The Vine: August 10, 2007
Hey Sars,
I’m buying my first home and I wanted to ask you a question about real estate etiquette. My real estate agent is a nice person who hasn’t put any pressure on me at all and has given me good advice, but she also hasn’t been finding me any houses herself or telling me anything about the houses that I don’t know. I’ve looked extensively on realtor.com and Yahoo’s real estate page and I definitely feel like I know more about the area and the houses than she does. I recently told her that I wanted to see more houses in the one development and gave her two street names that I saw had houses for sale. She told me that they may have sold, so she needed exact addresses! Isn’t that her job?! I gave her a long list of addresses that I wanted to see, but I feel that I may be missing a good find that I wouldn’t know about since I’m not a real estate agent.
So what should I do? Am I allowed to dump her now after she’s shown me houses or is that bad etiquette? And what if want to buy a house she’s shown me after I use someone else, what do I do then? I’ve never done this before, so I don’t know how it works.
Can I get the commission then?
Dear Commish,
The agent works on a commission; she’s supposed to earn said commission by doing things that you can’t, or doing them better.She’s not doing that, and she can’t reasonably expect to get any money out of a prospective transaction because you feel bad for her or uncomfortable about telling her to get on the stick.
Or maybe she can, since you seem unsure enough about finding another realtor that she might just get by with it.Maybe she has before, I don’t know, and I also don’t know enough about real estate in terms of buying and selling to tell you what her percentage is or whether you’ve obligated yourself in some way to this woman or her company.The readers can weigh in, but my feeling is that you need to have a talk with her at the very least, to wit: “This is uncomfortable for me, but buying a house is a major transaction, so I really can’t just let this go, and the fact is, I don’t feel like you’re as well informed as you should be about prospective properties — and you haven’t informed me about any.I need a realtor who understands my parameters and is industrious about finding houses that fit them.”
Whether you want this conversation to be a “please work harder or I’ll move on” warning, or an “I’m moving on, thanks for your ‘help’ so far” thing, is up to you.I think some people do just want the realtor to stand silently buy while they think out loud, and then hold their hands a bit during escrow, and for those people, your realtor is probably a fine, inobtrusive partner who isn’t imposing her tastes on them, but if she’s not working for you, she’s not working for you.And she’s supposed to be working for you, literally.
Readers, please weigh in, as I’m used to the rental market (and to being basically held up for the 15 percent by the broker as a cost of doing business in this metro area whether s/he does anything or not) and may not know the etiquette here…but it’s not an etiquette problem so much as a customer service problem, to my mind.
Tags: Ask The Readers etiquette retail
I’ve bought one house, and have friends who have bougt others, in 4 different states, all different agents.. We all had very helpful, very involved agents, ACTIVE – even though this set of friends had very different requirements , needs , ways of looking for a house, personalities, etc..
I suspect this agent is only showing what is on her own company’s listing and is not looking at the net at all. this would explain ( so to speak) her response of “you have to give me the exact addresses.”
I think she should be fired, because she is doing almost nothing, but i guess there is a chance she might be more active if it were explained to her. If i did the explaining, i would expect her to be more active within 3 days.
No way does she deserve a commission for her current work. Maybe she thinks her job is only to help with the paperwork.
I recently purchased my first house a couple of years ago, and my realtor did not pick any houses to show me. He referred me to realtor.com and then dickered with the selling realtor when I chose the houses I wanted to see, and my parents confirmed that all the times they’ve bought houses it’s been similar, so I think that’s probably common. You have to pick the houses you want to see yourself, the buyer’s realtor is there to protect you from the seller’s realtor.
However, my realtor did tell me things about the house I didn’t know. We would go in, and he was constantly pointing out things all, “Do you see that?” “… no?” I would reply. “Let’s go look in the attic,” he would say, and up he’d go and tell me about water damage. He would point out the way some rafters were and be all, “That’s going to make moss grow here, and flood your backyard.” He was awesome in that sense. He also told me things like, “This isn’t a good area really, the percentage of owned properties is really low compared to percentage of rented ones. I would definitely expect that from a buyer’s agent.
