good price. I don't think it is at all common to have that many offers, but most things are selling within a few days if they are priced well.

Catherine

I wonder how far over asking it'll end up. We lived in SF years ago, pre-first-dotcom-bubble. We never bought, but the number of buyers houses would have was just stunning. My husband worked in the periphery of real estate, and it was just such a mad dash of offers. of As was the amount over asking...... Just a whole different weird ballgame out there. You really do have my sympathy! So many times (in any market) low asking prices are just chum used to bring out fighting buyers.

I do think your realtor completely fell down here, he should have had a backup in place to do his work in his absence. It stinks for him to get calls on his vacation, but it is part of his job. He did not earn his "pay" from you, so definitely move on. Without a doubt or hesitation.

But, I admit that my own personal disappointment would be a bit lessened knowing that my chances were pretty slim anyways. I hope that you take a bit of solace in that. I know the pain of "missing out" on a good house and how much it stings.

[Globetrotter]

I would find another agent, pronto! That was very unprofessional.

When we bought, houses were selling with multiple offers within a couple of days, and there was low inventory so we only had a handful houses that even met our basic criteria. I feel for you.

[codex57]

I can not hardly fathom receiving *23* offers. Or having to choose one out of them!

You must have a really tight market!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/03/MNJ11OMMVC.DTL&type=realestate

[kozachka]

So many times (in any market) low asking prices are just chum used to bring out fighting buyers.

That's what we did when we sold our house in the Bay Area in the early '00s at the advice of our agent. We listed it ~10% below our reservation price to create excitement and create bidding situation, and ended up selling it for ~9% over our reservation price (making very little over our cost, probably less than inflation), so unless you were willing to offer quite a bit over the listed price, say 20%, you probably did not have a fighting chance at buying the house that was oh so attractively priced for location and features, so don't beat yourself up. No excuse for your realtor's behavior, just hope it gives some peace of my mind.

[daisyd]

I feel your pain. We're having realtor issues as well. It's not pretty.

[chlobo]

I just want to add that if you see an interesting house, do not wait for DH to be available. Go see it yourself and if you really like it, then drag DH there ASAP. Our first house my DH saw on his way to work at the Realtor's Open House. They had several offers by the weekend. Do whatever it takes.

[crl]

I just want to add that if you see an interesting house, do not wait for DH to be available. Go see it yourself and if you really like it, then drag DH there ASAP. Our first house my DH saw on his way to work at the Realtor's Open House. They had several offers by the weekend. Do whatever it takes.

I made it clear to everyone I could go see the house right away even though dh was not available and dh has made it clear I can make an offer on a house without him even seeing it. This was about the realtor's availability and his failure to find someone else to show me the house.

Catherine

[vonfirmath]

I made it clear to everyone I could go see the house right away even though dh was not available and dh has made it clear I can make an offer on a house without him even seeing it. This was about the realtor's availability and his failure to find someone else to show me the house.

Catherine

FYI you can make an offer without him seeing it but they will want his signature on the offer pages unless you have a Power of Attorney.
Our seller is in Singapore currently and he's STILL having to sign papers himself and his wife can't sign for him.

[crl]

FYI you can make an offer without him seeing it but they will want his signature on the offer pages unless you have a Power of Attorney.
Our seller is in Singapore currently and he's STILL having to sign papers himself and his wife can't sign for him.

Fax, baby, fax.

Catherine

[codex57]

eSignature baby, eSignature. :)

Everything is done over e-mail, in a .pdf document, including the signatures. The real estate biz has moved beyond faxes. :eek: Even lock boxes with combo locks are becoming out of date. Now, you use a smartphone to open the lockbox

People don't even have to leave their homes/offices anymore. Crl, you can just take a video on a smartphone and e-mail it to your DH at work. He can "see" the house that way. Then, all offers and stuff can be done through e-mail.

[crl]

eSignature baby, eSignature. :)

Everything is done over e-mail, in a .pdf document, including the signatures. The real estate biz has moved beyond faxes. :eek: Even lock boxes with combo locks are becoming out of date. Now, you use a smartphone to open the lockbox

People don't even have to leave their homes/offices anymore. Crl, you can just take a video on a smartphone and e-mail it to your DH at work. He can "see" the house that way. Then, all offers and stuff can be done through e-mail.

Well, sady our annoying agent hadn't moved quite that far into this century. With Redfin we can absolutely do it via email though. (Although Dh's faxes come as emails anyway. . . .)

Catherine

ETA. We lost out on a second house because of this, btw. It was on the market a couple days longer and I was also asking to see it. Our Redfin agent couldn't get anyone to return her calls (and we watched her make one of them) so we suspected it was gone. And it is now showing up as pending. It was priced about right from what I could tell online so I imagine it went for full price or close to it. I think we would have had a real shot at that one if we had been able to see it in a timely manner.

[vonfirmath]

We are doing it via email. But he's putting physical signatures on things, scanning them in and emailing them back to his realtor. So they are NOT using eSignature, -- not sure if it may be because there is a reason they can't legally?

[codex57]

ETA. We lost out on a second house because of this, btw. It was on the market a couple days longer and I was also asking to see it. Our Redfin agent couldn't get anyone to return her calls (and we watched her make one of them) so we suspected it was gone. And it is now showing up as pending. It was priced about right from what I could tell online so I imagine it went for full price or close to it. I think we would have had a real shot at that one if we had been able to see it in a timely manner.

Oh no! I'm sorry. Being a buyer in a hot market can be incredibly frustrating.

And yeah, I dunno all the legalities of eSignature. I think it's valid throughout most of the US, if not all of it. Internationally might be different though.