How To Successfully Fire Your Agent?!?

post reply Forum Index » Real Estate
[Post New]08/07/2014 20:22
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here - would it be unreasonable to expect regular (more than once a week and only because WE CALL HER) communication from our agent?

A few weeks ago, I emailed her for an update. By mid day, no word so I texted her. Nothing. by that night DH called her. nothing till much later that night with the usual "...sorry I was so busy showing houses to my buyers....". WTF!!! what about us? your sellers? helllloooooooo!!!!


So she should cancel pre-existing appointments with other clients to tend to you? What makes you so much more special than anyone else?

Go ahead and cancel the contract, but I question whether you'll be satisfied with any

wow....I don't even know how to reply to this one. you're joking, correct?


You're saying you think she should cancel her other appointments to tend to you?
[Post New]08/07/2014 20:32
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here - would it be unreasonable to expect regular (more than once a week and only because WE CALL HER) communication from our agent?

A few weeks ago, I emailed her for an update. By mid day, no word so I texted her. Nothing. by that night DH called her. nothing till much later that night with the usual "...sorry I was so busy showing houses to my buyers....". WTF!!! what about us? your sellers? helllloooooooo!!!!


So she should cancel pre-existing appointments with other clients to tend to you? What makes you so much more special than anyone else?

Go ahead and cancel the contract, but I question whether you'll be satisfied with any

wow....I don't even know how to reply to this one. you're joking, correct?


You're saying you think she should cancel her other appointments to tend to you?


NP here but it would take her 2 minutes to either e-mail back and say "no showings." Also showings usually end around 8 so certainly she could have responded. Sounds like the agent is overextended.
[Post New]08/07/2014 22:12
quote
VArealtor
Member Offline
OP, I'm sorry to hear that you are having a bad experience with a realtor.

You should schedule a meeting with your realtor and explain that she is not upholding her end of your contract and that you will be terminating the agreement. Follow-up with an e-mail and cc her broker so that it is in writing. The broker might try to remedy the situation or offer a better realtor from his brokerage to work your listing. Up to you if you would like to take it.

As I've said to other posters, there are MANY terrific realtors out there. The field is now so saturated but eventually the bad realtors will get weeded out when more people like you establish your (reasonable) expectations.
[Post New]08/08/2014 06:02
quote
Anonymous
OP. Either your house sucks or it's overpriced.

You should be worried about not getting showings, not an email saying so.

[Post New]08/08/2014 07:46
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Op, are you with a large brokerage or a small one person shop? I've listed homes with both types. With the small shop, agent did set up all of the showings herself and then texted me to let me know when to be out of the house. Her office did not have a receptionist so she did handle all of that herself. I did know that she had other clients and we were in pretty frequent communication so she would tell me that she would be out of pocket during such and such time but would call me with feedback once she heard from buyers agent about showing. If you have that kind of agent, then I can see why you are upset. When I listed with a big brokerage, the buyers agents, would call the office to set up the showing and then I would get a call from the office receptionist telling me I had a showing at such and such time. I would hear from my agent much less frequently and I certainly didn't hear from her when there were no showings.

Before you fire her, ask yourself if you followed all of her recommendations for staging the house and pricing the house. Or did you insist on a higher price than she recommended? You may be priced too high and that's why you're not getting any showings. Then ask her what she thinks the problem is. Since you are out of her regular area, she may be happy to terminate the listing as well.


We are with a big brokerage house - one that specializes in our neighborhood. what I didnt know before we hired her is that it seems she is more of a buyers' agent, not listing agent. I know this because she is always "busy showing buyers houses...". this is my fault as I should have done my homework and realized that our house is her only listing right now. I looked at her listing history, looks like ours is her 3rd listing in the past few years - YIKES

And yes, we have followed every single one of her recommendations regarding staging the home - spent a small fortune on that plus and another small fortune on prepping the house for the market - all in about $9K (staging and prepping). We have dropped the price twice already. house started a bit high but we lowered it the minute we realized it - within 2 weeks I think.

I've identified another agent already. He's sold over 25 houses in our neighborhood in just the past 9 months - two on our street. calling him this morning.
[Post New]08/08/2014 07:52
quote
Anonymous
VArealtor wrote:OP, I'm sorry to hear that you are having a bad experience with a realtor.

You should schedule a meeting with your realtor and explain that she is not upholding her end of your contract and that you will be terminating the agreement. Follow-up with an e-mail and cc her broker so that it is in writing. The broker might try to remedy the situation or offer a better realtor from his brokerage to work your listing. Up to you if you would like to take it.

As I've said to other posters, there are MANY terrific realtors out there. The field is now so saturated but eventually the bad realtors will get weeded out when more people like you establish your (reasonable) expectations.


Thanks for your advise. I was hoping that an agent would chime in on my question. I honestly do not feel that we are being unreasonable or asking too much of our agent. I can totally understand not hearing back from her right away (as in, within an hour or two after our email, text or call) but a whole day and a half? I think we have been more than reasonable on our end to be honest.
[Post New]08/08/2014 07:58
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP. Either your house sucks or it's overpriced.

