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?
Oh my gosh, Babs. That’s disgusting. Did you put him/her on blast on brownstoner?
OP–
I know it’s a minor consolation but once you have an accepted offer, the broker will be pretty much out of the picture except to arrange access for an inspection. Once in contract, the real work is btwn the attys. So at least you won’t need to deal too much with this slimeball.
Babs, if you were treated by such non REBNY broker in such a horrible way, perhaps you might be under a moral and industry obligation to contact the Owner of such property and let him/her know the facts about the conduct at the open house. I certainly would do this. This eliminated a potential party to a transaction. At least this would leave room for owner investigation to ferret out the actual problem. This goes for REBNY and non-REBNY members. By no means should REBNY membership be the immediate indicator of good faith dealings. Brokers should really be industry watchdogs for one another. If a non-REBNY broker is meeting his/her ethical/moral/legal duty to their respective client(s) and to the industry, there should be nothing to worry about at all and one should sleep well at night. You should not be afraid to “out” whoever treated you in such a way. You would be doing the industry a sound service.
JTB – if what you say is true, then Alphono Gill must be a gazillionaire.
REBNY members are required to both share their listings and co-broke (50/50 commision split) with other REBNY members. Non-member firms are not and usually do not (even though they will often say they do). I have attended (or tried to attend) open houses held by non-REBNY firms, only to be refused admission; at one, the listing broker actually physically threatened me, shouting, “This is my exclusive! Do you undertand whan an exclusive means? Now get off this property before I have to make you!”
No thanks; I’d prefer to deal with someone who is accountable to someone other than merely the DoS (and, yes, complaining to REBNY does have an effect).
If you are dealing with a professional broker (the person) who is NON REBNY it should not matter. Make sure you broker co-brokes as a rule. Have them sign a document indicating the same. It is no different with REBNY members. Many REBNY members claim that they co-broker, but we all know that their self serving interests always prevail. Remember, most of the larger firms have inexperienced sales agents. If the problem has already transpired with such REBNY member agent, what good is REBNY after the fact. As far as advertising is concerned, in this modern day and age, there are more then enough electronic vehicles available to promote a property. It is how the broker works for you after the market penetration has occurred. If a good broker is doing her/his job, the property will be advertised to all brokerages, including REBNY members. The broker’s job is to protect the deal for the client and use strategies with the client. I deal with building that usually have a more complex aspect concerning tenancies and income flow. There are only so many buyers out there for such properties. The broker is only causing dteriment to their listing and client if they do not co-broker. Remember, “sharing listings” is not really co-brokering. Co-brokering is splitting the commission at the closing
on public shame:
There are some libel suits coming up agaisnt bloggers, where a plaintiff can show that his business was harmed by something defamatory that a blogger said. I don’t know how that applies to anonymous commenters, but before outing this guy I would look into it. Any legal experts out there?
Your pool of available properties to look at will be much restricted if you use a non-REBNY broker exclusively as they do not co-broke. REBNY brokers are REQUIRED to share all of their exclusive listings with ALL other REBNY-member firms — so, for example, a Halstead agent can show you listings of Corcoran, Prudential Douglas Elliman, Brown Harris Stevens, etc., etc. Check out REBNY’s website for a partial list of members: http://www.rebny.com/members_websites_residential.jsp
Yes, many sellers fall for the “I can charge a lower commission,” line, but in the end, you get what you pay for — at the lower commission you also get a much smaller buyer pool looking at your properties, very often a much reduced marketing and web presence (check out the websites of some of these smaller firms — they really are pathetic), and in the end, a property that takes longer to sell and goes at a lower price.
As a buyer, you may wish to do both — work with a REBNY broker as your main broker, but check out the smaller ones as well on your own, knowing that you won’t be represented and preparing for a rough ride to closing, but knowing you may stumble upon the perfect home for you.
Come in low, Stuy. Make sure you bring all these shananagins to the seller as well. This broker is slime and is not working in the best interest of his client, the seller.