I bought a house last fall in the certifiably insane Seattle housing market. I have a friend of a friend I’ve known socially for ten years, he’s in the escrow business and hooked me up with a mortgage guy and a realtor he trusts from 25 years’ experience. The realtor is Dan.
Dan peppered me with questions for an hour and put together a solid list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and might-maybe-pay-more-fors. He started finding me houses the day after he got back from an annual family vacation. And the same day, he started fighting through SICK Seattle traffic to walk through houses *i* found, by himself, while I was at work, and started emailing me summaries.
He saved me many walk-throughs by alerting me to pending repairs.
He found me half a dozen houses that I almost offered on after walk throughs, including one I offered on and instantly got outbid.
He explained bids, haggles, inspections, and everything else, patiently and cheerfully.
We ended up offering on a house I found (actually, my then-officemate found) in a search of my own while at work. I live there now. I had to leave for an annual family vacation of my own the night of the offer, and Dan drove 50 miles with his wife to get my signatures when they accepted.
He hung out with me during the inspection and several other times just to keep boredom at bay for me.
You know, people can and do buy and sell their own homes all the time, if they know all the paperwork. My then-officemate was in the process of doing just that (a sale and a purchase, both) while I was buying my house.
The listing agent and the purchasing agent each get 3% of the total sale price–in the market, that’s anywhere from $7500 to 30 grand and up. Is your realtor coming anywhere close to delivering 5-figure effort? Nowhere near. Dump her right away. She’s just banking on your not knowing that legally, you have no need for her. Maybe not intentionally/maliciously, but, wow, she’s suckin’, big-time.
We weren’t obligated to stick with our realtor until we signed a document saying so when we made our first offer. Prior to that, we were free agents. This is in Arizona. It might vary by state.
And yes, she should be sending you information from the MLS. She should have access to it and be able to send you lists of houses with all the relevant information and pictures and whatnot. How willing a realtor is to actually go through the MLS and seek out the houses she thinks you’ll want to buy vs. just putting in a zip code and a few parameters and sending the whole list the database generates varies by realtor. But sending listings to you is… her job at this point.
My fiance and I both dread going out looking at houses with our realtor, she’s a bad driver who doesn’t know where she’s going before she starts driving, and she sends us absurdly long lists of houses that mostly aren’t remotely what we asked her to send.
We stuck with her and discovered that she’s really, really good at the back end. The offers, and inspections, and checking for permits on anything that’s been updated, and getting the tax records out to see what the person paid for the house, checking the comps to help us come up with a reasonable offer. That’s the sort of thing she’s great at. People have different skills; it might be worth sticking around and seeing. But there are loads of realtors out there…
I think the pertinent question is: Do you have a contract with this person? If not, walk away. If so, figure out how to extract yourself.
No one I know who bought real estate (including me) had a buyer’s agent. I don’t know that you really need one, provided you have all your other bases covered. (You have a good lawyer, etc.)
Mind you, I wouldn’t say the same thing if you were trying to sell something, but it sounds like you’re completely capable of doing the work a buyer’s agent would do anyway (finding properties that meet your needs).
I think if you buy a house she showed you, she gets the commission.
Commish doesn’t owe the realtor anything, not even a courtesy phone call unless she’s signed some sort of a contract. She should find another realtor who’s more in tune with her needs, perhaps one that is strictly a buyer’s agent.
You should definitely be able to rely on your realtor to go out and find properties for you to look at. I’ve been through this twice now (ack!), and it worked like this: I talked to my realtor about what size/type of house I was hoping to find, my “must-haves” and “can’t stands,” the price range, and the neighborhoods I was considering. She came up with possibilities, and drove me around to look at them.
(And she wasn’t pushy at any point. It is possible for a realtor to be both industrious and unobtrusive.)
Please, please, please, if you are not happy with your RE agent, let her know! Purchasing a home is probably the largest single expense of your life, not a time to settle for someone’s second-best efforts.
Re-read your agreement with the agent — there should be a section about terminating the contract.
I terminated a contract with a RE agent after it became clear that selling my home was not a priority with her. I asked friends, family and co-workers and found a broker who I am delighted with.
