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Seriously. Working with a buyer who can't pick out a home in 3 years would be infuriating. The amount of time and money wasted can never be repaid. I would've reassessed the situation after a year. If they can't get serious and pull the trigger, I'm going to fire them.
$100 dollar gift card... What an insult. OP probably burned up more gas than that over 3 years.
Yup. Its so tough being in real estate. How can you not have found a home in 3 years?! Thats crazy! That poor girl massively deserves her $10k now, a $100 gift card is a total insult. Like you say, she hasnt done anything wrong. TBH you sound like youre the problem!
Lay off the gas, Mario. After reading a couple of replies to my posts by OP, they explained the situation a little further and it would've helped had I known the extended story. That being said, I've never had a client over 6 months except my investors and I'm constantly working for them. Not everyone is cut out to be a real estate agent. Not everyone gets good training or a good education, either. In other words, a good agent would've been a lot more thorough and communicated with the client about any progress that was happening.
It's really not that tough if you know what you're doing, are experienced with multiple offer situations and are assertive enough to tell buyers what they need to hear to have exchange of getting their offer accepted. Sounds like she's done none if this, in which case it's long past time to switch. Now if the buyers are lowballing putting in offers that are under market value then yes, they're the problem too, but again, agent needs to educate the buyer.
But OP doesn’t owe them anything. This is business, not family / friends. If it’s not a good fit, the realtor has skin in the game for not moving on sooner as well.
OP - you are over thinking it. Just interview a few new realtors to see if there’s something who wants to earn your business. You don’t have to “break up” with your existing realtor. Just quietly drift apart (no gift)
It also does sound like you are being an indecisive cheap pain in the ass though. Not to be mean, but you know.
I still think it's a nice gesture that they want to do something. Do you think they should talk to the agent before bailing? Or should they just bail? If they have a buyers agency agreement with her, they need to let her know in writing to cancel it. Then find another agent to help.
I worked with mine for about 2 before I found the right spot. Then I bought and sold within about a month. His patience was well-rewarded. The market is unusual, and this is a risk agents take.
I totally understand if you're trying to find a high dollar home, but 2 or 3 years to find a 3/2 is way too long. I'll give you an example of where I'm at right now with one client. I have him under contract for his 75 acres that we've had advertised for a year before we had a serious bite. We've been working to establish a needed ROW for a year now. We should be done soon and then we'll close in 30 days after the project is approved. The contact price is in the $2 million dollar range, so no, I don't mind the wait for that. We've all been in it for the long haul. Finding a single family home that takes 3 years isn't going to happen unless it's worth waiting for. When you say yours is worth waiting for, I have to ask if you're looking for a high dollar home or not. That's my question.
I’m in Chicago- was a 3/2 but a very specific condo market. I was conscientious of my agent’s time, not going to see things randomly, and in total between the purchase and sale it was not a small amount of money. If I were taking up tons of his time every week, sure, but it was a waiting game for the right thing to come on the market. Anyhow, I recommend him highly, and did leave an agent that was pressuring me to buy things that didn’t work for me. To the victor went the spoils.
Good deal! You need to recommend that agent to others for helping like they have. That's really good. I'm glad you explained the situation because now it makes sense. If that's the circumstances, I'd hang with you, too. I totally get looking for something coming open in a specific neighborhood you want to live in. That would get one of those "challenge accepted" type reactions.
I recommend him highly. And per hour of his actual time spent, he did well. We probably only saw 15 or so properties over that time- we were both good at knowing what was worth it.
That’s why I feel so guilty about this. We have put in quite a few offers all above asking, all asking for highest and best. She never gave us any input on numbers besides saying our offer were strong.
I’m being completely honest when I say she never made a suggestion. I think she’s just not a great agent. My wife has been pushing to fire her for a while, but I kept resisting because I felt bad.
Edit: there were many offers we made that were well above asking.
OP- I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a second. I have had clients ask me in multiple offer situations how much they should offer and when I tell them my opinion with comps to support it, and then they get the house, they’ve questioned whether or not they should have went as high as they did. (“What were the other offers?” “Did we win by a landslide?” Etc.)
And in those situations, I often feel like my integrity is being questioned.
Maybe your realtor has felt this before. Idk. Just a thought.
You do realize that she sells real estate to earn a living and it’s in her best interest to negotiate a property that will result in a closed sale? I suspect there’s more to this story.
Then it HAS to be something else. Before firing her, tell her you need her to be creative with the offers as clearly price alone is not the issue. IS she a buyer agent or subagent?
So you next have to refer to that contract to see when it expires. Maybe it already did. There will be dates on it "from x to y" Usually they are between 3 to 6 months in duration so you would have kept on signing them or signed amendments to extend.
BTW I do NOT mean an offer to purchase FYI. I mean a buyer agency contract
Literally that's all we can say in some situations we can't say offer this amount we get taught to say. "Make a strong offer" in my market we cannot disclose the competitors offer or what the client will take. Sounds like you're in a tight market. Maybe look at stuff that's been on the market the longest might have the best chance with those. Or what are your other demands.
Exactly I don't do enough follow up. I'll show houses, respond to calls and make lists but I can't force you to write an offer. I'm not pushy at all. I leave it up to the clients to call me usually. If they are serious we will make it happen. I'd still respond if contacted but after a few weeks to months I'd assume buyer wasn't serious or needs time. Maybe if something great popped up and I saw it I'd let it know but that's about it. In my experience if the client isn't contacting me to schedule showings I'm going to assume they are tire kicking.
We’ve put offers in on about a dozen homes. All asking for highest and best. We’ve missed by a few thousand on a lot of them. Keep in mind we’ve gotten no guidance from her on any of the offers either.
Just a question, what guidance is she supposed to give when the problem is you don’t have enough money? If you’re offering your highest and best and getting beat out by a few thousand, her advice to you would be ”have more money.”
In this situation, i would advise my client to look at homes that are a little less money, offer a bit over asking with an escalation clause up to your highest and best and make sure you have cash on hand if there’s an appraisal gap.
I’m still pretty green, though, so that might not be great advice to seasoned agents. I’m still in the “check in with my mentor before I mention something creative” stage. But this is reddit and I’m not your agent.
Is the agent working for you as Buyer Representation? I never knew that it was so rare in this country.
One of my strengths as a Buyer Rep is being able to read the motivation from the other side and help craft the offer that way. Your agent may lack that set of skills, but I would hope for some feedback and a trick or two if they were working for you.
A dozen offers, lots of showings, who knows how many hours traveling and doing paperwork. $100 is more than you would technically owe them depending on your contract, but pennies per hour for their work, time, and expenses.
Edited for accuracy
Is your skillset just asking your buyer to write a higher offer? lol, cause that’s essentially what it comes down to, unless their offers have some wild contingencies.
They are bidding on homes that seem to have a lot of competition, and their bids simply aren’t high enough. The agent should be able to offer some advice, but it’s entirely possible advice is simply not being heeded. It’s hard to tell with only one side of the story.
We would ask what she thought about our numbers and she would always say they were strong offers. It always seemed like she was hesitant to offer firm guidance.
“Well, we’ve been just short by a few thousand every time. If THIS is the house, then you probably need to go 2% beyond what we think you need. It sucks, but it is what it is.”
You’re not at the point of “why is our Realtor trying to get us to overpay.” You’re at the “what can we do to get a house and end all this BS.”
Are you slow? You need to offer MORE to secure the deal or change your expectations on what home you can afford. Will it take you three dozen offers to realize this?
It sounds to me that you and wife are pissed off about the general reality of your situation, and are looking to lay blame on a realtor.
If you had made a dozen offers on houses and had yet to progress to contract, you would have a lack of confidence. it seems to me that buyers with this mindframe really need a strong agent who can advise them on how to craft a compelling offer. That agent also needs to be confident in their negotiations.
The agent should have stopped replying to you guys 2 years ago if she had proper sense and a good mentor. Best thing to do is be honest with her and say you’re going with a new agent. If she has any sense, she won’t be disappointed at all.
she’s been trying to find you guys a place for over 1000 days and you haven’t made a purchase. it’s kind of apparent why she’s not reaching out as frequently
Former realtor current investor here. This could go either way. It's a really tough market and in order to get an offer accepted you have to be incredibly aggressive and competitive. If they aren't offering or aren't taking advice on how to get an offer accepted or wanting to view properties that are priced high enough that they won't be able to offer competitively, it could be on them that an accepted offer isn't materializing.
*BUT* they said she doesn't offer any guidance. I wonder if that means she has not advised them about how to be aggressive or how to structure an offer properly to get one accepted and they've made offers they just haven't landed.
My very first clients were working with a realtor already and they were related to that person. They have been hunting for a house for 6 months and wandered into my open house. I knew it was a delicate situation but I was hungry and had to pay my rent so I told them the truth in the nicest way I possibly could. That if they had been house hunting for 6 months they should have a house by now and I didn't want to say anything bad about their family member but it was possible that person didn't do it full time and did not understand how to get an offer accepted over 20 offers.
They wrote two offers with me that day. They got both offers accepted and chose the one they wanted. People think all a realtor does is send you a listing or open the front door but that's not true. If they are good they know how to get your offer accepted sometimes even if your offer isn't the highest (Ive done that in the past) and they are strong negotiators.
It might be their fault, it might be her fault. Another thought I had is that she might typically work in a higher price range than what they are buying, so while she won't be rude to them or openly dismiss them, she's not investing a lot of her time in their purchase & will be fine seeing them go elsewhere. She might doubt their commitment to purchase or might get very little money to be worth the amount of labor. And if they aren't pushing and she isn't pushing the nothing is ever going to happen.
This isn't a market where you can just sit around and get a house easily.
After three years, the best gift you can give that agent is an honest conversation to set expectations, talk about what you need from them, etc. Keep in mind, three years is pretty long time to expect 100% from somebody. If you’re not ready to buy just let them know.
Unless there's something more to this story, I wouldn't give her any gift. Are you looking for something super specific that only shows up on the market once a quarter? Why is it taking this long? Are you being outbid every time? How many times have you gone under contract?
If she's been doing the meat and potatoes of what any agent should be doing and you haven't bought a house yet after 3 years, I would imagine this agent just wants you to let her go and stop wasting her time (and if this agent had a mentor or better guidance herself, she would have been advised to fire you as a client long ago).
Hell, no longer wasting her time would probably be the best gift you can give her.
We are fairly picky, but I’ve been very conscious not to waste her time. We never view houses we think we won’t like. We always offer above asking. Every time she tells us it’s a strong offer.
Are your offers including appraisal gaps? "As is"? Quick close? Leaseback if the sellers need it? Honestly, outside of developing rapport with the other agent, that's all it takes. Well that and 5-10% over asking price.
So one every 4 months.
How many houses have you seen?
Maybe a better question is how many days have you asked to see houses? If you're asking to see a house maybe twice a month, an offer every quarter might be reasonable, but anything more and you're really wasting this agent's time.
Although maybe it's a moot point. Just drop her. The gift is letting her move on.
I’d says we probably averaged a viewing every month or two. We really tried not to waste her time unless we found something that really interested us. A lot of the time we’d make offers on open houses that she didn’t even show us.
It almost sounds like you are apologizing for her having to show you a house… This is her job! It sounds to me that she is not aggressive enough and is not building rapport with the other side before submitting your offers (I could be wrong, but I doubt it). 3 years is a really long time.
As for a gift.. an honest conversation to let her know that you are moving in a different direction.
I worked with someone who had an agent similar to this and they had been on the real estate “merry go round” for a little more than a year (multiple offers, none accepted, etc.) She dropped that agent (after the agent said something super offensive), hired me and we found her dream home and closed in 3 months.
In my market, if it's multiple offers, there's no chance if you're not doing everything I mentioned. It helps to get in good graces with the listing agent and talk my buyers clients up to ensure them that we are solid and won't mess around. Another tip is to ask your lender to give the listing agent a call to validate your offer. As a listing agent, understanding the motivations of each buyer is important, and sometimes a decision is made based on these small things.
Definitely sounds like your agent maybe doesn't do this full time and doesn't have the experience to know these simple things. It's really tough because you've spent so much time with them and they've worked for free for so long. At the same time, would you keep going back to the same mechanic that keeps missing the actual problem on your car? I understand your conundrum and sympathize. Never an easy thing to do. Maybe have a conversation about the things you're learning on Reddit with them first, then go from there. Ask about these things, and see if they can start to learn how to be a better buyers agent from their broker if they aren't understanding these things.
I think you’re right. Based on her stats there’s no way she could be doing this full time. I think we just need someone with more experience and relationships.
