Front Page Forum: Broker from Hell
Help! I’m being treated miserably by the real estate broker that is selling us the historic home we are buying in Brooklyn. She calls us up and screams at us on average 3 times a week. Our attorney can’t get her to behave any better and her broker thinks that her behavior is normal. Basically,…
Help! I’m being treated miserably by the real estate broker that is selling us the historic home we are buying in Brooklyn. She calls us up and screams at us on average 3 times a week. Our attorney can’t get her to behave any better and her broker thinks that her behavior is normal. Basically, she just screams and screams at us because we haven’t closed yet–but our closing date in the contract is not supposed to be for many weeks away. Is this grounds for reporting her to the NY State Department of State Division that licenses brokers? What should we do?
this isn’t a broker who specializes in Ditmas Park, by any chance? A friend of mine had a similar experience when buying her Ditmas Park house a couple years ago, and apparently her broker (who I think deals w/ ditmas-area houses exclusively) is infamous for just that sort of hysterical behavior. My friend eventually refused to talk to this woman and had her lawyer deal with it, but it all ended fine.
I understand not telling the name until she closes, I’m assuming it’s a first house and it’s a big event regardless if not. But my partner has had a real estate agent before scream at him because we did not ask her to sell the property once we were done renovating it a few months later. She went apeshit, as if that’s going to convince us to use her. I don’t know the name of the person, I could probably find out, but it was from some no-name mom and pop shop.
Find out who her manager is and talk to him/her. Maybe she’ll be taken off the deal, and have to share her commission with her replacement (or, more likely, she’ll be fired outright). But I agree, she’s probably just stressed to the limit and needs that money. I recently had a closing that was delayed a month because the co-op board unexpectedly decided to move their meeting up by 10 days so we had to wait for the next one — totally screwed up my finances. But to scream at your client’s buyers — that is unprofessional and a violation of her fiduciary duty. If this sale fell through and the buyers were able to get their deposit back because of this (could happen) her clients would be plenty angry!
Hang up on her.
The name and company please!
If these people want to be called “professionals” they need to be able to take the criticism. If this was a doctor who yelled and screamed at you or a lawyer who yelled and screamed at you, you would not hesitate to publish their name. Come out with it.
i’m a laid back gal when it comes to most everything, even though i own two businesses in market that is very competitive in nyc. that said, if a broker (R.E. is NOT my biz, BTW) called and SCREAMED at me i would go utterly, absolutely, and unapologetically APESHIT on her ass. i’d report her the appropriate whomever, refer her to my attorney, tell her to fuck off, AND have the lawyer send her a letter, and i’d do it the very first time she raised her voice to me. it reminds me of the bridezilla situation; people who have never organized a thing in their lives have no idea that they do not have the skill set to handle a project, and they think they’re justified in freaking out on anyone and everyone in their path. THERE IS NO WAY THAT I WOULD EVER, EVER ALLOW A BROKER TO SCREAM AT ME. sheesh, it steams me just THINKING about it. (can you tell?)
Come on, give us the broker’s name. We had a very pushy broker who represented a buyer with the high bid when we sold our coop. We selected a lower bid because the lawyer for the higher bidding buyer insisted on terms we couldn’t abide by. The broker for the buyer with the higher bid screamed at us and told us we were being unreasonable and implored us to all sit down and work out our differences. We thought it was extraordinarily unprofessional — to the extent there are any rules or norms of behavior that apply to real estate brokers.
I think it is absolutely grounds for reporting her to the State Division that licenses brokers. Yes, it is the realtors job to gently nudge everyone forward toward the closing but that does not sound like the case here. You are about to make a very expensive purchase, which will have an effect on you for many years to come and you should not feel like you are being bullied or intimidated into making quick decisions. Tactics like these are shameful and should not have to be tollerated. Perhaps the best way to prevent realtors from behaving badly is to let the readers of Brownstoner know who they are. We will either shame them into behaving more professionaly or we can simply refuse to engage in realestate transaction involving these realtors.
pick up a caller ID gizmo at radio shack for $10. attach to phone. screen calls. she wants her money. not your problem.