Good luck — remember, this should be an exhilerating, exciting time. You want someone whose expertise, support and guidance you can count on, not someone who has to be coaxed and prodded into doing her job.
I would absolutely, positively dump the agent. Realtors get strangely territorial though, so when speaking to future realtors, I wouldn’t mention you’ve been working with someone else. You have no obligation to her, and in what is a great buyer’s market, this is all in your hands.
We are selling, and we’re having similar problems with our listing agent–simply knowing the market better than she. If we weren’t bound by a contract for another three months, we’d move on now.
Nothing I can add to that, Sars, except agreement. It is a customer service issue. The dynamic between a real estate agent and a client is so much more intimate than a typical service interaction that I see why firing one would be awkward, but they absolutely need to earn their commission. Sounds like this one isn’t doing that.
As for what happens if she ends up buying a house the first Realtor(TM) :eyeroll: showed her, I say tough. The new agent would still be the one to facilitate the transaction and the buyer would still have found the property on her own. Once the first Realtor is fired, I say you owe them nothing.
1. Did you sign an real estate agent agreement/contract? If so, you may be stuck with him/her for a set amount of time (6 months or a year) before being able to work with another agent with no strings (like the former agent getting a percentage of the profit). I’ve also heard these are fairly easy to wiggle out of if you are direct with (but not rude to) the agent.
2. I’m not sure about all states, but in TX, the agent representing the buyer gets 3% and the one representing the seller gets 3% of the total sale of the home. This comes from the seller. Some agents will only show you homes they are selling themselves, thereby upping their total commission by representing both. You don’t want that kind of agent. Get somebody who will show you any house you want and is constantly searching. Especially in hot markets where homes sell the same day they’re listed.
3. With the internet engines and home selling sites being so advanced today, you can find out a lot online, but an agent has access sometimes several days earlier and much more detailed information about the home’s history. If you have no contractual obligation to this woman, I’d say ‘thanks but not thanks’ and move on and find someone interested in working for their money. This is a huge investment and if your agent doesn’t recognize that from the beginning, there’s a problem.
I went through a very similar situation last year when buying my first house. I grew up in the area and was very familiar with it and my husband and I researched a bunch. Unfortunately, we were pretty small potatoes compared to the multi-million dollar commercial deals he was working on. But like Sars said, sometimes they aren’t sure what kind of role you want them to play…when I made it clear that I had x number of weeks before finals began to find a house and would be looking for a different agent if he couldn’t come through by then, he was amazing and we found our dream house soon after. Good luck!
If Commish has signed a representation agreement with the agent, then Commish is stuck with the agent until the agreement term expires. The best bet in that case is to tell the agent that the buyer needs the agent to be more responsible, and if that fails, to tell the agent’s managing broker that they want to be represented by someone else in the office. There are a lot of issues here that fall into real estate law, and the buyer has different options depending on how he or she decided to employ the agent.
The bottom line, however, is that this agent is absolutely not doing the job. It is not rude at all to expect the agent to find suitable listings, and if that job is not getting done, the buyer has every right to ask the agent to get a move on.
Try putting the problem on a smaller scale that isn’t as major as buying a house. If I go into a clothing store, and I get a sales associate who talks to me but doesn’t really know what they have in the store, or doesn’t really seem to want to help me find something I love, I’m not going to feel bad if I go to another store where they want to help and let them get their commission. I might be oversimplifying it, but I wouldn’t want someone who hasn’t done something for me to make money off of it. Especially on something as life changing as buying a house.
The real estate agent’s standard commission, at least in my area, is 7% of the contract price. If the buyer and seller both have an agent, they split the 7% evenly. Something an inexperienced home buyer should know is that the commission for both agents is paid by the SELLER. That means that even a buyer’s agent is technicly working for the seller, and never put too much trust in your agent. Some real estate agent’s will make you sign a contract with them for a specified period of time-if you don’t find the deal you want after that time, you are free to find another agent. If your writer has not signed such a paper, they are free to find another agent today-it sounds like this person is very unmotivated. Certainly, a buyer’s agent should be asking you about your likes/dislikes and then sending YOU the listings they think you would like to see, then coordinating appointments.