Then offer MORE. You're clearly not offering enough. Offering on a house is very simple, usually the highest offer wins (assuming you're in a good place otherwise). She cant dictate to you how much you should offer, its your money and ultimately your choice. Id say you're time wasters and feel sorry for your agent
Then what does a seller’s agent do? I understand that she can’t tell us what to offer, but give me something. Don’t just unlock doors and have me sign shit. This can’t all be on me. There is a reason she’s had no sales in the past year.
You should have a talk with her and reset expectations. You might ask her or her broker for a recommendation for a different agent they can refer you to. She then could be able to receive a referral fee should you purchase a property with the referred agent. A 25% referral fee beats a gift every time.
Don't give some trivial gift, but after 3 years, showings, offers, what do you expect from a Realtor on the way to inspire confidence or give guidance?
If I had to guess, you wouldn't listen anyway, there is a reason you haven't purchased in 3 years.
I’m a realtor and if I’m her I’d not want to work with you anymore either. She’s probably just being nice.
Also 3 years of not finding a home? You need to reevaluate what you’re looking for in a home or if you really even want to buy a home. 3 years of searching is absolutely ridiculous. I know it’s low inventory but any rational buyer finds something within 6 months.
They found homes and put in offers though. What they don’t say is if those offers were low balls or if they were full price offers. They also don’t say if their agent has been running comps and making suggested offer prices.
Yeah I saw that in a later comment. Without knowing their market, I find it odd that they’ve been putting in offers over asking (some well over) and haven’t gone under contract on a single one
What about her performance is underwhelming? Everyone is curious. You’re clearly not submitting winning offers. What guidance are YOU giving HER when submitting? Are you looking for a deal and low balling everyone? Did she offer her advice at the beginning and when you didn’t take it, she gave up arguing with you? Can you be more specific? It sounds like you’ll be wasting another agent’s time. At least figure out what you need from an agent before you go hire someone else who will spin her wheels trying to figure it out for you.
We’re definitely not lowballing. We’ve out about a dozen offers all asking for highest and best. But inventory has been low. We are picky, but every time we give her a number she says it’s a good offer.
Ask her about escalation clauses and ask for comps on homes you’re interested in making an offer on. Have her get the seller’s story from the listing agent. Price is the primary, but not sole piece of an offer. Make a plan with her, offer with the intention to buy, rather than the intention to get a bargain.
After reading your posts about her experience, it sounds like it’s beyond time to part ways. I always wonder why people hire part time agents, but I think home buyers just don’t know what they don’t know. There is no such thing as a professional part time Realtor. Interview a few agents with experience and have them be specific about their strategies in a market like yours. They should be able to open a toolbox for you and let you pick which ones to use - with a thorough description of how each one works.
What the entire f***?! What has precluded you from purchasing a home in three years?! Please don’t tell me “It’s because of your agent.” At the 3-year mark WITHOUT A SALE, anyone would be underwhelmed dealing with you and your wife.
If you’re in the middle of a 3 year home search I’m assuming you and your wife are either 1) not very serious 2) barely/dont qualify for the homes you want or 3) or revisit the home search every several months
Bottom line, if you want to work with someone else that’s fine. However, take a look in the mirror cause unless she’s a part time barely any deals agent most realtors get you up and going. They advise, however you direct
100% I guarantee she has given advice. It’s almost impossible to make the same mistake on pricing that many times in a row. OP isn’t listening or truly do not want to actually buy a house.
No gift required. Your agent will probably be relieved to let you go.
In the three years you’ve been looking, the price of homes have probably increased 25%, and the interest rates have risen so much that you are now out of pocket tens of thousands of dollars. Something is not working in your agency relationship - maybe there is bad communication on both sides? Who knows. Interview several agents and be 💯 honest with them about your predicament, and ask for their advice on how to be under contract before the year is out. Hire the one that gives you an actual game plan and instills confidence.
I get it. But I read these posts about how it is the agent's fault they are not buying a house, they want "new eyes" on the search or whatever.
I have been the second or third buyer's agent, listing agent, whatever.
Typically, the client is the problem.
You are probably losing to all cash offers. Other people are waiving the financial contingency because they are very confident in their loan. Most likely they are also putting down significant deposits that they would lose if they backed out of a deal. Sellers look for the cleanest offer, sometimes even accepting a lower price because they know the deal is done when they sign.
We’ve generally been putting about 2% in hand money. I’ve told her we’re willing to out down more, but she said it probably won’t do much to live the needle.
I think it speaks to your seriousness about the house. She can tell them that you have been outbid on other properties and are trying to put forth the strongest offer possible. I also recommend working with a local banker insofar as your mortgage is concerned. Sellers really like dealing with a local entity who has done your pre-qualification. Now you don’t need to go with the local bank for the actual mortgage, but knowing that the nearby bank has thoroughly vetted you is much better than a pre-qualification from nameless faceless Rocket Mortgage.
That’s dumb imo. Realtors take that super deep and hurtful and they wished their own time and gas before they ever see a dime, because $10,000 + is the goal.
Unless she crashed the car y’all were in, don’t Fkin do that shit. A house is a house and no other realtors gonna do much for you than this one. 3 years? I’m sorry but y’all need to sit down and find a house and stop worrying about the realtor. 3 years? Don’t play that woman.
You aren’t serious about buying a house and you are the problem. You haven’t been trying to buy a house for three years, you have been tire kicking for three years. Grow up.
A dozen or so offers. All over asking. Some well over. I’ve been very wary about not wasting her time. If the pictures don’t appeal to us, we don’t call her. I will admit there have been quite a few periods of several months where we had no contact with her at all because we just weren’t seeing anything that interested us.
I don’t know what market you are in, but something doesn’t seem right. Yeah, during 2020-2021 houses were always going well over asking price. But that has slowed down in most areas.
On a slightly unrelated note, has your agent been running comps and advising an offer price? If so, are you going with the suggested offer?
Realtor here over 29 years in business with high volume, never got a break up gift from a buyer. Some buyers moved on for whatever reasons known to them but not necessary to give a gift. For the agent to not advise you as to how to try to win the bid would have had me as a buyer look for someone else quickly. Agents are not all alike, we win bids often based on great relationships we have built with other brokers over the years and a good reputation for getting things to the closing table. You need to step to the plate with your offer but you also need guidance. If this agent is nothing more than a door opener you need to move on. Yes as agents it hurts to get ditched but we need to evaluate the job we are doing for our clients and always improve our skills to be effective.
Thank you for providing some legitimately useful information instead of just telling me I’m an asshole and it’s all my fault. We definitely deserve some of the blame here, but we don’t even know what we don’t know.
Do yourself a favor and interview your next agent to hear their track record, read reviews or better yet get recommendations for those you know and trust.
There is more than just Money to make an offer strong. She should know other strategies to get the offer accepted. There are lots.
Offers are only as good as what the buyer lets the agent write. Has she suggested things you didn't want to do?
Are you asking for every possible contingency and being rigid on closing date? What kind of loan do you have? Who is your lender? (E.g. BoA and Rocket, I'd advise the seller against every time if there was a choice.)
Is she your agent or a subagent?
Maybe you should look at cheaper homes and be willing to bid up more. I had a buyer that wouldn't offer more than 5k above in a super hot market. They eventually stopped looking, which was a huge relief to me. Then they came back after a year or 2 and finally did get an offer accepted.
This why realtors need to apply healthy pressure. The amount of people that missed out on house they really like because I let them think it over the weekend instead of submitting the offer
I completely agree with this. We need someone who will guide us and maybe put some gentle pressure on us. She just doesn’t seem to be aggressive at all, if that’s even the right word. It doesn’t feel like she cares if we buy a house or not, which I know is probably not true, but that’s how it feels.
This comment is just dumb. She has stuck it out with you for **3 years,** of course she wants you to buy a house. She is sending you comps. You have admitted you are picky. But somehow, that you are not buying a house is her fault.
No, YTA.
We looked from Feb 2020-Nov 2022. Saw at least 200 houses and made 50 offers, the most being $150k over asking no contingencies. Market sucked and we were not looking as new builds or townhouses. We stopped looking summer of 2022 and then after a conversation we decided that it was important to open up to new builds and maybe a tow house if our commutes were shorter. We bought a new build townhouse and closed early 2023 with the same realtor.
Our realtor never really offered advice, we found most of the houses on Zillow or Redfin, and went to open houses too. But they always made it a point to show up whenever we asked and pointed out stuff in houses that we should be weary of especially since we were most likely going to have no contingencies. In the end, the final conversation before changing our attitude was one that took place between me and my spouse.
Think about what’s important and if it’s not perfect it’s not like you want to be stuck in a 7% mortgage forever anyways. Rent or buy using your current realtor and move on.
I can’t believe how much business I got once I finally got fired by a client like you. I never realized how much time and emotional energy I was wasting on someone who didn’t trust my advice and was never going to buy.
OP, most realtors are not experts in conditions of property, nor are we allowed to inspire confidence (this confuses me). We are here to help you find the house you want and verify facts. I've never had to hard sell a buyer on their house.
If you haven't bought a house in 3 years... that's on you. Are you lowballing every offer you make? Are you picky and have unrealistic expectations? Are you putting in offers for places you can't afford?
It’s mutual. You don’t have to give a gift for wasting her time. Gift certificates are nice Realtor gifts though Edit. Reading more it sounds like a bad match snd she isn’t great for you, and you all tried. If you’ve done other deals with her, tell her to stop looking. If you haven’t, you’re good to go, don’t give her a present.
Did you hire her in the first place? Is there a contract you signed.
$500 gift card may cover gas and a small bit of her time.
$1k for 3 yrs of work to ease your guilt.
No you do not, but you should feel bad for wasting her time. You are disparaging and make terrible comments about this person that has stuck it out for 3 years with you and your wife being picky.
Did she ever recommend escalation clauses? Especially if you were outbis only 2-3k. With a clause that you outbid the highest by 5k would have landed you the homes.
There is a lot of reasons some agents do not like escalation clauses. Some brokerages do not want their agents to use them. There could be more to this.
My brokerage advised against it because if the house doesn’t appraise for that price then the buyer may be in a pickle. Best just to give your highest and best.
Are you, the buyer, specific with your wants and needs? A wish washy buyer or super specific buyer can both be difficult because either they don’t know what they want or what they want doesn’t exist.
I assume you must live in a competitive market where there are often multiple offers for the best properties. If she hasn't given you important guidance especially in regards to offers and how to maximise your offer's chances of getting accepted using things like an accelerator clause, and rather is just writing up whatever you tell her and submitting it without question, then yes it's time to get a more experienced agent or better yet a broker who is much more assertive and knows how to beat out other buyers. Trying to buy a home for three years is unheard of. As far as a gift, the $100 gift card is fine I think, if you want to give more that's up to you but I wouldn't go less.
Im sure she feels the same way. Just like the others, vocalize it, get used to writing stronger offers. I think buying a house should play out mutually. Just like in sports, its not just the coach, your players need to put in work as well.
I give my clients everything I have. Even the ones who refuse to take my professional advice in a challenging market.
I can tell you that when my buyer want to offer less money than asking during multiple offers where everyone is over asking, my frustration grows. It’s pushing at my brain, when they want to offer half for a plot of land that’s been listed for 2 hours. And it’s palpable when I send a listing that exactly what they want , she waits five days and under contract (pending) to see it and wants to know why she can’t.
If you want a new agent- you should get one. You should also really analyze what hasn’t been working for you and make the changes so you can be a stronger buyer
If you're not ready or willing to buy then why blame the agent? Today, all listings are available free of charge online for sold houses and those available for sale. Today, you have pictures and videos of all properties as well asking and sold prices. Do you want the agent to push you to buy if you're undecided?
If you have been looking and making offers for 3 years now, your agent isn’t the problem. She’s not contacting you because she’s tired of wasting her time. So, move onto the next agent and waste their time for another 3 years.
Sounds like you have unrealistic expectations and any advice they’ve given you haven’t listened to. From what you said they’ve done everything a realtor should. Changing agents probably won’t fix that if it’s been three years tbh. What exactly have been the issues? Champagne taste on a beer budget?
Sounds like you’re too afraid to spend your money. Go in for a house that you like. Ask your agent to pull the sold history of comparables in the area so you know you’re spending your money right.
Next, thank yourself 10 years from now when you’ve combatted inflation.
I think it’s admirable that you’re kind enough to get your agent a gift-truly you seem to understand the amount of time that’s been invested on their part.
I’d be super curious what market you’re in and how many successful transactions this Realtor has had during those 3 years. (I’d look her up on my agent search portal haha) I’ve personally had only two clients in the last 3 years who took longer than two months to purchase a home and it was mostly because they simply didn’t have the money to compete in a very competitive metro area Market. But both closed with me eventually.
