Am I The Only Person Who Has Fired Their Realtor? And, Should I Report Him?

[AKL_Megs]

I just had to fire our "buyers agent".

I posted twice about this man. We are buyers, and the first issue we had with him was about him telling us that "We would discuss what his commission rate would be at a later time" Sure, okay buddy. Second issue was about our pre-approval. We were approved over the phone and in an email, but he wouldn't even ATTEMPT to look for houses for us until the hard copy came in the mail. He could have had us call the lender in front of him, anything. Nope.

We've been dealing with him for a month now, and in that time, he has shown us a total of 5 houses, ALL of which we found on our own driving around for hours.

My DH is on vacation for the next two weeks, and this realtor told us that he "Would show us LOTS of houses over these two weeks." Two days ago, he had his "assistant" or whoever she was open lock boxes for us so we could look, because HE had a last minute showing with other clients. Then he was supposed to show us houses yesterday, and cancelled.

We never signed a contract with him, or any other agreement.

Next, yesterday evening, I called to ask him what was going on, if he was too busy to work with us, to let us know and we would move on. He basically BLEW UP at me. Some of the things he said to me were, "Look, I don't make a dime unless I sell a house. Are you telling me that I should only work with you and not make money off of any other clients?" and "How do you think people find houses? They go out looking in their car. Realtors show you the houses and sign the papers."

I think he was very disrespectful to me on the phone and didn't take us serious at all.

Do you think what has happened warrants turning him in to the Association of Realtors?

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

First, you do not pay the realtor that helps you find a home to buy. That money comes from the seller, and it is a split with the seller's realtor. I have never heard of anyone "hiring" a realtor to help them find a home.

I had many realtors show me homes when I have searched. The only realtors that I have "hired" have been the ones selling my homes.

Color me confused...

 

[AKL_Megs]

First, you do not pay the realtor that helps you find a home to buy. That money comes from the seller, and it is a split with the seller's realtor. I have never heard of anyone "hiring" a realtor to help them find a home.

I had many realtors show me homes when I have searched. The only realtors that I have "hired" have been the ones selling my homes.

Color me confused...

Well, okay... he was our "buyers agent"... sorry, I was wordy! I know anout the commission issue, thus why I had the issue.

 

[sbell111]

In our area, it is common to sign an exclusivity agreement with the realtor who is showing you homes. Since the OP didn't sign one, she is free to simply walk away from this guy.

The pre-approval issue wouldn't bother me. I would have simply asked my banker to fax me the letter. However, this guy has also been disrespectful and he isn't putting any effort into finding them a home. For this, I would can him in a second.

The last time we were looking for a house, we initially used an agent that was a friend of my MIL. Even though we were very specific about what we were looking for, she kept taking us around to see houses that clearly didn't fit our needs. We tried focusing her on a few occasions, but after a few week we had to let her go.

 

[JimFitz]

You're not happy....find someone else. Realtors are a dime a dozen.

 

[joyjoy]

Do you think what has happened warrants turning him in to the Association of Realtors?

I don't think so - he didn't really do anything illegal. Maybe report him to the Association of *********? What a freak.

 

[AKL_Megs]

I don't think so - he didn't really do anything illegal. Maybe report him to the Association of *********? What a freak.

I figured. He was just so rude and disrespectful to me, and I know if he were me and I talked to someone like that at work, I would be gone. I hate for him to get away with a mouth like that!

 

[dis-happy]

He's not illegal, just a really, really bad agent. If he's part of a larger agency (most are) I'd outline a list of your problems with him and send it to the head of the agency.

Then, move on and find someone wonderful. Good luck!

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

In our area, it is common to sign an exclusivity agreement with the realtor who is showing you homes. Since the OP didn't sign one, she is free to simply walk away from this guy...

Agreed, but I am not sure why anyone would ever do this. We had no less than 6 realtors helping us look for the home that we are in today. They knew that they were competing against other realtors to find a home that might interest us, and to get that home's information in front of use before the others. (My gentleman's agreement with all of them was - the first to pass me the home's info gets to represent me as I try to purchase the home).

The result - we were the first couple to view a number of homes that had just come onto the market in our search area. In fact, we viewed the home that we purchased BEFORE it came onto the market, and made our offer the minute that it was put on the market...

 

[AKL_Megs]

He's not illegal, just a really, really bad agent. If he's part of a larger agency (most are) I'd outline a list of your problems with him and send it to the head of the agency.

Then, move on and find someone wonderful. Good luck!

Hmm... I never thought of that. I always just assumed that they only "rented" space. My MIL used to be a realtor, and she "worked" for Real Estate One, but she only "rented" her office space and the title of working for "REO".

I guess I should send something over to his company.