It sounds like this person is not doing their job at all, and I would find a good agent who knows what they are doing BEFORE you find the house you like and want to make an offer. If they aren’t doing that part well, then you definitely don’t want them as your advisor when you are about to begin a complicated legal transaction where you will need expert guidance.
Assuming you haven’t signed a contract with this agent, it sounds like this person is so unmotivated you could probably just stop contacting them, and let the relationship die without confrontation. If you are uncomfortable with that, I would write a one paragraph, “I have found another agent I think will be a more mutually beneficial relationship” type letter and send it off.
One final word-buy either the “Idiot’s Guide to Buying and Selling Your Home” or the equivalent book in the “For Dummies” series and read it cover to cover. It will help you understand the process and ultimately find a better deal.
Okay, so I’m being forced out of lurkdom to help a fellow homebuyer – I couldn’t stand to leave him/her hanging here, and the apple polisher in me HAS to raise her hand if no one else will…
Okay, so here’s my opinion, forged by the furnace of my own bad choices. First: you don’t owe your agent a thing, legally, unless you signed an Exclusive Right to Buy agreement with her. If so, you will need to terminate that, which isn’t hard, you simply have to gather your wherewithal together and tell her you wish to do so (easier said than done, I know). If you HAVEN’T signed anything, you just tell her this: you have been giving this a lot of thought, you’ve come to the decision that your buying and her selling styles are different, and you really feel – being a first-time buyer and all – like you need a more aggressive agent who will help you work the system, get the best deal, and help you reach the largest market share. No need to dwell on personal specifics, and this will let you both off the hook with a minimum of hurt feelings.
(This next part would be in all caps if I could face it): Your home is the biggest purchase you will ever make – unless you’re into jets or yachts – and it will be your biggest asset, too. So, this is no time for nice. Or, you know, feeling guilty. The fact is, she’s not doing her job – you are. And that’s not good enough. See, she’s likely going to make thousands of dollars at the end of this long day, from this transaction. So she should show at least a bit of hustle here.
Secondly (are we all still awake, here?): you won’t get a commission at all – unless the laws are very different in your state – if you act as your own agent in the PURCHASE of a home. In fact, because you’re a first-time buyer and you have no dreaded percentage to pay to the selling agent (which is not, sadly, the case for me at the moment), you have absolutely no downside to using an agent. A good agent will source homes for you, get the inside scoop on what’s coming on the market – sometimes even before it’s “on”, negotiate the best deal for you, deal with the nastiness that happens during inspections, etc – a NIGHTMARE, let me tell you – and basically take all the hassle from your shoulders. And they will do this – are we all clear here? – AT NO COST TO YOU. That’s right – no cost to you. The seller bears the costs of both buying and selling agents, so nuts to him and go you – get yourself a great agent (ask around, figure out who the most aggressive team in town is – these people are not there to be your friends, they’re there to get you a deal, for pete’s sake!) and go buy a house!
Also – and please don’t tell the people who are buying my house, who apparently have been living under a rock the past few weeks, or who just DON’T CARE AND LOVE MY LITTLE RANCH (and God bless ’em, too) – you do know the housing market’s going to the dogs, right? So your agent should be able to get you a smokin’ deal, if he or she is worth the salt in their shaker.
Good luck.
The relationship between a buyer and an agent is tricky. Basically, when you start working with them, they typically have you sign some paperwork stating that you understand the different types of agents (buyer, seller, dual, etc). This essentially gives them “dibs.” While you could move on to another agent that would work harder for you, your current agent could potentially cause problems for the new guy professionally, either by accusing them of skating clients (which can cause agents to be black-balled, in extreme cases), or even with the oversight boards, if they want to work that hard.
I agree with Sars, talk to your agent, and flat out tell them that if they’re not doing the work, then you’re not going to be able to stay with them. Depending on the area, there are Multi-Listing Services (MLS) that list all of the available properties in the area. It is so easy to use it’s crazy. Realtors are notoriously old-fashioned, however, and some do refuse to use the computer- this might be the crux of your problem.