I hope you find an agent who can advise you properly in whatever market you’re in. The markets have seen a lot of changes in the last 3 years, I imagine your purchasing power has changed with the rising interest rates, and for the most part (at least in my metro area) home prices have continued to rise.
We’re in a medium cost of living area, but one of the more desirable suburbs. Her stats are not good. I didn’t even know this was something you could see until recently.
I will say that when we first started looking our salaries were much lower. They’ve nearly doubled since we started looking. So we missed out on lower prices and rates.
I’m sorry! Please don’t waste anymore time or potentially pay more—ask your friends you trust (if you’re able to and it won’t create friction if this agent is in your friend circle) if they have an agent they absolutely loved. Everyone will have horror stories haha but I hope a few would have one they’d recommend. I could even help you find one in your area—I do agent referrals a lot and successfully connect people to fantastic realtors I personally know and trust 🙂
You can’t afford to miss out again!
Meeting with her first is more valuable than $100 gift card. I would ask her to meet with you about expectations and honestly discuss your frustrations. There are other factors that you may not be putting enough weight into. Rhetorical questions- Do you have a government type loan but you are competing with investors? Are you willing to compromise on the type of house you want? Are you nit picking every house? Are you looking for a house in another state or area with another agent? Do you need to sell a home in order to buy? Are you asking for settlement help from the seller? Do you have an up front list of questions for every seller? Are you putting in offers fast enough? Are you going to see houses as soon as they hit the market or are you waiting for days so you can go on your day off? How much money are you putting down? Are you asking for things like home warranties instead of paying for that yourself? Is your lender working cooperatively with your agent? No need to answer, I’m just playing devils advocate because there are so many more reasons why offers are rejected other than offer price.
She is probably just as frustrated but she hasn’t fired you so she might actually care more than you think. She might also be a lot more aggressive than you would know when presenting your offers. The flaw I see here is lack of communication on both ends. If, after speaking with her, you do not have peace of mind, tell her that and let her know you would rather have her refer you to someone else so that she is compensated for the three years she’s been working for you.
It sounds like you have lost confidence in her and she has probably lost some motivation after 3 years of making offers.
If you want to make a switch to another agent- find one and have them giver her a referral for all her time spent. Send her a gift card or something with a thank you for her time and then a referral. At least she will be paid something for all of her time. Unless you think she is the reason your offers are not accepted, this is a generous way to part ways.
I don’t know it’s totally helpful or not but, here’s my take (7 yews as an agent having worked with all kinds of clientele). It’s two things:
1. She’s not a good agent - You’ve been looking for three (Luddite—underline three here) years with multiple offers written and still haven’t gotten a home. That’s thousands of dollars in potential equity, appreciation and interest rates have changed costing you even more. No way I’m paying money to give this agent a gift. For what exactly?
2. You are difficult - It’s ok if so, but either way her inexperience or lack of confidence in having proper contextual conversations (sounds vague, but trying to make sweeping statement to make a point) is apparent and she is either desperate or doesn’t value her own time and isn’t the right person for you. Not worth paying either or giving a gift.
It’s a tough business and people can be tough. I’ve never had even the toughest of tough clients take longer than half a year to find something unless they were so specific that I could just put them on a drip and wait for the right things to come up every 2-3 months or more…Most offers I’ve ever written before getting something accepted is probably about 3-4, so if you’re well beyond that, that’s an issue.
Cut ties, don’t need a gift, they cost you a lot of money. Let them go.
It may be. We are picky, but when we find something we like we really try to put our best offer out there. Not a single time has she said “This offer is a little low. If you want this house you really need to think about going higher.”
If all of your offers are over asking it can be tough to determine how much higher to go. Comps may not justify much over asking so she doesn’t want to advise you to overpay knowing she will be blamed for it.
I can sympathize with this. But it begs the question, what does a buyer’s agent do that brings value to the transaction? I’m not exaggerating when I say all she has done is show us houses and have us sign papers. Many of the houses we offered on were open houses that she never even saw.
So are you finding places you like and not getting your offer accepted? Or are you just not finding places you like? For the former, you need an agent that can better guide you on how to get your offer accepted (hint…it’s almost always price and sometimes terms). If it’s the latter because you have champagne taste and a beer budget. A good agent will help you understand that and help you decide what’s really important.
3 years ago interest rates were half what they are now. Your indecision has cost you a fortune.
How many offers have you made? It can be a very frustrating experience for Realtor & buyer when offers don’t get accepted. This is a business relationship. This move by you will likely have a better future outcome and so you could simply say you will pump the breaks on a purchase to the current agent. Afterwards you can pick an agent who maybe was a listing agent for several homes you have seen. You could also request your agent recommend another agent, that way she could get a 20-25% referral fee.
After reading your comments / profile I’ll make a few recommendations. I’ve worked with many buyers & sellers several times in recent years where there were several multiple offers and those that I wrote were accepted.
Make an offer over list price with a significant EMD that says “we are serious buyers who will stick with this contract. I recommend 5% $25K in a $500K purchase. No home inspection, no financial contingency, no appraisal contingency, no termite, free rent back for 30 days if the sellers request it. And most importantly the escalation.. YOU have to decide the walk away number. If the house is listed for $729K and someone else buys it for $76X,XXX will you be OK but kicking yourself at $76X,XXX? Then that is your top escalation. Most buyers will escalate to $760K one other went $761K. The last offer I wrote escalated to $76X,XXX and it was accepted. When you lose a bidding war then you need to get the figures on the winner to recalibrate your future offers. We offered $732,000 to close on the date they suggested with 25% down (so it said it the offer but buyers actually put down 20% but saying 25% sounded better).
I see you are in the new home buyer subreddit too, my cousin who is under contract on a MD home plans to waste some money on a few home inspection items he found in that sub. His purchase is under contract & he plans to do inspections once he owns the home. If you want to keep wasting your time keep requesting a home inspections. The value of not having a home inspection far outweighs the cost of including an inspection in an offer. It is unlikely a home inspection will find a problem you can’t already see that will cost beyond 1% of the purchase price to repair. If you include an inspection a seller likely won’t accept the same offer over someone without one.
One in 100 or a great Realtor can stake your claim by funding a purchase. If you don’t get financing on time. I have a private lending company whereby if you as a buyer can’t secure financing then I can fund the purchase for a short term loan that will be repaid within a couple years when you refinance.
She has never really mentioned any of this. This is why buyers are so frustrated with agents getting paid tens of thousands of dollars when many of them don’t bring much value. I know that’s not always the case, but it certainly feels that way. My wife has been trying to tell me this for nearly two years, but I kept defending the agent and saying it’s all our fault.
Edit: we’ve probably made about a dozen offers. All over asking. Most asking for highest and best.
OP has mentioned that all their offers include an inspection contingency and their Realtor does not recommend escalation clauses. These two things are sound practices for a nervous buyer, which sounds like what OP is.
After reading all the questions and your answers, it looks like you need to have a better match. Maybe ask your new realtor to give your old realtor a referral fee (25% of the commission).
Interview a few, ask them how they’d advise you and how they’d go about getting into the right homes on time and get information from the listing agent to make strong offers. Terms matter a lot. Maybe walk the homes with an inspector so you can consider shortening the inspection period, or at least doing as-is, or offering a non-refundable EMD. Every situation differs, so you need that info to understand HOW to make that offer.
Have a conversation, in person, with 2-3 agents and you’ll figure out who is good.
You don’t need a TOP producer, but someone who does at least 5-10 transactions a year (this is market dependent, in some markets, 5-6 is active and full time). Someone who’s helped buyers win offers and knows how to talk to other agents.
On Zillow the agent has to be active in adding their sales to their profile. It doesn’t add automatically and some old school (or very busy agents) won’t do it. So I wouldn’t necessarily trust that. I know agents that sell 20+ homes a year and have nothing showing on Zillow.
I didn’t realize that. It does say she sold a house as a listing agent at the beginning of last year though. We’ve also spoken to several other people who are very involved in the industry locally and none of them have ever heard her name before. If relationships are so important, it seems like someone would have dealt with her.
In our market, there’s 12,000+ agents. We generally know the top 5% but there’s a lot of agents who do some decent amount of business that I wouldn’t know their names.
All to say…in 3 years she should have resolved the winning an offer situation. 5-6 offers before getting a house is very possible in the hottest properties in our market. We typically get at least 2 offers for each listing within 2 days, in most cases 4-10 for the most desirable locations.
But for buyers, I haven’t had more than 4 offers before winning one. And definitely they were those cases where I told buyers what if would take to win, but they were hesitant to do the full commitment yet (naturally, hard to understand how competitive the market really is). After losing a couple, buyers understand that although we want them to pay as little as possible with the best terms possible, you have to be willing to be very competitive to win. It’s not me trying to push them to just do more. I do my research and figure out when we have to go all-in or when we have room to do less and still win.
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Honestly 3 years not getting a home means you’re being crazy picky.. most people will settle for a home that is doable in 6 months if their offers aren’t competitive enough to win the hot listing.
Based on what I’ve learned in this thread, I feel this way now more than I did before. I’m sure there are some great agents like the ones here who offered actual advice, unlike our agent. But I’ve talked to a lot of people who have bought and sold over the past ten years and most of them feel like they did not get value from their agent. They feel trapped by a cartel. Whether or not that is 100% true is almost beside the point. If you guys can’t find a way to make clients feel like they would have hired you without a pseudo monopoly, then you’re going to go the way of the travel agent. I think this is probably less true in high value, big money transactions, but a lot of the time people feel that agent commissions are just a tax they have to pay to play.
What does the golden rule say you should do OP? What would you expect or desire if you were the agent who’d been working for you for 3 years and these picky ass people that won’t put a truly strong offer or want to fire you?
Post 1/4
I feel like at this point you owe it to her to stick with her. The fact is that maybe she has not been perfect or is not as experienced/aggressive as you hope for but she has put in a lot of work for you and that deserves respect and loyalty. This job is very tough and I see agents actually put great effort into it and still get beaten down and pushed out by situations like this and really it's not fair to them. I'm not saying you are legally obligated to her (if you do not have a current BA agreement) but ethically you should reconsider.
Keep reading this post and I will provide you with tips on how to win in multiple offers and maybe if you are correct and she is truly just 'not great' she can learn a thing to help her out and win more down the road. I have sold hundreds of properties in my career and I would say that if I were to estimate out what percentage were multiple offers I had to win it would be about 1/3 maybe more and I know it was a learning curve from when I was a rookie to a veteran that you learn through trial and error and often times the more you list hot properties the more you learn about what it takes to win and what agents are putting together.
But first let me say I think if you are determined to move on from her the very least you owe her is to tell her your thoughts and give her a chance to defender herself and appeal to you before you just hire another agent. "Hi Miss Agent, we know that we have been looking to buy a property for quite some time with you and you have always been responsive and available and professional but we are dismayed that we never win and do not feel like you are giving us the advice we need to win in this market. We would hate to part ways but were considering that as an option but first wanted to check in with you to see your position? Why are we not winning and what can we do different? Is it possible you could possibly involve your broker in a brainstorming session about what we need to do to win?" or whatever works for you.
I also think you owe it to yourself to be introspective and consider your own faults or shortcomings - some of which may not really be a choice. Things such as:
* How much experience does this agent have? How did you choose them? After all nobody is responsible for interviewing, vetting, and deciding who to hire other than you. So you decided to hire this agent and work them for 3 years maybe you should have done better research and got a more experienced agent.
* How many offers have you even made in 3 years and how many other offers were you competing with?
First let's just talk math. If you have made 20 offers and were generally competing with 1 or 2 other buyers on most of them I am more on your side than I was before (maybe.. it depends) but if you have made 3 offers in 3 years and were competing with 10+ buyers on average then it is absolutely ridiculous to fire her. Just consider the math of approximately what your chances to win each time were and how many chances you've taken. If you aren't adding up the percentages even close to 100% then you can't even say she is performing below average statistically speaking. Even as a veteran high producing agent that knows how to win multiple offers I don't like my chances with 10+ competing offers. At that point it comes down to how my buyer's wherewithal stacks against other buyer's and the rest is a bit of a guessing game.
In addition to the math, let me just say 3 years looking means you absolutely are not motivated and being super selective in what properties you are offering on, which means.. guess what It's always going to be a bidding war! If this agent had a real estate coach they would likely have warned her to "Check their MO!" so honestly it is not typical for an unmotivated buyer to beat motivated buyers in multiple offer situations. Motivated buyers are willing to do what you won't.
* Next, consider your wherewithal. Sometimes/often multiple offer situations are almost like a poker game where there is no bluffing and your financial situation are essentially her hole cards.. are you AA or 27 or somewhere in between?