 

[hucifer]

Next, yesterday evening, I called to ask him what was going on, if he was too busy to work with us, to let us know and we would move on. He basically BLEW UP at me. Some of the things he said to me were, "Look, I don't make a dime unless I sell a house. Are you telling me that I should only work with you and not make money off of any other clients?" and "How do you think people find houses? They go out looking in their car. Realtors show you the houses and sign the papers."

It's like he's daring you to find another realtor. Give him the one-fingered salute and find another one.

Seriously, this guy sounds like he has some issues.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Agreed, but I am not sure why anyone would ever do this. We had no less than 6 realtors helping us look for the home that we are in today. They knew that they were competing against other realtors to find a home that might interest us, and to get that home's information in front of use before the others. (My gentleman's agreement with all of them was - the first to pass me the home's info gets to represent me as I try to purchase the home).

The result - we were the first couple to view a number of homes that had just come onto the market in our search area. In fact, we viewed the home that we purchased BEFORE it came onto the market, and made our offer the minute that it was put on the market...

Never thought about working with more than one! One has been hassle enough!

DisneyBamaFan... did you do most of your searching through email and over the phone?

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Never thought about working with more than one! One has been hassle enough!

DisneyBamaFan... did you do most of your searching through email and over the phone?

We did most of our searching via the internet. The realtors would send us links with the info on the properties that matched our search criteria. We also searched the internet on our own and drove around the neighborhoods in our search area.

We scheduled time every week to look at prospective homes. We knew what we wanted, and were very picky. It took us nearly 6 months to find our current home. We made offers on two other homes, but they didn't work out. I like to think that it is because we were meant to be in this home (which my wife says she could happily die in). By then, our other home was sold.

 

[Pakey]

I would complain to the broker. This agent is more than likely working in a company under a broker. Part of the agent's commission goes to the broker so I would think the broker would be interested in knowing they lost potential revenue.

We also had 3 agents working with us on the investment property we bought 4 months ago. We did not sign anything until we made an offer on the house. I did a lot of my own research. It's very easy to look at homes online. Realtors are very busy these days and I found that I got better results if I had a list that I had started with of homes I had found I wanted to look at. Once the realtors showed me some from my list, they started sending me links to other properties and I would look at them all online and then decide with the various realtors which ones I wanted to physically view.

All of the realtors did want to have a concrete confirmation on pre-approval prior to going out to locations to show us homes (they were willing to send us links but to show, they wanted that pre-approval).

 

[edandcolleen1995]

You're not happy....find someone else. Realtors are a dime a dozen.

Bingo..

We bought our first home back in June of this year. We had an ok realtor but looking back we now know, she was less then great..

But there are tons of them. While we don't plan on buying/selling again soon, I should have been more aggressive about getting ours moving and representing us better.

So for the OP, don't even blink. Boot him, get another one. You are fine.

 

[claudia]

Hmm... I never thought of that. I always just assumed that they only "rented" space. My MIL used to be a realtor, and she "worked" for Real Estate One, but she only "rented" her office space and the title of working for "REO".

I guess I should send something over to his company.

If he's a sales agent he must work under a broker....so just call the office that he works out of and ask to speak to the broker....
A good place to search for homes is www.realtor.com

 

[sbell111]

Agreed, but I am not sure why anyone would ever do this. We had no less than 6 realtors helping us look for the home that we are in today. They knew that they were competing against other realtors to find a home that might interest us, and to get that home's information in front of use before the others. (My gentleman's agreement with all of them was - the first to pass me the home's info gets to represent me as I try to purchase the home).

The result - we were the first couple to view a number of homes that had just come onto the market in our search area. In fact, we viewed the home that we purchased BEFORE it came onto the market, and made our offer the minute that it was put on the market...

The other side of that coin is also true.

If you are not committed to your realtor, they may not wish to put in as much effort to finding you a home. After all, they could work their buns off and still lose you to another agent.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We have always found our homes on our own even though we had agents helping us. We are just aggressive researchers and we enjoy the hunt. On house #4.

We used the agent to go on their MLS and other info we did not have access to and then show us the house.

I will admit that home searching and buying last yr. was emotional. Between the news and the sad stories with people upside down on their loans it was hard to find a house.

As far as you OP, I agree with the one finger salute.

 

[PatsMom]

OP, I noticed you are in Michigan. Reading about the economy and unemployment in that state I would think that the realtor would be falling all over you to find a home for you and earn a commission! Sounds like the one you are using isn't very motivated. I agree with those who say give him the one finger salute and move on!

Good luck to you.

 

[Disney Doll]

If you have not signed any kind of contract with him, you are under no obligation legally to continue to work with him.

If that is the case, then simply tell him you no longer wish to work with him. If you feel very strongly about his bad behavior, then report it to his office manager or broker. You can call or write. Unless he is an independent agent where he is actually his own manager/broker, I am quite sure his "boss" will be interested in hearing your tale.

DH is the manager of a real estate office.