If spelling it out doesn’t snap them to it, then I would talk with their broker (the owner of the agency). Get reassigned that way. Worse comes to worse, sever ties with the agent in writing, and find someone who will really work for you. Really, there’s a reason that Realtors get most of their business from word of mouth- ask someone you trust for a recommendation.
It’s a customer service problem. My mom is a realtor and works SO HARD that I wanted to reach through my computer and slap your realtor upside the head for perpetuating the “realtors suck” mentality. Tell her that you don’t think she’s addressing what you need and that you’re moving on. A good realtor will be able to discuss at length what you need, walk through your options, and if she/he is REALLY good, will be able to say she thinks you’re making a mistake if you are. That business sucks, and I think my mom should get a fucking medal for the shit that she puts up with (and 85% of her work is completely non-paid) but that shouldn’t mean you should have to put up with a crap agent. Dump her ass.
Commish is by age-old custom morally obligated, if the agent shows Commish a particular house that Commish later decides to make an offer on, to use THAT agent to buy the house and yes, to pay that agent the commission. It is common, understood and expected that if an agent isn’t performing for a client, client drops said agent and goes with someone else. But if the new agent shows Commish a house that the first agent already took Commish to, Commish had better own this up to the new agent before new agent takes a lot of time to show it, because the new agent, if ethical, will not want to jump the first agent’s claim. I hope that makes sense.
As many have already pointed out, what you’re legally obligated to do will depend on what contract you signed. But a contract that obligated you to do something (like give exclusivity) is also logically going to require the agent to do SOMETHING. If the agent had no obligations under the contract, it wouldn’t be a contract. A contract has to be an exchange of obligations, not a completely one-sided thing.
My point is that even if you DO have a contract with the agent, you’ve got to look at it and see what it obligates the agent to do. I know ZERO about real estate law or realtors specifically, but I can’t imagine it wouldn’t contain something requiring the agent to, you know, do stuff. Reasonable efforts, or something. If the agent is doing nothing and you do have some legal relationship to her, make sure you look into her side of that legal relationship.
If you do not have a contract, dump the realtor immediately. Many realtors don’t actually bother looking for houses for people (unless they or their office happens to be the listing agent) because so much info is already available on the internet.
In any case, it should have been EXTREMELY easy for your realtor to find out information about those houses that “may have sold” on the street addresses you gave her. She should also have been able to easily input the addresses you’re interested in so that you would automatically get emails when any house pops up on the streets you mentioned.
Go to a few open houses of places you’re interested in. Sometimes you can meet good agents who you can get to be your buyer’s agent. If you are interested in the property the listing agent is selling, though, be warned that the listing agent cannot be your buyer’s agent. In that case, I would just get a good real estate attorney if you live in a state where that is commonly done.
My husband and I went with a realtor to buy our house because she knew the people we would have to deal with. Not the seller: the inspectors necessary, an excellent financing agent, an excellent lawyer for making sure all the I’s were dotted and the T’s were crossed.
As it turned out, she was able to show us the house we’re living in now, and was very helpful and informative to work with. But the real reason we stayed with her was for her administrative knowledge, not her house-search skills.
I’m not sure how accurate this analogy is, but I had the same sort of queezy feeling, and a plane ticket to Australia (from Amsterdam) is a lot of money to a poor, poor student.
I’d been shopping around on the internet for plane tickets, but I decided I would rather purchase the ticket to a travel agency. I went to my local one (small town) and the woman was rubbish. She owned the agency but seemed to have no idea what she was doing. When I heard her co-worker tell another customer that “no liquids of any kind at all” were allowed as carry on luggage, I knew it was time to move on.
Did I feel bad for wasting her time? Yes, yes I did, very much so. But she wasn’t doing her job. Everything she found in her systems was more expensive than what I’d found on my own, and she seemed just fine with that.
I found myself another travel agency who spent a good two hours trying to get me the best deal possible (based on what I’d found online). I had done some of the work, sure, but when part of that deal fell through (middle part of the ticket sold out), she was on the phone and running back and forth to fix things up.