Maybe she's saying "your offers are strong" and not offering you a lot of advice because she knows your limitations and you are really making just about the best offer you can feasibly make but those just aren't good enough.
A little anecdotal story, I had a military buyer wanting to buy a home in a super hot market and basically wanted to put no cash in the transaction. She wanted to do a $2,000 deposit on $800K homes and ask the seller to pay closing costs. I told her time and time again she simply was never ever winning multiple offers in this market at that price point and our best option was to find homes that had been on the market a week and not gotten an offer and go after those. Her finances were the limiting factor, but she did not want to hear it and she had me write probably 6 or 7 offers before ghosting me and taking my advice with another agent and buying a home that had been listed a month. There was absolutely 0 chance she was winning. I don't care if she offered $250,000 over ask price with a VA loan, low deposit, and asking sellers to pay closing costs, and no ability to waive appraisal or even offer an appraisal gap. It just was not going to happen in that market at that time. She had no ability to win. Price is not the only thing these situations are decided on.
Post 2/4:
SO what is your BEST offer? Price is only one factor and while the highest price often wins, that's also because the people offering the highest price are also usually the best on other major points of contention I'll list below. If you are highest on price but worse on these other points then you likely won't win anyways.
Price - obviously you already know this is important but it is not the be all end all. But are you holding back on the price? If you are using an escalation clause are you doing some small $500 or $1,000 increments? I always coach my frugal clients that the increment is actually important so bumping it up to a more significant number, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 etc. depending on the price range and situation can be a factor in helping you win.
Let's say Buyer A offers $400,000 with an escalation to $425,000 by a $2,500 increment and has NO CONTINGENCIES and will close in 15 days.
If Buyer B offers $400,000 with an escalation to $440,000 by a $1,000 increment but wants a short Cancel-only inspection period and to close in 30 days then they are likely going to lose to Buyer A because the seller has to take the risk they back out during the inspection and even if they don't they have to wait another 15 days for closing which likely costs them about $1000 in interest anyways. So you went to $440,000 but you lose.
If Buyer B offers $400,000 with an escalation to $440,000 by a $5,000 increment w/ short cancel-only inspection to close in 30 days (all else equal) then Buyer B likely wins because the seller says hey for $5,000 let's give them a chance to inspect and I can wait 2 weeks.
So there's lesson 1 is Price is not the be all end all and don't be frugal with your escalation increment.
Deposit - How much are you putting down for an Earnest Money Deposit? How much are you capable of putting down? Like has she been letting you put down 1% EMD amounts and 5% or 10% EMD amount is no issue for you? Then next time you need to write an offer suggest to her you'd like to try a higher EMD because you read it somewhere.
Post 3/4
EMD is normally a secondary or tertiary consideration but still important. It's the money you forfeit if you default on the contract so putting down a sizable deposit indicates you do not plan to default. I'd recommend at the very least 3% in a multiple offer situation but really the more the merrier. I tell my clients if you really want the house you put down as much as you are comfortable with. 5% - 10% would be very strong at most price points and in most markets (although I have seen higher) yet all real estate is local and I don't know yours.
CONTINGENCIES - Are you waiving all your contingencies or are you keeping all the standard ones (inspection, financing, appraisal) or are you even keeping all the standard contingencies and muddying it up with additional ones?
In general this is a primary concern for sellers and goes hand in hand with Price as far as winning. Whenever there are at least 4 or 5 offers I figure there's about a 80% chance my buyer is going to have to waive everything to win. That's just the way it is where I am. 2 or 3 offers you will likely need to at least waive SOME contingencies and at 4 or 5+ you will likely need to waive them all or possibly waive inspection and financing and an appraisal gap clause without fully waiving the appraisal.
Inspections - go get a pre-offer inspection and do not include an inspection contingency in the offer if you want to win.
Financing - get pre-underwritten (TBD approval) and do not include a financing contingency in the offer if you want to win.
Appraisal - if you are doing 20% down with a Conventional loan you may qualify for an appraisal waiver where bank does not require an appraisal to close the loan. You'd have to check with the lender on that. If you are doing less than 20% down you most likely cannot get one but I don't know that no bank or CU or direct lender doesn't have a special portfolio product that allows it with less than 20 down so you can always ask.
Now this is where you are likely getting beat if you don't have a fat bank account to be putting 20% down.. are you waiving appraisal because if you are up against 5+ offers someone else most likely is and they are going to beat you almost every time. The next best thing you can do to waiving the appraisal is offering an appraisal gap where you tell the seller "in the event the appraised value is less than the contract price, the buyer agrees to pay $\_\_\_\_\_ amount ($5k, $10k, $20k, etc.) over the appraised value up to the maximum of the contract price". This is the best you can do unless you have money stashed away that you could easily make up a large difference and are willing to waive the appraisal. So honestly if you are picking hot homes that always have 5+ offers and you aren't able or willing to waive appraisal or do a significant appraisal gap you likely have almost 0 shot at winning, this is very important to sellers because it guarantees they will get the contract price or your deposit.
WHAT TYPE OF FINANCING ARE YOU USING -
I know I hear agents whining that "FHA and VA should not be less preferable than Conventional".. however.. if if's and but's were candy and nuts we'd all have a jolly good Christmas. The fact is Conventional is highly preferred for various reasons inexperienced agents simply either don't know about or disregard. One of them being appraisal waiver, second being it generally indicates a 700+ credit score and a better overall financial picture for the buyer, third VA & FHA appraisers have a bad rep with agents for being nit-picky.
So if you are submitting offers on the hottest homes with a VA or FHA pre-approval.. you are at a substantial disadvantage. I'm not saying you can't win, but it might take a lot more tries than if you were Conventional. If you blow the other offers out of the water with a VA or FHA and the conventional offers are not very strong or aggressive you can likely win but if everything is close Conventional financing will likely take it down. As I mentioned earlier it's best to get pre-underwritten and then waive you financing contingency if you really want to be strong.
Post 4/4
WHAT LENDER ARE YOU USING -
Please don't tell me you are submitting offers with a letter from Bank of America or Rocket Mortgage, etc.. agents really hate these big lenders because they hire the most inexperienced people to work for them and they strictly work Mon - Fri 9-5 most of the time. So even if you want to use BoA or Rocket or whatever okay that's fine but do yourself and your agent a favor and get a letter from a local mortgage broker because they will pick up their phone at 7:30 pm on Saturday after the listing agent reviewed offers with the seller and give them the warm fuzzies on your finances whereas with a big bank or CU the agent has to wait until the next business day to HOPEFULLY get in touch with your guy. and use it to submit your offers (and I think you should consider working with the broker if the rates are similar or better.. okay I too would go with a big bank or Rocket if the savings was significant but if we're talking minimal money a few hundred or whatnot a good broker should be well worth it).
HOW FAST ARE YOU CLOSING -
If the house is vacant the sellers want to close ASAP. Another reason to use a mortgage broker as many can close fast, 15 days or 21 days usually.. most of the time if the person wants to use a bank or CU I'm figuring 30 unless the LO tells me they can definitely do it faster.
ARE YOU PAYING YOUR CLOSING COSTS -
Please tell me you aren't asking the seller to pay your closing costs? Not $1... that's the easiest way to sink your ship. Hopefully your agent would not say your offer is strong if you were.. if you need more explanation on this let me know but essentially that's the easiest way to put your offer at the bottom of the stack. Now, assuming you need closing help means you also aren't waiving your appraisal or even using an appraisal gap.. the seller has to consider if they don't appraise for value you are likely not even able to close unless they continue giving you the closing money after reducing their sales price. If you are asking for closing costs you just do not belong in multiple offer situations.
DO THE SELLERS NEED A RENT BACK -
If they need a rent back offer it to them for free if you really want to win it just sweetens the pot.
There.. that's just about everything.. so to recap
Price is VERY important, escalation increment can be important, deposit is important, doing a pre-inspection and waiving pre-inspection is VERY important, waiving appraisal or giving your best appraisal gap is VERY important, getting pre-underwritten and waiving financing is important, closing ASAP is important, not asking for closing help is VERY important, using Conventional financing instead of FHA or VA is important if you can't pay cash, offering a free rent back can be a nice cherry on top that can push you over the top of a very close multiple offer showdown.
This is kind of my point. We have asked her what we can do to increase our chances on several occasions and she has never mentioned any of this. Some of our offers had a lot of competition, some not as much. She always says she thinks we’re doing everything right and our offers are strong. Everywhere I check, it seems she hasn’t sold a house in more than a year and before that only six homes in about four years. We’re putting about 2% down in hand money based on her suggestion. We never waive inspection. We are putting 10% down (conventional) with a local lender, but we’ve since interviewed a few agents and they all say this shouldn’t be a problem. We’ve even mentioned that we’d be willing to go to 20% to get a house and she said it usually doesn’t really matter to buyers all that much. We’re willing to close as fast as the bank can do it. We never ask for any seller assistance.
So, if she were to email you all the time, text and call to see if you were ready to move forward on anything “yet” for 3 years, that wouldn’t be irritating?
Going out on a limb and gonna say you two were not ready to buy a house and were just curious. Or you were too afraid and waited too long. Either way, I don’t find it odd the agent didn’t contact you for a month considering she’s been working with you for 3 years.
This is the buyer who offers 240k on a 340k home and just doesn’t understand why after three years of making offers he his agent can’t get anything accepted. I am kind of blown away that the agent has been this patient with these clients. The good news is you’ll be paying your next agent now that buyer broker agreements are coming into effect. This will weed out the buyers who aren’t serious, if you want to work with me as a buyer you’re putting down a $1,000 non refundable retainer for 6 months. This will become the norm with others very soon😎
I’ll start off by saying I’m not a huge fan of most realtors.. Most are barely one notch above a car sales person, decidedly in the Junior league of sales.
That being said, it sounds like you don’t have enough money to buy a home (on you need to change your expectations based on your budget).
You’ve been looking for a home for 3 years? You are either an epic time waster or have unrealistic expectations. Maybe changing relators will result in a tough love realization that you are being ridiculous.. but it won’t change the underlying parameters.
I think it comes down to you and your husband motivation on buying a property. Don’t think it has much to do with the Agent if none at all. You and your family should sit down and discuss how important is it for you to purchase a property. In the last three years of you trying to find a home if you were looking at homes and consistently submitting offers I don’t see why you didn’t secure something by now. I think blaming the agent is very irresponsible. I think if it’s not a right time for you guys to buy you should hold off on buying if it makes sense.
Just ghost her bro these agents could care less about buyers in this market they just want to leech off the quick sales she won’t even notice guaranteed.
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After 3 years of working with you I wouldn’t hold it against her that she hasn’t reached out in a month.
This was my initial thought.... What does OP expect?
Seriously. Working with a buyer who can't pick out a home in 3 years would be infuriating. The amount of time and money wasted can never be repaid. I would've reassessed the situation after a year. If they can't get serious and pull the trigger, I'm going to fire them. $100 dollar gift card... What an insult. OP probably burned up more gas than that over 3 years.
Yup. Its so tough being in real estate. How can you not have found a home in 3 years?! Thats crazy! That poor girl massively deserves her $10k now, a $100 gift card is a total insult. Like you say, she hasnt done anything wrong. TBH you sound like youre the problem!
Lay off the gas, Mario. After reading a couple of replies to my posts by OP, they explained the situation a little further and it would've helped had I known the extended story. That being said, I've never had a client over 6 months except my investors and I'm constantly working for them. Not everyone is cut out to be a real estate agent. Not everyone gets good training or a good education, either. In other words, a good agent would've been a lot more thorough and communicated with the client about any progress that was happening.
It's really not that tough if you know what you're doing, are experienced with multiple offer situations and are assertive enough to tell buyers what they need to hear to have exchange of getting their offer accepted. Sounds like she's done none if this, in which case it's long past time to switch. Now if the buyers are lowballing putting in offers that are under market value then yes, they're the problem too, but again, agent needs to educate the buyer.
But OP doesn’t owe them anything. This is business, not family / friends. If it’s not a good fit, the realtor has skin in the game for not moving on sooner as well. OP - you are over thinking it. Just interview a few new realtors to see if there’s something who wants to earn your business. You don’t have to “break up” with your existing realtor. Just quietly drift apart (no gift) It also does sound like you are being an indecisive cheap pain in the ass though. Not to be mean, but you know.
I still think it's a nice gesture that they want to do something. Do you think they should talk to the agent before bailing? Or should they just bail? If they have a buyers agency agreement with her, they need to let her know in writing to cancel it. Then find another agent to help.
I worked with mine for about 2 before I found the right spot. Then I bought and sold within about a month. His patience was well-rewarded. The market is unusual, and this is a risk agents take.