You should be worried about not getting showings, not an email saying so.



OP here. I agree in that we should be worried about not getting showings! and this is actually why we have had to reach out to her the past few times - to find out why we have no showings. you would think that she would be sensitive to this and reach out to US before we reach out to HER. its her job to tell us what we are doing wrong....is it price....is it the staging....what is it? unlike a lot of people on DCUM who bitch about agents making too much money on their homes (commissions), I do not begrudge her right to make a nice commission when she sells our house but for GOD'S SAKE - work for it!!!

and no, the house doesn't suck. feedback from the showings we have had have been positive but a few did say it was priced too high. We listened and lowered the price immediately - and by quite a bit. showings have not increased.
[Post New]08/08/2014 08:27
quote
Anonymous
Post the listing and we'll give you feedback. Or start a new thread and post the listing for feedback.
[Post New]08/08/2014 08:30
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Post the listing and we'll give you feedback. Or start a new thread and post the listing for feedback.


No, no, no, don't do that!!! People on dcum are horrible about houses. I'm the pp who asked whether you were with a big brokerage. Call the agent who has sold lots of houses in your neighborhood and get his feedback -- not the anonymous posters. Good luck!!!
[Post New]08/08/2014 09:14
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Post the listing and we'll give you feedback. Or start a new thread and post the listing for feedback.


No, no, no, don't do that!!! People on dcum are horrible about houses. I'm the pp who asked whether you were with a big brokerage. Call the agent who has sold lots of houses in your neighborhood and get his feedback -- not the anonymous posters. Good luck!!!


No way am I providing the link to my house on DCUM - you guys are vicious. I just got off the phone with the agent that sells the majority of the houses in our neighborhood. part 1 is done. now off to fire the current agent.

thanks again to those who provided constructive feedback!
[Post New]08/08/2014 14:56
quote
Anonymous
Agent here. You are not in the DC Area so the first thing you should know is that different jurisdictions in different cities, municipalities, and states can and do have different procedures, documents, etc. For example, real property in New York is not at all transacted the same way it is the DC Metro Area. If you knew all the ins-and-outs you'd know that is an understatement. You do not say where you are so I'm not sure if the advice offered on this thread will apply.

In any event, you say you signed a "contract". I presume you mean a Listing Agreement. Read the document you signed with your agent; all terms and conditions regarding termination should be in that Agreement.
[Post New]08/09/2014 07:35
quote
Anonymous
OP here - Just a quick update....if anyone is interested.

DH called her early yesterday afternoon - left a message to "please call him, it was very important ....he needed to speak with her..." etc

still waiting. not one word back from her. honestly not surprised as this has been her exact and predictable behavior the minute we signed the contract.

If we were going to at all consider giving her one more chance, she sealed her fate last night.
[Post New]08/09/2014 08:55
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP here - Just a quick update....if anyone is interested.

DH called her early yesterday afternoon - left a message to "please call him, it was very important ....he needed to speak with her..." etc

still waiting. not one word back from her. honestly not surprised as this has been her exact and predictable behavior the minute we signed the contract.

If we were going to at all consider giving her one more chance, she sealed her fate last night.
a

Wow, you are right to terminate the contract with her lack of commitment.
WE have had to fire two agents in the past. It was our mistake to hire them as both a buyer's and seller's agent. They both were much more interested in getting us to sign a contract on a new home, and less interested in selling our small townhome.
They both became defensive and mad. If I had it to do over again, I would do it by email or not give specific feedback, just a general statement "it's not working for us" or something vague like that.
Good luck OP and keep us posted!
[Post New]08/09/2014 11:01
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP here - Just a quick update....if anyone is interested.

DH called her early yesterday afternoon - left a message to "please call him, it was very important ....he needed to speak with her..." etc

still waiting. not one word back from her. honestly not surprised as this has been her exact and predictable behavior the minute we signed the contract.

If we were going to at all consider giving her one more chance, she sealed her fate last night.
a

Wow, you are right to terminate the contract with her lack of commitment.
WE have had to fire two agents in the past. It was our mistake to hire them as both a buyer's and seller's agent. They both were much more interested in getting us to sign a contract on a new home, and less interested in selling our small townhome.
They both became defensive and mad. If I had it to do over again, I would do it by email or not give specific feedback, just a general statement "it's not working for us" or something vague like that.
Good luck OP and keep us posted!



....and STILL no word from her. I think that we have to do the firing by phone however. email won't suffice as we are trying the break a contract - so we need to make sure that she is crystal clear that we are serious, that we've given it a lot of thought, we are done and we want a "release" not just from her but her whole brokerage firm.

we woud do it in person but the house is not in the area.
[Post New]08/09/2014 11:20
quote
Anonymous
Cancel it by text, cc the the broker's email account. (keep the copy of the email or text). Follow-up with a phone call to both the broker and agent.
Cover your a$$ and get moving with someone who will sell your house!
(by the way, where is it? - we are in the market!!)
post reply Forum Index » Real Estate
Message Quick Reply
Go to: 

Search   Recent Topics   Hottest Topics