I’d imagine there’s a similar difference between Commish’ realtor and the realtor she should be doing business with.
I don’t know about other areas, but where I live, it seems like you can’t throw a stick without hitting a real estate agent. So I would start by asking a couple of friends who they’ve used and liked (make sure it’s someone they’ve worked with, not just their brother/cousin/best friend, etc.), and once I had some solid recommendations, THEN I’d have the convo with the old agent. “Look, maybe our expectations just aren’t compatible, but here’s what I expected and what I need from my real estate agent, and if you’re not able or prepared to meet my needs, I have several other recommendations for agents who will.” Perhaps knowing that you’ve already starting looking for someone else will set a fire under her ass.
With that said, I’d have to echo what others said regarding the contracts. I’m selling a house right now, and the contract we signed is pretty explicit about what the selling agent gets, what the buying agent gets, and how long the contract is. (Mine is for 90 days.) There are some clauses where the agent can claim the commission for houses they’ve already shown, or for buyers they’ve already contacted, and such. A lawyer or another reputable agent should be able to look at your contract and clear up any confusion regarding your obligations. (A reputable agent isn’t going to want to get into a big legal tangle with another agent — word of mouth advertising is much too important to them, and they don’t want their commission tied up while it gets sorted out.)
With all that said, if you have no contract, and none of the houses you’ve looked at with her are compelling, then dump her and find someone who will put in the effort you need. If you don’t feel good about her efforts so far, are you going to feel comfortable with the legal paperwork she prepares, or her efforts on your behalf in terms of negotiating price?
Is this agent part of a larger team? If so, I think it’s appropriate to talk to some other team members. If not, then you definitely need to find another agent/agency.
Does your local paper have an online real-estate section? If so, utilize it. Agents are SUPPOSED TO plug in your wants/un-wants into an onoline service that will send you houses for sale ads every day or every week or whatever your preference is. I found this service incredibly useful, but still browsed the ads daily.
Before you go with another agent, I think you need to speak with your current one, and possibly give her a list of 5 (no more, you can choose from the list below) points that you want from her… e.g.
I expect you to only show me houses that meet the following criteria
size (storeys, square footage, etc)
floor plan (colonial, ranch, etc.)
# bedrooms
# bathrooms
yard space
garage/ parking
basement/slab
AC / type of heat
neighborhood/ school district
traffic (double line road ok? need sidewalks? zoning?)
These are some of the things we discussed with our agent BEFORE we sent her looking. School district was most important for us, you may have a different priority
Even with the best agent ever, you should still keep looking, go to open houses and make contacts.
You too can find your own money pit!
I work for a real estate brokerage outside of Toronto, and there are a few things I’d like to add to the comments above:
In my (very small) office, there are two of us watching the back-end MLS “hotsheets” for brand new listings, and emailing properties of interest out to *contracted* clients on a daily basis. (Larger metropolitan real estate boards now use fancy software that can be set up to do this automatically based on your search criteria). Our clients get these listings anywhere from 24-72 hours before they are posted on the public MLS website.
We also snail-mail all of our Buyers an updated MLS book — which lists every property currently for sale on our local board — on a bi-weekly basis. This is standard practice in our office, but ONLY for clients who have signed an exclusive Buyer Representation Agreement with one of our agents.
If Commish has, for any reason, refused to sign a Buyer contract of any kind with her realtor, she is in all likelihood probably not going to get the best possible service, because the realtor has no guarantee that when it comes time to make an offer, she won’t get the proverbial shaft. So it’s possible the realtor is helping Commish out to some degree (on the off-chance Commish might make an offer through her) but she’s not devoting major time and resources to her because she has nothing in writing to confirm that she is Commish’s exclusive Buyer Agent.
In Ontario, you can sign a Buyer Representation Agreement that specifies a duration of time, a particular search area and the type of property your agent will be helping you find (ie: single-family residential). All of these specifics can be negotiated with your agent, and you can also ask her to draw up and sign a separate “side agreement” stating that you’ll be permitted to cancel the BRA with her at any time if you’re unhappy with the quality of the service provided to you.