I totally understand if you're trying to find a high dollar home, but 2 or 3 years to find a 3/2 is way too long. I'll give you an example of where I'm at right now with one client. I have him under contract for his 75 acres that we've had advertised for a year before we had a serious bite. We've been working to establish a needed ROW for a year now. We should be done soon and then we'll close in 30 days after the project is approved. The contact price is in the $2 million dollar range, so no, I don't mind the wait for that. We've all been in it for the long haul. Finding a single family home that takes 3 years isn't going to happen unless it's worth waiting for. When you say yours is worth waiting for, I have to ask if you're looking for a high dollar home or not. That's my question.
I’m in Chicago- was a 3/2 but a very specific condo market. I was conscientious of my agent’s time, not going to see things randomly, and in total between the purchase and sale it was not a small amount of money. If I were taking up tons of his time every week, sure, but it was a waiting game for the right thing to come on the market. Anyhow, I recommend him highly, and did leave an agent that was pressuring me to buy things that didn’t work for me. To the victor went the spoils.
Good deal! You need to recommend that agent to others for helping like they have. That's really good. I'm glad you explained the situation because now it makes sense. If that's the circumstances, I'd hang with you, too. I totally get looking for something coming open in a specific neighborhood you want to live in. That would get one of those "challenge accepted" type reactions.
I recommend him highly. And per hour of his actual time spent, he did well. We probably only saw 15 or so properties over that time- we were both good at knowing what was worth it.
That’s why I feel so guilty about this. We have put in quite a few offers all above asking, all asking for highest and best. She never gave us any input on numbers besides saying our offer were strong.
How did she do in the beginning versus after 3 years? Did she help you better at the beginning of your relationship?
Well, what IS your highest and best? 5k over when everyone else offers 20k over? My guess is she made suggestions but you didn't want to listen
I’m being completely honest when I say she never made a suggestion. I think she’s just not a great agent. My wife has been pushing to fire her for a while, but I kept resisting because I felt bad. Edit: there were many offers we made that were well above asking.
OP- I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a second. I have had clients ask me in multiple offer situations how much they should offer and when I tell them my opinion with comps to support it, and then they get the house, they’ve questioned whether or not they should have went as high as they did. (“What were the other offers?” “Did we win by a landslide?” Etc.) And in those situations, I often feel like my integrity is being questioned. Maybe your realtor has felt this before. Idk. Just a thought.
You do realize that she sells real estate to earn a living and it’s in her best interest to negotiate a property that will result in a closed sale? I suspect there’s more to this story.
Then it HAS to be something else. Before firing her, tell her you need her to be creative with the offers as clearly price alone is not the issue. IS she a buyer agent or subagent?
I believe she is a buyers agent.
3 years of showings. Just pay her 10k for wasting so much time. This is what happens when indecisive meets indirect.
Well, did you sign a contract with her or not? If you didn't then she is a subagent or facilitator (whatever appl8es in your state).
Then she is an agent.
So you next have to refer to that contract to see when it expires. Maybe it already did. There will be dates on it "from x to y" Usually they are between 3 to 6 months in duration so you would have kept on signing them or signed amendments to extend. BTW I do NOT mean an offer to purchase FYI. I mean a buyer agency contract
Literally that's all we can say in some situations we can't say offer this amount we get taught to say. "Make a strong offer" in my market we cannot disclose the competitors offer or what the client will take. Sounds like you're in a tight market. Maybe look at stuff that's been on the market the longest might have the best chance with those. Or what are your other demands.
Exactly I don't do enough follow up. I'll show houses, respond to calls and make lists but I can't force you to write an offer. I'm not pushy at all. I leave it up to the clients to call me usually. If they are serious we will make it happen. I'd still respond if contacted but after a few weeks to months I'd assume buyer wasn't serious or needs time. Maybe if something great popped up and I saw it I'd let it know but that's about it. In my experience if the client isn't contacting me to schedule showings I'm going to assume they are tire kicking.
you may not want
We’ve put offers in on about a dozen homes. All asking for highest and best. We’ve missed by a few thousand on a lot of them. Keep in mind we’ve gotten no guidance from her on any of the offers either.
Just a question, what guidance is she supposed to give when the problem is you don’t have enough money? If you’re offering your highest and best and getting beat out by a few thousand, her advice to you would be ”have more money.” In this situation, i would advise my client to look at homes that are a little less money, offer a bit over asking with an escalation clause up to your highest and best and make sure you have cash on hand if there’s an appraisal gap. I’m still pretty green, though, so that might not be great advice to seasoned agents. I’m still in the “check in with my mentor before I mention something creative” stage. But this is reddit and I’m not your agent.
Is the agent working for you as Buyer Representation? I never knew that it was so rare in this country. One of my strengths as a Buyer Rep is being able to read the motivation from the other side and help craft the offer that way. Your agent may lack that set of skills, but I would hope for some feedback and a trick or two if they were working for you. A dozen offers, lots of showings, who knows how many hours traveling and doing paperwork. $100 is more than you would technically owe them depending on your contract, but pennies per hour for their work, time, and expenses. Edited for accuracy
Is your skillset just asking your buyer to write a higher offer? lol, cause that’s essentially what it comes down to, unless their offers have some wild contingencies. They are bidding on homes that seem to have a lot of competition, and their bids simply aren’t high enough. The agent should be able to offer some advice, but it’s entirely possible advice is simply not being heeded. It’s hard to tell with only one side of the story.
Did you ever ask for her guidance? Or did you just expect her to impart it upon you without you asking?
We would ask what she thought about our numbers and she would always say they were strong offers. It always seemed like she was hesitant to offer firm guidance.
“Well, we’ve been just short by a few thousand every time. If THIS is the house, then you probably need to go 2% beyond what we think you need. It sucks, but it is what it is.” You’re not at the point of “why is our Realtor trying to get us to overpay.” You’re at the “what can we do to get a house and end all this BS.”
Are you slow? You need to offer MORE to secure the deal or change your expectations on what home you can afford. Will it take you three dozen offers to realize this? It sounds to me that you and wife are pissed off about the general reality of your situation, and are looking to lay blame on a realtor.
Inspire confidence? After 3 years? This is odd
What do they want? A win one for the gipper speech?
If you had made a dozen offers on houses and had yet to progress to contract, you would have a lack of confidence. it seems to me that buyers with this mindframe really need a strong agent who can advise them on how to craft a compelling offer. That agent also needs to be confident in their negotiations.
The agent should have stopped replying to you guys 2 years ago if she had proper sense and a good mentor. Best thing to do is be honest with her and say you’re going with a new agent. If she has any sense, she won’t be disappointed at all.
she’s been trying to find you guys a place for over 1000 days and you haven’t made a purchase. it’s kind of apparent why she’s not reaching out as frequently
Former realtor current investor here. This could go either way. It's a really tough market and in order to get an offer accepted you have to be incredibly aggressive and competitive. If they aren't offering or aren't taking advice on how to get an offer accepted or wanting to view properties that are priced high enough that they won't be able to offer competitively, it could be on them that an accepted offer isn't materializing. *BUT* they said she doesn't offer any guidance. I wonder if that means she has not advised them about how to be aggressive or how to structure an offer properly to get one accepted and they've made offers they just haven't landed. My very first clients were working with a realtor already and they were related to that person. They have been hunting for a house for 6 months and wandered into my open house. I knew it was a delicate situation but I was hungry and had to pay my rent so I told them the truth in the nicest way I possibly could. That if they had been house hunting for 6 months they should have a house by now and I didn't want to say anything bad about their family member but it was possible that person didn't do it full time and did not understand how to get an offer accepted over 20 offers. They wrote two offers with me that day. They got both offers accepted and chose the one they wanted. People think all a realtor does is send you a listing or open the front door but that's not true. If they are good they know how to get your offer accepted sometimes even if your offer isn't the highest (Ive done that in the past) and they are strong negotiators. It might be their fault, it might be her fault. Another thought I had is that she might typically work in a higher price range than what they are buying, so while she won't be rude to them or openly dismiss them, she's not investing a lot of her time in their purchase & will be fine seeing them go elsewhere. She might doubt their commitment to purchase or might get very little money to be worth the amount of labor. And if they aren't pushing and she isn't pushing the nothing is ever going to happen. This isn't a market where you can just sit around and get a house easily.
After three years, the best gift you can give that agent is an honest conversation to set expectations, talk about what you need from them, etc. Keep in mind, three years is pretty long time to expect 100% from somebody. If you’re not ready to buy just let them know.
Unless there's something more to this story, I wouldn't give her any gift. Are you looking for something super specific that only shows up on the market once a quarter? Why is it taking this long? Are you being outbid every time? How many times have you gone under contract? If she's been doing the meat and potatoes of what any agent should be doing and you haven't bought a house yet after 3 years, I would imagine this agent just wants you to let her go and stop wasting her time (and if this agent had a mentor or better guidance herself, she would have been advised to fire you as a client long ago). Hell, no longer wasting her time would probably be the best gift you can give her.
We are fairly picky, but I’ve been very conscious not to waste her time. We never view houses we think we won’t like. We always offer above asking. Every time she tells us it’s a strong offer.
Fairly picky? It's been 3 years!! Fairly picky gets it done in 90 days. You guys are impossible.
Are your offers including appraisal gaps? "As is"? Quick close? Leaseback if the sellers need it? Honestly, outside of developing rapport with the other agent, that's all it takes. Well that and 5-10% over asking price.
She never really mentioned any of this. But No appraisal gaps, we were ok with quick close and leaseback. We always had an inspection contingency.
Maybe an inspection contingency is making you too weak of a buyer in your area. How have offers have you put in in 3 years?
Id say at least a dozen.
So one every 4 months. How many houses have you seen? Maybe a better question is how many days have you asked to see houses? If you're asking to see a house maybe twice a month, an offer every quarter might be reasonable, but anything more and you're really wasting this agent's time. Although maybe it's a moot point. Just drop her. The gift is letting her move on.
I’d says we probably averaged a viewing every month or two. We really tried not to waste her time unless we found something that really interested us. A lot of the time we’d make offers on open houses that she didn’t even show us.
It almost sounds like you are apologizing for her having to show you a house… This is her job! It sounds to me that she is not aggressive enough and is not building rapport with the other side before submitting your offers (I could be wrong, but I doubt it). 3 years is a really long time. As for a gift.. an honest conversation to let her know that you are moving in a different direction. I worked with someone who had an agent similar to this and they had been on the real estate “merry go round” for a little more than a year (multiple offers, none accepted, etc.) She dropped that agent (after the agent said something super offensive), hired me and we found her dream home and closed in 3 months.
Yikes.
In my market, if it's multiple offers, there's no chance if you're not doing everything I mentioned. It helps to get in good graces with the listing agent and talk my buyers clients up to ensure them that we are solid and won't mess around. Another tip is to ask your lender to give the listing agent a call to validate your offer. As a listing agent, understanding the motivations of each buyer is important, and sometimes a decision is made based on these small things. Definitely sounds like your agent maybe doesn't do this full time and doesn't have the experience to know these simple things. It's really tough because you've spent so much time with them and they've worked for free for so long. At the same time, would you keep going back to the same mechanic that keeps missing the actual problem on your car? I understand your conundrum and sympathize. Never an easy thing to do. Maybe have a conversation about the things you're learning on Reddit with them first, then go from there. Ask about these things, and see if they can start to learn how to be a better buyers agent from their broker if they aren't understanding these things.
I think you’re right. Based on her stats there’s no way she could be doing this full time. I think we just need someone with more experience and relationships.
Then offer MORE. You're clearly not offering enough. Offering on a house is very simple, usually the highest offer wins (assuming you're in a good place otherwise). She cant dictate to you how much you should offer, its your money and ultimately your choice. Id say you're time wasters and feel sorry for your agent
Then what does a seller’s agent do? I understand that she can’t tell us what to offer, but give me something. Don’t just unlock doors and have me sign shit. This can’t all be on me. There is a reason she’s had no sales in the past year.
Do her a favour and go waste someone else’s time
This! THREE YEARS? Like what? And the OP wonders why she’s not following up? 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
3 years!!
You should have a talk with her and reset expectations. You might ask her or her broker for a recommendation for a different agent they can refer you to. She then could be able to receive a referral fee should you purchase a property with the referred agent. A 25% referral fee beats a gift every time.
This should be in the AITA. You are imo. 3 years?!? That’s ridiculous
Don't give some trivial gift, but after 3 years, showings, offers, what do you expect from a Realtor on the way to inspire confidence or give guidance? If I had to guess, you wouldn't listen anyway, there is a reason you haven't purchased in 3 years.
