Worst Broker Experience Ever
Wondering if I have any recourse for dealing with what happened in a recent home purchase. We were dealing with the owner of RE company who was helping us – the buyers I’ll call him Agent A. One of his associates was the listing agent on this property – I’ll call him Agent B. We…
Wondering if I have any recourse for dealing with what happened in a recent home purchase. We were dealing with the owner of RE company who was helping us – the buyers I’ll call him Agent A. One of his associates was the listing agent on this property – I’ll call him Agent B.
We scheduled an appointment to see the property with Agent A, he showed up 30 minutes late. We scheduled a second viewing of the property with A and he was 25 minutes late. We told him at the end of the walk-thru that we wanted to make an offer and what we were offering. He told us he thought there was maybe another offer coming in but he would ask Agent B and call or text us back within the hour and he would also send over the offer form late that evening. He did neither. I called Agent A the following day asking when he was going to send over the offering paperwork so we could our offer in and he said he would send it by noon. He still did not send it. I called him again at 2:00 pm and left him a rather terse message. We finally got the offering paperwork by about 9:00 pm – almost 24 hours after we were expecting it. We filled it out, sent it back and he did not present our offer to the sellers for 3 days. Ironically, the same day as Agent B brought another offer to the sellers for more than what we offered but they ended up not having the financing. We asked Agent A to send over the signed counter and we would sign and send it back – that took 2 days and about 5 phone calls on our part to actually receive the paperwork. We spoke with the agent over the phone about the timing of the paperwork and he said that there was no one else interested in the property and that they would change the status on their website to pending sale. We had an appointment to sign the paperwork with the broker this morning and he called us last night to say that out of the blue, another offer came in for over the asking price and the owners would go with this offer unless we offered more money. Agent A said that this new interested party emailed Agent B on Thursday evening with the offer without speaking with Agent B before doing so. Who, in this market, offers over the asking price? Obviously, Agent A, dragged his feet and did not inform us of the other offer coming because he wanted more money for the property. Since he owns the company, he’s going to get a kick back from the sale anyway.
Sorry for the long description but am I able to file a complaint anywhere about this so he doesn’t do this to someone else? If so, where?
Stuyhtshome
It seems that you may be confused about the buying process. The broker doesn’t work for you. He’s representing the seller and it’s his duty to get the most money for his client. How this makes him a super slimy agent is beyond me.
How is this any different from buyers making multiple offers on several properties in order to get the best deal out there? Aren’t they looking out for their best interest?
Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. It sounds a bit immature that you believe that because you made an offer that no other bids will be made or accepted after that. I think it’s quite reckless that you are maligning a broker’s reputation based off the fact that someone made a higher bid than you. You should be careful about making liable statements on a blog just so you can feel better about a situation. It seems like the only “crime†he committed was being late for an appointment.
And while you’re considering filing a complaint about this broker, you might want to think about if he’s going to file a complaint against you.
Also food for thought: If and when you do purchase a home and decide to sell one day, I bet you will appreciate the broker that you hire working to get the best and highest offer for your property.
And to StuyHtsHome,
I’m excited that you and your husband are still interested in the property.
Perhaps you might want to update the readers of this forum on the status of your purchase.
(including the incompetent brokers remarking who only specialize in selling apartments…and don’t use the required Disclosure of Agency Relationship form by NYS Department of State in most of their transactions…in spite of the REBNY affiliation)
Of course, you have every right to walk away from your offer any time.
And you would avoid all the stress experienced if you only
FOLLOWED THE BROKERS INSTRUCTIONS…AND NOT WHAT YOU FELT YOU WANTED TO DO.
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And from what I understand in MOPAR’s experience, that agent was fired after failing to meet NYS Department of State.
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Kudos to Foul Play for giving a dose of reality to the REBNY endorsement.
Ah, BedStuyTownhouse,
I happen to know who you are. And it’s funny how you only tell the story that gains affinity with avid posters here at Brownstoner.com.
Did you mention how low your offer was? Did you mention how long you took in making the initial offer? Did you mention how a real estate broker accommodated your unreasonable request to show you the home at 9am on a Saturday Morning because you had a busy work week ahead of you and other medical appointments that day?
Or did you think because you didn’t get your way in the matter and assumed that the broker was lying about the property being shown, that it was ok to come to a public forum and trash their business reputation and integrity.
Any broker commenting here knows that Article 12a of the Real Property Law of New York State outlines the 3 conditions by which we’re to confer the public when it comes to presenting offers.
Did you mention the suspicious pre-qualification you presented in your initial offer from a long island mortgage broker with a sketchy background.
You folks have to get it at some point and perhaps listen to MOPAR in her remarks.
I’ve had respectable, full disclosure dealings with MOPAR. Our client made that sale difficult.
Maybe you should ask your attorney what rights you truly have and see if they’ve been violated in this experience.
How you feel an experience has gone for you does not qualify as someone being sleazy and unprofessional.
Every broker commenting, although from a REBNY experience, is also aware of the 6 fiduciary obligations we are required when we represent sellers.
The law makes it clear. Perhaps before you start ranting in this manner, you should acknowledge your responsibility for the experience you have.
NO ONE IS REQUIRED TO GIVE YOU A HOUSE JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BUY IT.
A home shopper will always have to satisfy the sellers expectation and I’m sure each broker commenting here will agree.
As for BedStuyTownhouse, I’ll make my concerns known to you directly by phone on Friday, 9/25/09.
I hope you post the narrative of that discussion here at brownstoner.com as well.
earlier this year, my wife and i put a reasonable offer in on a place that had been on the market for a while. as the sellers had alreay moved and were in a hurry to sell, they accepted the offer. a day later i got a call from the broker saying that someone else had offered 50k more (which would have put the offer well over the original asking price). we figured it was an attempt to make us bid up, and held firm at our offering price. sure enough, the broker called a day or so later to say that the higher offer had “fallen through.” i have to think it’s a common practice in the industry, and it probably works some of the time.
Do you really beleive there is another offer? Walk away.
stuyhts – as far as i know a buyers broker is really, at the end of the day, working for the seller. whoever is paying the bill is the one any broker involved in the transaction needs to appease to get PAID. in the case of such co-called buyers’ brokers, there is really no such thing, unless you are paying them a cash fee out of pocket upfront. if not, and you are revealing ANYTHING to a so called “sellers’ broker”, especially how much you like or want a place, and what is your maximum price, you are completely working against yourself. trust no one. assume the worst. its real estate.
libel is the untruthful posting about anybody. You can get the name and email address of an anonymous poster through legal means. Remember google or yahoo had to give the name recently in a case and they have been sued by the blogger-the suer will lose IMO-.
Since brokers tend to sue a lot, its also likely they will sue for what they think is libel.
There are two types of libel per se and libel that caused injury. libel per se is when you say someone is a crook or things like that say they do illegal things. The other libel is when you say someone is a bad person and that causes them actual monetary damages. The person suing in the latter case has to prove actual damages. You don’t have to prove damages to be able to sue for libel per se(but it helps with getting an award of damages) but you are also entitled to punitive damages not based on actual loses.
Finally truth is a defense but the defendant has the burden to prove the truth of what they said.
Remember there are some exceptions to this as an example when the person is a public figure(absent malice you can say almost anything you want about a public figure)or what you say in court or in court papers…
To joe the bummer re: libel–To be exposed to a suit for libel or slander, the basic premise is that the accusation(s)is/are FALSE so if the O/P is stating the story accurately, then there is nothing to worry about. Obviously the O/P should be prepared to document the claim(s).
Crownlfc, based on your last note and as an actual member of REBNY, the bloggers, especially Babs, might some pay attention.