There is no real risk to the Buyer when signing a straightforward agency agreement (if in doubt, take a copy to the lawyer you intend to use for your property purchase and have him/her look it over before you sign). You’re simply providing the agent with a minimal level of assurance that you intend to use her services exclusively. Most importantly, it should also entitle you Grade A service from your realtor at every step along the way after you sign.
Many buyers refuse to sign service agreements of any kind once they start dealing with realtors, and our office flat-out will not deal with these people — we won’t send them back-end listing information, and we won’t show them property. It’s the only way we have to protect our limited time and resources from being abused. Keep in mind that a buyer service agreement is no guarantee the client will actually BUY anything; only that IF they do, they have committed to using the realtor who has been helping them out all along.
I have often compared real estate clients with restaurant guests. Some want to have their every need catered to, to be waited on hand and foot, and to have long, detailed discussions about everything under the sun. Others want ‘the help’ to be as unobtrusive as possible, getting involved only when it’s absolutely necessary to the process at hand.
My point is that every agent/client relationship is different, and agents have to be adaptable to different client needs. If someone has already taken several hours out of her life to show you property, it’s my opinion that you should give her a chance to improve her performance by telling her exactly what you expect of her during the remainder of your search, and that you will definitely be going elsewhere postehaste if she doesn’t toe the line, effective immediately. I would start with these basics:
1. Tell her you would like to have relevant listings sent to you on at least a weekly basis — daily, if appropriate — and that you expect her to do a certain amount of background research into properties and neighbourhoods of particular interest to you, using the many helpful tools she has at her disposal as a licensed realtor.
2. If you have previously refused to sign a document like the one I’ve described above, revisit this issue in detail with your realtor. Consider signing on exclusively with her if you think this will mean an improvement in the level of service you will get.
As you’ll find with any other professional, real estate agents range from the hard-working, efficient and knowledgeable expert to the stereotypical, greasy, underhanded used-car salesman who would screw you over in a heartbeat if it meant getting a bigger percentage of the commission. You really need to take your time and do your homework when choosing a realtor to work with — ask friends for referrals and conduct sit-down interviews with a few different agents before deciding on one. Ask for sales statistics and client references.
If nothing else, you’ll know for next time not to skip the formalities. Once you’ve had an agent show you a dozen properties, it’s a bit late to decide you don’t like her style. It’s bound to be awkward giving her the sack at that point, because no matter how you explain yourself, the agent will feel cheated, and you’ll end up with a bunch of annoying residual guilt that could have been avoided.
I’m a licensed Real Estate Associate in Oklahoma and unless you’ve signed an agreement with an agent, you’re under no obligation to them. Everyone is right, the seller pays the comission anyway, to both buying and selling agents.
BUT, be aware if you dump her but you end up buying a property she showed you, there *may* be a law in your state called a threshold agreement; essentially it states that whoever showed you the property first is entitled to the commission, regardless of whom you use to get your sales contract together. It will only come out at closing, which is a bummer, because then there are three agents to pick up two checks. Nothing will come back on you, but it’ll screw your new hot-shot agent if the old sucky one comes out of the woodwork and belive me, it happens.
All of that aside, your current agent is NOT doing her job! They’re working for you, the client, regardless if you’re buying or selling! Sit her down (make her buy you lunch!) and talk to her. If she doesn’t get it together, find a new one, and word of mouth is the best way to do that.
I know the very large company I work for can sign you up to receive daily, weekly, whatever e-mail updates with new or changed listings that fit your criteria. You need to expect more!!
Another piece of advice I thought of-as I understand it, it is not that difficult to get a real estate agent license in most states. What that means is that a lot of people that don’t really know what they are doing get into the field. Also, many amateurs work as agents part time or as a sideline, and are not dependent on their real estate earnings as their primary source of income. However, as another poster who mentioned their mother is an agent said, success in real estate requires a LOT of hours and hard work. Being a good agent is not really something you can do without making it your first priority. When you look for a new agent, I recommend not going with anyone who does not look at real estate as their full time profession and who does not depend on their agent earnings as their primary source of income.