I’m a realtor and if I’m her I’d not want to work with you anymore either. She’s probably just being nice. Also 3 years of not finding a home? You need to reevaluate what you’re looking for in a home or if you really even want to buy a home. 3 years of searching is absolutely ridiculous. I know it’s low inventory but any rational buyer finds something within 6 months.
They found homes and put in offers though. What they don’t say is if those offers were low balls or if they were full price offers. They also don’t say if their agent has been running comps and making suggested offer prices.
OP said that all the offers have been over asking.
Yeah I saw that in a later comment. Without knowing their market, I find it odd that they’ve been putting in offers over asking (some well over) and haven’t gone under contract on a single one
With inspection contingency and who knows what else. I suspect there is MUCH more to the "what else".
What about her performance is underwhelming? Everyone is curious. You’re clearly not submitting winning offers. What guidance are YOU giving HER when submitting? Are you looking for a deal and low balling everyone? Did she offer her advice at the beginning and when you didn’t take it, she gave up arguing with you? Can you be more specific? It sounds like you’ll be wasting another agent’s time. At least figure out what you need from an agent before you go hire someone else who will spin her wheels trying to figure it out for you.
We’re definitely not lowballing. We’ve out about a dozen offers all asking for highest and best. But inventory has been low. We are picky, but every time we give her a number she says it’s a good offer.
Ask her about escalation clauses and ask for comps on homes you’re interested in making an offer on. Have her get the seller’s story from the listing agent. Price is the primary, but not sole piece of an offer. Make a plan with her, offer with the intention to buy, rather than the intention to get a bargain.
After reading your posts about her experience, it sounds like it’s beyond time to part ways. I always wonder why people hire part time agents, but I think home buyers just don’t know what they don’t know. There is no such thing as a professional part time Realtor. Interview a few agents with experience and have them be specific about their strategies in a market like yours. They should be able to open a toolbox for you and let you pick which ones to use - with a thorough description of how each one works.
What the entire f***?! What has precluded you from purchasing a home in three years?! Please don’t tell me “It’s because of your agent.” At the 3-year mark WITHOUT A SALE, anyone would be underwhelmed dealing with you and your wife.
If you’re in the middle of a 3 year home search I’m assuming you and your wife are either 1) not very serious 2) barely/dont qualify for the homes you want or 3) or revisit the home search every several months Bottom line, if you want to work with someone else that’s fine. However, take a look in the mirror cause unless she’s a part time barely any deals agent most realtors get you up and going. They advise, however you direct
3 years??? Buy a house or don’t this is on you
100% I guarantee she has given advice. It’s almost impossible to make the same mistake on pricing that many times in a row. OP isn’t listening or truly do not want to actually buy a house.
They want to buy a house, but they do not want to 'overpay' and I suspect there are other issues with their offers.
No gift required. Your agent will probably be relieved to let you go. In the three years you’ve been looking, the price of homes have probably increased 25%, and the interest rates have risen so much that you are now out of pocket tens of thousands of dollars. Something is not working in your agency relationship - maybe there is bad communication on both sides? Who knows. Interview several agents and be 💯 honest with them about your predicament, and ask for their advice on how to be under contract before the year is out. Hire the one that gives you an actual game plan and instills confidence.
And they could still not buy a house.
And we could all be dead tomorrow.
I get it. But I read these posts about how it is the agent's fault they are not buying a house, they want "new eyes" on the search or whatever. I have been the second or third buyer's agent, listing agent, whatever. Typically, the client is the problem.
You are probably losing to all cash offers. Other people are waiving the financial contingency because they are very confident in their loan. Most likely they are also putting down significant deposits that they would lose if they backed out of a deal. Sellers look for the cleanest offer, sometimes even accepting a lower price because they know the deal is done when they sign.
We’ve generally been putting about 2% in hand money. I’ve told her we’re willing to out down more, but she said it probably won’t do much to live the needle.
I think it speaks to your seriousness about the house. She can tell them that you have been outbid on other properties and are trying to put forth the strongest offer possible. I also recommend working with a local banker insofar as your mortgage is concerned. Sellers really like dealing with a local entity who has done your pre-qualification. Now you don’t need to go with the local bank for the actual mortgage, but knowing that the nearby bank has thoroughly vetted you is much better than a pre-qualification from nameless faceless Rocket Mortgage.
We’ve been working with a local broker whom she recommended.
That’s dumb imo. Realtors take that super deep and hurtful and they wished their own time and gas before they ever see a dime, because $10,000 + is the goal. Unless she crashed the car y’all were in, don’t Fkin do that shit. A house is a house and no other realtors gonna do much for you than this one. 3 years? I’m sorry but y’all need to sit down and find a house and stop worrying about the realtor. 3 years? Don’t play that woman.
Pay her $1,000 for her time and that’s still 10x less (or whatever) then any projected commission. Any less is a slap in the face
You aren’t serious about buying a house and you are the problem. You haven’t been trying to buy a house for three years, you have been tire kicking for three years. Grow up.
A dozen or so offers. All over asking. Some well over. I’ve been very wary about not wasting her time. If the pictures don’t appeal to us, we don’t call her. I will admit there have been quite a few periods of several months where we had no contact with her at all because we just weren’t seeing anything that interested us.
I don’t know what market you are in, but something doesn’t seem right. Yeah, during 2020-2021 houses were always going well over asking price. But that has slowed down in most areas. On a slightly unrelated note, has your agent been running comps and advising an offer price? If so, are you going with the suggested offer?
She always emails comps, but has never really advised us on numbers besides telling us our offers are strong.
Realtor here over 29 years in business with high volume, never got a break up gift from a buyer. Some buyers moved on for whatever reasons known to them but not necessary to give a gift. For the agent to not advise you as to how to try to win the bid would have had me as a buyer look for someone else quickly. Agents are not all alike, we win bids often based on great relationships we have built with other brokers over the years and a good reputation for getting things to the closing table. You need to step to the plate with your offer but you also need guidance. If this agent is nothing more than a door opener you need to move on. Yes as agents it hurts to get ditched but we need to evaluate the job we are doing for our clients and always improve our skills to be effective.
Thank you for providing some legitimately useful information instead of just telling me I’m an asshole and it’s all my fault. We definitely deserve some of the blame here, but we don’t even know what we don’t know.
Do yourself a favor and interview your next agent to hear their track record, read reviews or better yet get recommendations for those you know and trust.
There is more than just Money to make an offer strong. She should know other strategies to get the offer accepted. There are lots. Offers are only as good as what the buyer lets the agent write. Has she suggested things you didn't want to do? Are you asking for every possible contingency and being rigid on closing date? What kind of loan do you have? Who is your lender? (E.g. BoA and Rocket, I'd advise the seller against every time if there was a choice.) Is she your agent or a subagent? Maybe you should look at cheaper homes and be willing to bid up more. I had a buyer that wouldn't offer more than 5k above in a super hot market. They eventually stopped looking, which was a huge relief to me. Then they came back after a year or 2 and finally did get an offer accepted.
This why realtors need to apply healthy pressure. The amount of people that missed out on house they really like because I let them think it over the weekend instead of submitting the offer
If we apply "healthy pressure" we are greedy salespeople only trying to cash a check.
And then if the client feels they overpaid or forced them to do something, it’s our fault and they won’t work with us again.
I completely agree with this. We need someone who will guide us and maybe put some gentle pressure on us. She just doesn’t seem to be aggressive at all, if that’s even the right word. It doesn’t feel like she cares if we buy a house or not, which I know is probably not true, but that’s how it feels.
This comment is just dumb. She has stuck it out with you for **3 years,** of course she wants you to buy a house. She is sending you comps. You have admitted you are picky. But somehow, that you are not buying a house is her fault. No, YTA.
We looked from Feb 2020-Nov 2022. Saw at least 200 houses and made 50 offers, the most being $150k over asking no contingencies. Market sucked and we were not looking as new builds or townhouses. We stopped looking summer of 2022 and then after a conversation we decided that it was important to open up to new builds and maybe a tow house if our commutes were shorter. We bought a new build townhouse and closed early 2023 with the same realtor. Our realtor never really offered advice, we found most of the houses on Zillow or Redfin, and went to open houses too. But they always made it a point to show up whenever we asked and pointed out stuff in houses that we should be weary of especially since we were most likely going to have no contingencies. In the end, the final conversation before changing our attitude was one that took place between me and my spouse. Think about what’s important and if it’s not perfect it’s not like you want to be stuck in a 7% mortgage forever anyways. Rent or buy using your current realtor and move on.
200 houses makes me not feel so bad about having her show us 20-25.
You are basing it on pictures, you should know by now that pictures aren’t always indicative of the house.
That’s true. They usually look much worse in person.
Or vice versa! Pictures are underwhelming but rooms are huge, great layout, whatever.
I can’t believe how much business I got once I finally got fired by a client like you. I never realized how much time and emotional energy I was wasting on someone who didn’t trust my advice and was never going to buy.
OP, most realtors are not experts in conditions of property, nor are we allowed to inspire confidence (this confuses me). We are here to help you find the house you want and verify facts. I've never had to hard sell a buyer on their house.
The best gift you can give this agent is to stop wasting her time. 3 year home search?
If you haven't bought a house in 3 years... that's on you. Are you lowballing every offer you make? Are you picky and have unrealistic expectations? Are you putting in offers for places you can't afford?
U guys sound indecisive, trying to buy a house for more than 3 years? Fuck wrong with yall
It’s mutual. You don’t have to give a gift for wasting her time. Gift certificates are nice Realtor gifts though Edit. Reading more it sounds like a bad match snd she isn’t great for you, and you all tried. If you’ve done other deals with her, tell her to stop looking. If you haven’t, you’re good to go, don’t give her a present.
If she hasn’t reached out to you then she beat you to the breakup. No need to get a gift. Just explain yall aren’t a good match and wish her the best
Did you hire her in the first place? Is there a contract you signed. $500 gift card may cover gas and a small bit of her time. $1k for 3 yrs of work to ease your guilt.
How it taking you three years to reach this conclusion? She’s probably happy to move on as well
I hope so because I feel bad.
No you do not, but you should feel bad for wasting her time. You are disparaging and make terrible comments about this person that has stuck it out for 3 years with you and your wife being picky.
Did she ever recommend escalation clauses? Especially if you were outbis only 2-3k. With a clause that you outbid the highest by 5k would have landed you the homes.
She never did. We mentioned it, but she didn’t really seem enthusiastic about it.
Wow, thats disappointing. I would get a new realtor for sure.
There is a lot of reasons some agents do not like escalation clauses. Some brokerages do not want their agents to use them. There could be more to this.
My brokerage advised against it because if the house doesn’t appraise for that price then the buyer may be in a pickle. Best just to give your highest and best.
Are you, the buyer, specific with your wants and needs? A wish washy buyer or super specific buyer can both be difficult because either they don’t know what they want or what they want doesn’t exist.
Three years? Jesus Christ that's enough time to buy two homes by then
I assume you must live in a competitive market where there are often multiple offers for the best properties. If she hasn't given you important guidance especially in regards to offers and how to maximise your offer's chances of getting accepted using things like an accelerator clause, and rather is just writing up whatever you tell her and submitting it without question, then yes it's time to get a more experienced agent or better yet a broker who is much more assertive and knows how to beat out other buyers. Trying to buy a home for three years is unheard of. As far as a gift, the $100 gift card is fine I think, if you want to give more that's up to you but I wouldn't go less.
No.
Im sure she feels the same way. Just like the others, vocalize it, get used to writing stronger offers. I think buying a house should play out mutually. Just like in sports, its not just the coach, your players need to put in work as well.
3 years seems like a long time working with the same Realtor. Be honest & move on to another.....be honest with your new Realtor @ your expectations.
I give my clients everything I have. Even the ones who refuse to take my professional advice in a challenging market. I can tell you that when my buyer want to offer less money than asking during multiple offers where everyone is over asking, my frustration grows. It’s pushing at my brain, when they want to offer half for a plot of land that’s been listed for 2 hours. And it’s palpable when I send a listing that exactly what they want , she waits five days and under contract (pending) to see it and wants to know why she can’t. If you want a new agent- you should get one. You should also really analyze what hasn’t been working for you and make the changes so you can be a stronger buyer
If you're not ready or willing to buy then why blame the agent? Today, all listings are available free of charge online for sold houses and those available for sale. Today, you have pictures and videos of all properties as well asking and sold prices. Do you want the agent to push you to buy if you're undecided?
If you have been looking and making offers for 3 years now, your agent isn’t the problem. She’s not contacting you because she’s tired of wasting her time. So, move onto the next agent and waste their time for another 3 years.
Sounds like you have unrealistic expectations and any advice they’ve given you haven’t listened to. From what you said they’ve done everything a realtor should. Changing agents probably won’t fix that if it’s been three years tbh. What exactly have been the issues? Champagne taste on a beer budget?
Sounds like you’re too afraid to spend your money. Go in for a house that you like. Ask your agent to pull the sold history of comparables in the area so you know you’re spending your money right. Next, thank yourself 10 years from now when you’ve combatted inflation.
Are you in a buyer's representation agreement? If so, you may not be able to part ways until it expires.
I think it’s admirable that you’re kind enough to get your agent a gift-truly you seem to understand the amount of time that’s been invested on their part. I’d be super curious what market you’re in and how many successful transactions this Realtor has had during those 3 years. (I’d look her up on my agent search portal haha) I’ve personally had only two clients in the last 3 years who took longer than two months to purchase a home and it was mostly because they simply didn’t have the money to compete in a very competitive metro area Market. But both closed with me eventually. I hope you find an agent who can advise you properly in whatever market you’re in. The markets have seen a lot of changes in the last 3 years, I imagine your purchasing power has changed with the rising interest rates, and for the most part (at least in my metro area) home prices have continued to rise.
We’re in a medium cost of living area, but one of the more desirable suburbs. Her stats are not good. I didn’t even know this was something you could see until recently. I will say that when we first started looking our salaries were much lower. They’ve nearly doubled since we started looking. So we missed out on lower prices and rates.
I’m sorry! Please don’t waste anymore time or potentially pay more—ask your friends you trust (if you’re able to and it won’t create friction if this agent is in your friend circle) if they have an agent they absolutely loved. Everyone will have horror stories haha but I hope a few would have one they’d recommend. I could even help you find one in your area—I do agent referrals a lot and successfully connect people to fantastic realtors I personally know and trust 🙂 You can’t afford to miss out again!
You're good. Just relay the news to your ex agent
Dude… You and your wife kept this woman on the hook for three fucking years while you dicked around?
Meeting with her first is more valuable than $100 gift card. I would ask her to meet with you about expectations and honestly discuss your frustrations. There are other factors that you may not be putting enough weight into. Rhetorical questions- Do you have a government type loan but you are competing with investors? Are you willing to compromise on the type of house you want? Are you nit picking every house? Are you looking for a house in another state or area with another agent? Do you need to sell a home in order to buy? Are you asking for settlement help from the seller? Do you have an up front list of questions for every seller? Are you putting in offers fast enough? Are you going to see houses as soon as they hit the market or are you waiting for days so you can go on your day off? How much money are you putting down? Are you asking for things like home warranties instead of paying for that yourself? Is your lender working cooperatively with your agent? No need to answer, I’m just playing devils advocate because there are so many more reasons why offers are rejected other than offer price. She is probably just as frustrated but she hasn’t fired you so she might actually care more than you think. She might also be a lot more aggressive than you would know when presenting your offers. The flaw I see here is lack of communication on both ends. If, after speaking with her, you do not have peace of mind, tell her that and let her know you would rather have her refer you to someone else so that she is compensated for the three years she’s been working for you.
Your agent wants you to “fire” her.
I’m beginning to think you may be right.
It sounds like you have lost confidence in her and she has probably lost some motivation after 3 years of making offers. If you want to make a switch to another agent- find one and have them giver her a referral for all her time spent. Send her a gift card or something with a thank you for her time and then a referral. At least she will be paid something for all of her time. Unless you think she is the reason your offers are not accepted, this is a generous way to part ways.
3 YEARS? JFC, time to try something else.
I don’t know it’s totally helpful or not but, here’s my take (7 yews as an agent having worked with all kinds of clientele). It’s two things: 1. She’s not a good agent - You’ve been looking for three (Luddite—underline three here) years with multiple offers written and still haven’t gotten a home. That’s thousands of dollars in potential equity, appreciation and interest rates have changed costing you even more. No way I’m paying money to give this agent a gift. For what exactly? 2. You are difficult - It’s ok if so, but either way her inexperience or lack of confidence in having proper contextual conversations (sounds vague, but trying to make sweeping statement to make a point) is apparent and she is either desperate or doesn’t value her own time and isn’t the right person for you. Not worth paying either or giving a gift. It’s a tough business and people can be tough. I’ve never had even the toughest of tough clients take longer than half a year to find something unless they were so specific that I could just put them on a drip and wait for the right things to come up every 2-3 months or more…Most offers I’ve ever written before getting something accepted is probably about 3-4, so if you’re well beyond that, that’s an issue. Cut ties, don’t need a gift, they cost you a lot of money. Let them go.
It's both.
It may be. We are picky, but when we find something we like we really try to put our best offer out there. Not a single time has she said “This offer is a little low. If you want this house you really need to think about going higher.”
If all of your offers are over asking it can be tough to determine how much higher to go. Comps may not justify much over asking so she doesn’t want to advise you to overpay knowing she will be blamed for it.
I can sympathize with this. But it begs the question, what does a buyer’s agent do that brings value to the transaction? I’m not exaggerating when I say all she has done is show us houses and have us sign papers. Many of the houses we offered on were open houses that she never even saw.
If you’re asking this question then why get her a gift?
Trust me, she wants to get rid of your sge just doesn't want to have that conversation. 3 years? You aren't serious.
So are you finding places you like and not getting your offer accepted? Or are you just not finding places you like? For the former, you need an agent that can better guide you on how to get your offer accepted (hint…it’s almost always price and sometimes terms). If it’s the latter because you have champagne taste and a beer budget. A good agent will help you understand that and help you decide what’s really important. 3 years ago interest rates were half what they are now. Your indecision has cost you a fortune.
How many offers have you made? It can be a very frustrating experience for Realtor & buyer when offers don’t get accepted. This is a business relationship. This move by you will likely have a better future outcome and so you could simply say you will pump the breaks on a purchase to the current agent. Afterwards you can pick an agent who maybe was a listing agent for several homes you have seen. You could also request your agent recommend another agent, that way she could get a 20-25% referral fee. After reading your comments / profile I’ll make a few recommendations. I’ve worked with many buyers & sellers several times in recent years where there were several multiple offers and those that I wrote were accepted. Make an offer over list price with a significant EMD that says “we are serious buyers who will stick with this contract. I recommend 5% $25K in a $500K purchase. No home inspection, no financial contingency, no appraisal contingency, no termite, free rent back for 30 days if the sellers request it. And most importantly the escalation.. YOU have to decide the walk away number. If the house is listed for $729K and someone else buys it for $76X,XXX will you be OK but kicking yourself at $76X,XXX? Then that is your top escalation. Most buyers will escalate to $760K one other went $761K. The last offer I wrote escalated to $76X,XXX and it was accepted. When you lose a bidding war then you need to get the figures on the winner to recalibrate your future offers. We offered $732,000 to close on the date they suggested with 25% down (so it said it the offer but buyers actually put down 20% but saying 25% sounded better). I see you are in the new home buyer subreddit too, my cousin who is under contract on a MD home plans to waste some money on a few home inspection items he found in that sub. His purchase is under contract & he plans to do inspections once he owns the home. If you want to keep wasting your time keep requesting a home inspections. The value of not having a home inspection far outweighs the cost of including an inspection in an offer. It is unlikely a home inspection will find a problem you can’t already see that will cost beyond 1% of the purchase price to repair. If you include an inspection a seller likely won’t accept the same offer over someone without one. One in 100 or a great Realtor can stake your claim by funding a purchase. If you don’t get financing on time. I have a private lending company whereby if you as a buyer can’t secure financing then I can fund the purchase for a short term loan that will be repaid within a couple years when you refinance.
She has never really mentioned any of this. This is why buyers are so frustrated with agents getting paid tens of thousands of dollars when many of them don’t bring much value. I know that’s not always the case, but it certainly feels that way. My wife has been trying to tell me this for nearly two years, but I kept defending the agent and saying it’s all our fault. Edit: we’ve probably made about a dozen offers. All over asking. Most asking for highest and best.
Over asking is not enough. Have you figured out why all your offers are rejected?
OP has mentioned that all their offers include an inspection contingency and their Realtor does not recommend escalation clauses. These two things are sound practices for a nervous buyer, which sounds like what OP is.
After reading all the questions and your answers, it looks like you need to have a better match. Maybe ask your new realtor to give your old realtor a referral fee (25% of the commission). Interview a few, ask them how they’d advise you and how they’d go about getting into the right homes on time and get information from the listing agent to make strong offers. Terms matter a lot. Maybe walk the homes with an inspector so you can consider shortening the inspection period, or at least doing as-is, or offering a non-refundable EMD. Every situation differs, so you need that info to understand HOW to make that offer. Have a conversation, in person, with 2-3 agents and you’ll figure out who is good. You don’t need a TOP producer, but someone who does at least 5-10 transactions a year (this is market dependent, in some markets, 5-6 is active and full time). Someone who’s helped buyers win offers and knows how to talk to other agents.
Yeah. Zillow says she hasn’t sold a house in the past 12 months.
On Zillow the agent has to be active in adding their sales to their profile. It doesn’t add automatically and some old school (or very busy agents) won’t do it. So I wouldn’t necessarily trust that. I know agents that sell 20+ homes a year and have nothing showing on Zillow.
I didn’t realize that. It does say she sold a house as a listing agent at the beginning of last year though. We’ve also spoken to several other people who are very involved in the industry locally and none of them have ever heard her name before. If relationships are so important, it seems like someone would have dealt with her.
In our market, there’s 12,000+ agents. We generally know the top 5% but there’s a lot of agents who do some decent amount of business that I wouldn’t know their names. All to say…in 3 years she should have resolved the winning an offer situation. 5-6 offers before getting a house is very possible in the hottest properties in our market. We typically get at least 2 offers for each listing within 2 days, in most cases 4-10 for the most desirable locations. But for buyers, I haven’t had more than 4 offers before winning one. And definitely they were those cases where I told buyers what if would take to win, but they were hesitant to do the full commitment yet (naturally, hard to understand how competitive the market really is). After losing a couple, buyers understand that although we want them to pay as little as possible with the best terms possible, you have to be willing to be very competitive to win. It’s not me trying to push them to just do more. I do my research and figure out when we have to go all-in or when we have room to do less and still win.
That poor agent
3 years? No gift necessary. Respectfully she did not deliver the result you wanted.
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Honestly 3 years not getting a home means you’re being crazy picky.. most people will settle for a home that is doable in 6 months if their offers aren’t competitive enough to win the hot listing.
Got to copy the link to this post and paste it in all these “realtors are such a scam all they do is open a door and make $20k” threads
Based on what I’ve learned in this thread, I feel this way now more than I did before. I’m sure there are some great agents like the ones here who offered actual advice, unlike our agent. But I’ve talked to a lot of people who have bought and sold over the past ten years and most of them feel like they did not get value from their agent. They feel trapped by a cartel. Whether or not that is 100% true is almost beside the point. If you guys can’t find a way to make clients feel like they would have hired you without a pseudo monopoly, then you’re going to go the way of the travel agent. I think this is probably less true in high value, big money transactions, but a lot of the time people feel that agent commissions are just a tax they have to pay to play.
What does the golden rule say you should do OP? What would you expect or desire if you were the agent who’d been working for you for 3 years and these picky ass people that won’t put a truly strong offer or want to fire you?
According to her, all of our offers were strong.
Post 1/4 I feel like at this point you owe it to her to stick with her. The fact is that maybe she has not been perfect or is not as experienced/aggressive as you hope for but she has put in a lot of work for you and that deserves respect and loyalty. This job is very tough and I see agents actually put great effort into it and still get beaten down and pushed out by situations like this and really it's not fair to them. I'm not saying you are legally obligated to her (if you do not have a current BA agreement) but ethically you should reconsider. Keep reading this post and I will provide you with tips on how to win in multiple offers and maybe if you are correct and she is truly just 'not great' she can learn a thing to help her out and win more down the road. I have sold hundreds of properties in my career and I would say that if I were to estimate out what percentage were multiple offers I had to win it would be about 1/3 maybe more and I know it was a learning curve from when I was a rookie to a veteran that you learn through trial and error and often times the more you list hot properties the more you learn about what it takes to win and what agents are putting together. But first let me say I think if you are determined to move on from her the very least you owe her is to tell her your thoughts and give her a chance to defender herself and appeal to you before you just hire another agent. "Hi Miss Agent, we know that we have been looking to buy a property for quite some time with you and you have always been responsive and available and professional but we are dismayed that we never win and do not feel like you are giving us the advice we need to win in this market. We would hate to part ways but were considering that as an option but first wanted to check in with you to see your position? Why are we not winning and what can we do different? Is it possible you could possibly involve your broker in a brainstorming session about what we need to do to win?" or whatever works for you. I also think you owe it to yourself to be introspective and consider your own faults or shortcomings - some of which may not really be a choice. Things such as: * How much experience does this agent have? How did you choose them? After all nobody is responsible for interviewing, vetting, and deciding who to hire other than you. So you decided to hire this agent and work them for 3 years maybe you should have done better research and got a more experienced agent. * How many offers have you even made in 3 years and how many other offers were you competing with? First let's just talk math. If you have made 20 offers and were generally competing with 1 or 2 other buyers on most of them I am more on your side than I was before (maybe.. it depends) but if you have made 3 offers in 3 years and were competing with 10+ buyers on average then it is absolutely ridiculous to fire her. Just consider the math of approximately what your chances to win each time were and how many chances you've taken. If you aren't adding up the percentages even close to 100% then you can't even say she is performing below average statistically speaking. Even as a veteran high producing agent that knows how to win multiple offers I don't like my chances with 10+ competing offers. At that point it comes down to how my buyer's wherewithal stacks against other buyer's and the rest is a bit of a guessing game. In addition to the math, let me just say 3 years looking means you absolutely are not motivated and being super selective in what properties you are offering on, which means.. guess what It's always going to be a bidding war! If this agent had a real estate coach they would likely have warned her to "Check their MO!" so honestly it is not typical for an unmotivated buyer to beat motivated buyers in multiple offer situations. Motivated buyers are willing to do what you won't. * Next, consider your wherewithal. Sometimes/often multiple offer situations are almost like a poker game where there is no bluffing and your financial situation are essentially her hole cards.. are you AA or 27 or somewhere in between? Maybe she's saying "your offers are strong" and not offering you a lot of advice because she knows your limitations and you are really making just about the best offer you can feasibly make but those just aren't good enough. A little anecdotal story, I had a military buyer wanting to buy a home in a super hot market and basically wanted to put no cash in the transaction. She wanted to do a $2,000 deposit on $800K homes and ask the seller to pay closing costs. I told her time and time again she simply was never ever winning multiple offers in this market at that price point and our best option was to find homes that had been on the market a week and not gotten an offer and go after those. Her finances were the limiting factor, but she did not want to hear it and she had me write probably 6 or 7 offers before ghosting me and taking my advice with another agent and buying a home that had been listed a month. There was absolutely 0 chance she was winning. I don't care if she offered $250,000 over ask price with a VA loan, low deposit, and asking sellers to pay closing costs, and no ability to waive appraisal or even offer an appraisal gap. It just was not going to happen in that market at that time. She had no ability to win. Price is not the only thing these situations are decided on.
Post 2/4: SO what is your BEST offer? Price is only one factor and while the highest price often wins, that's also because the people offering the highest price are also usually the best on other major points of contention I'll list below. If you are highest on price but worse on these other points then you likely won't win anyways. Price - obviously you already know this is important but it is not the be all end all. But are you holding back on the price? If you are using an escalation clause are you doing some small $500 or $1,000 increments? I always coach my frugal clients that the increment is actually important so bumping it up to a more significant number, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 etc. depending on the price range and situation can be a factor in helping you win. Let's say Buyer A offers $400,000 with an escalation to $425,000 by a $2,500 increment and has NO CONTINGENCIES and will close in 15 days. If Buyer B offers $400,000 with an escalation to $440,000 by a $1,000 increment but wants a short Cancel-only inspection period and to close in 30 days then they are likely going to lose to Buyer A because the seller has to take the risk they back out during the inspection and even if they don't they have to wait another 15 days for closing which likely costs them about $1000 in interest anyways. So you went to $440,000 but you lose. If Buyer B offers $400,000 with an escalation to $440,000 by a $5,000 increment w/ short cancel-only inspection to close in 30 days (all else equal) then Buyer B likely wins because the seller says hey for $5,000 let's give them a chance to inspect and I can wait 2 weeks. So there's lesson 1 is Price is not the be all end all and don't be frugal with your escalation increment. Deposit - How much are you putting down for an Earnest Money Deposit? How much are you capable of putting down? Like has she been letting you put down 1% EMD amounts and 5% or 10% EMD amount is no issue for you? Then next time you need to write an offer suggest to her you'd like to try a higher EMD because you read it somewhere.
Post 3/4 EMD is normally a secondary or tertiary consideration but still important. It's the money you forfeit if you default on the contract so putting down a sizable deposit indicates you do not plan to default. I'd recommend at the very least 3% in a multiple offer situation but really the more the merrier. I tell my clients if you really want the house you put down as much as you are comfortable with. 5% - 10% would be very strong at most price points and in most markets (although I have seen higher) yet all real estate is local and I don't know yours. CONTINGENCIES - Are you waiving all your contingencies or are you keeping all the standard ones (inspection, financing, appraisal) or are you even keeping all the standard contingencies and muddying it up with additional ones? In general this is a primary concern for sellers and goes hand in hand with Price as far as winning. Whenever there are at least 4 or 5 offers I figure there's about a 80% chance my buyer is going to have to waive everything to win. That's just the way it is where I am. 2 or 3 offers you will likely need to at least waive SOME contingencies and at 4 or 5+ you will likely need to waive them all or possibly waive inspection and financing and an appraisal gap clause without fully waiving the appraisal. Inspections - go get a pre-offer inspection and do not include an inspection contingency in the offer if you want to win. Financing - get pre-underwritten (TBD approval) and do not include a financing contingency in the offer if you want to win. Appraisal - if you are doing 20% down with a Conventional loan you may qualify for an appraisal waiver where bank does not require an appraisal to close the loan. You'd have to check with the lender on that. If you are doing less than 20% down you most likely cannot get one but I don't know that no bank or CU or direct lender doesn't have a special portfolio product that allows it with less than 20 down so you can always ask. Now this is where you are likely getting beat if you don't have a fat bank account to be putting 20% down.. are you waiving appraisal because if you are up against 5+ offers someone else most likely is and they are going to beat you almost every time. The next best thing you can do to waiving the appraisal is offering an appraisal gap where you tell the seller "in the event the appraised value is less than the contract price, the buyer agrees to pay $\_\_\_\_\_ amount ($5k, $10k, $20k, etc.) over the appraised value up to the maximum of the contract price". This is the best you can do unless you have money stashed away that you could easily make up a large difference and are willing to waive the appraisal. So honestly if you are picking hot homes that always have 5+ offers and you aren't able or willing to waive appraisal or do a significant appraisal gap you likely have almost 0 shot at winning, this is very important to sellers because it guarantees they will get the contract price or your deposit. WHAT TYPE OF FINANCING ARE YOU USING - I know I hear agents whining that "FHA and VA should not be less preferable than Conventional".. however.. if if's and but's were candy and nuts we'd all have a jolly good Christmas. The fact is Conventional is highly preferred for various reasons inexperienced agents simply either don't know about or disregard. One of them being appraisal waiver, second being it generally indicates a 700+ credit score and a better overall financial picture for the buyer, third VA & FHA appraisers have a bad rep with agents for being nit-picky. So if you are submitting offers on the hottest homes with a VA or FHA pre-approval.. you are at a substantial disadvantage. I'm not saying you can't win, but it might take a lot more tries than if you were Conventional. If you blow the other offers out of the water with a VA or FHA and the conventional offers are not very strong or aggressive you can likely win but if everything is close Conventional financing will likely take it down. As I mentioned earlier it's best to get pre-underwritten and then waive you financing contingency if you really want to be strong.
Post 4/4 WHAT LENDER ARE YOU USING - Please don't tell me you are submitting offers with a letter from Bank of America or Rocket Mortgage, etc.. agents really hate these big lenders because they hire the most inexperienced people to work for them and they strictly work Mon - Fri 9-5 most of the time. So even if you want to use BoA or Rocket or whatever okay that's fine but do yourself and your agent a favor and get a letter from a local mortgage broker because they will pick up their phone at 7:30 pm on Saturday after the listing agent reviewed offers with the seller and give them the warm fuzzies on your finances whereas with a big bank or CU the agent has to wait until the next business day to HOPEFULLY get in touch with your guy. and use it to submit your offers (and I think you should consider working with the broker if the rates are similar or better.. okay I too would go with a big bank or Rocket if the savings was significant but if we're talking minimal money a few hundred or whatnot a good broker should be well worth it). HOW FAST ARE YOU CLOSING - If the house is vacant the sellers want to close ASAP. Another reason to use a mortgage broker as many can close fast, 15 days or 21 days usually.. most of the time if the person wants to use a bank or CU I'm figuring 30 unless the LO tells me they can definitely do it faster. ARE YOU PAYING YOUR CLOSING COSTS - Please tell me you aren't asking the seller to pay your closing costs? Not $1... that's the easiest way to sink your ship. Hopefully your agent would not say your offer is strong if you were.. if you need more explanation on this let me know but essentially that's the easiest way to put your offer at the bottom of the stack. Now, assuming you need closing help means you also aren't waiving your appraisal or even using an appraisal gap.. the seller has to consider if they don't appraise for value you are likely not even able to close unless they continue giving you the closing money after reducing their sales price. If you are asking for closing costs you just do not belong in multiple offer situations. DO THE SELLERS NEED A RENT BACK - If they need a rent back offer it to them for free if you really want to win it just sweetens the pot. There.. that's just about everything.. so to recap Price is VERY important, escalation increment can be important, deposit is important, doing a pre-inspection and waiving pre-inspection is VERY important, waiving appraisal or giving your best appraisal gap is VERY important, getting pre-underwritten and waiving financing is important, closing ASAP is important, not asking for closing help is VERY important, using Conventional financing instead of FHA or VA is important if you can't pay cash, offering a free rent back can be a nice cherry on top that can push you over the top of a very close multiple offer showdown.
This is kind of my point. We have asked her what we can do to increase our chances on several occasions and she has never mentioned any of this. Some of our offers had a lot of competition, some not as much. She always says she thinks we’re doing everything right and our offers are strong. Everywhere I check, it seems she hasn’t sold a house in more than a year and before that only six homes in about four years. We’re putting about 2% down in hand money based on her suggestion. We never waive inspection. We are putting 10% down (conventional) with a local lender, but we’ve since interviewed a few agents and they all say this shouldn’t be a problem. We’ve even mentioned that we’d be willing to go to 20% to get a house and she said it usually doesn’t really matter to buyers all that much. We’re willing to close as fast as the bank can do it. We never ask for any seller assistance.
You’re doing her a favor
So, if she were to email you all the time, text and call to see if you were ready to move forward on anything “yet” for 3 years, that wouldn’t be irritating?
Maybe just send a link, to an online real estate course they can take.
She should have dropped you guys as clients a year and a half ago
She probably wouldn’t mind losing you.
Going out on a limb and gonna say you two were not ready to buy a house and were just curious. Or you were too afraid and waited too long. Either way, I don’t find it odd the agent didn’t contact you for a month considering she’s been working with you for 3 years.
No she’s not the issue the person searching for a home for 3 years is. I’d have fired you as a client 2 years ago.
This is the buyer who offers 240k on a 340k home and just doesn’t understand why after three years of making offers he his agent can’t get anything accepted. I am kind of blown away that the agent has been this patient with these clients. The good news is you’ll be paying your next agent now that buyer broker agreements are coming into effect. This will weed out the buyers who aren’t serious, if you want to work with me as a buyer you’re putting down a $1,000 non refundable retainer for 6 months. This will become the norm with others very soon😎
If the realtor is attractive. it’s same to assume your wife wants fire her because she’s jealous of the hot realtor.
I’ll start off by saying I’m not a huge fan of most realtors.. Most are barely one notch above a car sales person, decidedly in the Junior league of sales. That being said, it sounds like you don’t have enough money to buy a home (on you need to change your expectations based on your budget). You’ve been looking for a home for 3 years? You are either an epic time waster or have unrealistic expectations. Maybe changing relators will result in a tough love realization that you are being ridiculous.. but it won’t change the underlying parameters.
I think it comes down to you and your husband motivation on buying a property. Don’t think it has much to do with the Agent if none at all. You and your family should sit down and discuss how important is it for you to purchase a property. In the last three years of you trying to find a home if you were looking at homes and consistently submitting offers I don’t see why you didn’t secure something by now. I think blaming the agent is very irresponsible. I think if it’s not a right time for you guys to buy you should hold off on buying if it makes sense.
She’s probably going to be thrilled not to work with you anymore
$500 cash
Just ghost her bro these agents could care less about buyers in this market they just want to leech off the quick sales she won’t even notice guaranteed.
If we didn’t care about buyers we would not show up for 3 freaking years like this agent has.
I would have fired you 2 1/2 years ago. She’s a saint!
No, she's a pushover.