I’m new to the forums, and new the realestate game, but hey, we all have to start somewhere.
Ive always been under the impression (and please do correct me if i’m wrong) that the role of a real estate agent it to be the mediator and negotiator between client and potential buyer.
I recently viewed a property that had an asking price of $285,000, no parking and external laundry. Given these factors, which i noted in my offer, i faxed an offer to the agenct of $260,000. I had already spoken to the agent and he advised not to bother with the offer as the owner would not consider. I still faxed it anyway.
I then received a phone call from agent that evening. I asked if there was anything wrong with my fax, and his exact words were ” No, i just called to tell you that i couldn’t stop laughing when i saw the fax. Why did you bother sending it to me when i already told you they will not accept”
I proceeded to advise i had faxed it to him before speaking to him. To cut a long story short, he asked me if any realestate agent would take me seriously, that he hadnt and implied i was wasting his time. The phone call was condesending and really had no purpose. He said nothing about having spoken to the owner.
Was the offer i made a ridiculous one? Being new to this game, i always thought you offer something low and negotiate to the right price?
I didnt realise agents take the time to call you after business hours to tell you how ridiculous you are.
Unfortunately the agent in question is the principal agent, so no telling the boss. Do you guys have any suggestions as to whom i can complain to. Would it be worth my while trying to contact the owner and advise them of their agents lack of proffesionalism??
Help!
Why not post the offer directly to the owners and just bypass the agent. And/or ring the owners and tell them the agent is not putting offers to them.
Terryw
Discover Home Loans
North Sydney
[email protected]Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
elinitha_au,
sorry to hear that your first R.E.Agent dealing is (i beg your pardon) a peerrrick.
3 alternatives.
1) Get another agent and do a conjunction.
2) Rock up at the Vendors house and tell them that you want to buy the house at this price. Tell them that they can do a private sale and thus save RE Commission ~10k. This way the vendors can afford to lower the price.
3) Walkaway.
Being a principal, he should know better to bully customers like that.
2cent worth
elinitha_au
The agent is out-of-line!!In my opinion.
I would contact the real estate institute in your state and ask a couple of “hypothetical” questions to get the real answer.
Then decide on what action if any I would persue.
And always offer a low bid to start with, you never know unless you do!!
Age
Buy new!
Never Sell!I would tend to agree with the above comments, way out of line. I always thought that the selling agent was obligated to submit all offers to the seller. From what you say, the offer certainly wasn’t unreasonable as a first pass. Its also very rare that your offers will go down so you may as well start low!
If you are serious about the property, my two options would be:
1. As suggested above, approach the vendor direct and explaining that they may save the agents commission, you may well pick it up for your offering price anyway.
2. Walk into the agents office with a cheque for the deposit to show just how serious you are.Good luck with it and let us know what happens!
elinitha,
It’s possible that the vendor asked the RE not to pass on any offers below a certain amount. I know when I was selling a place, a vendor made an offer about a similar amount below asking price to yours, and the RE told me about it, but said he’d refused the offer on my behalf. Remember, the Agent is acting on behalf of the buyer, and the buyer is paying him mega-bucks to not have to deal with buyers, so it might be worthwhile to rebuild a relationship with the agent somehow- seems like the relationship is not really working now.
As for the Agent being rude, well, I guess you get that in every profession. Unless the Agent is acting illegally or unethically, then I doubt you’d have much luck in making a complaint. you may need to set some firm boundaries for the Agent in your continued dealings with him, letting him know that you want to be treated respectfully, and that you’ll oblige him by doing the same.
My thoughts are that sometimes buyers want an agent to undermine the vendor, and hopefully agents won’t. He needn’t have been rude about it though.
kay henry
Firstly,
Agents work for the vendor. They do NOT work for the buyer.
So expecting them to act as a neutral intermediary is not always realistic.
Secondly, there are good and bad real estate agents.
This agent is simply employing a tactic to try and get you to increase your offer…and frankly it’s not a very positive one.
The aim is to embarrass you into making a higher offer.
I’d suggest that you do try to speak directly to the vendor & let them know how poorly their agent is behaving & make the same offer.
You could also report the agent to the Real Estate Institute in your state…though they’d be unlikely to take any form of action in this instance.
Secondary to these, you should simply look for property that isn’t with that agent & simply not deal with that agency any further.
Plus tell all your friends and acquaintances about them so they don’t deal with him either. Business failure through bad service.
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Talking about bad agents, if we have a personal experience, can we name the bad agent and explain why they are bad in this forum ?
Guess the same goes for tradies, lawyers, banks, etc …
bennido,
The problem with naming names… well, I can tell you Mr Blah Man, the local RE agent, lawyer, accountant, QS etc, is a psycho… but who says I am not a psycho myself?
There is no credibility in making allegations about someone anonymously. Perceptions can be really different, and I could make a heap of nasty allegations about someone- and do it for a range of reasons. I could do it because I am dissatisfied with their service provision; I could do it because I made a pass at them that was refused; or I could do it because I am simply deranged.
If you have a concern about an individual or organisation/company, it will probably have a far better outcome if you make a formal complaint to the Body that is reponsible for receiving complaints.
kay henry
Oops, another thing to mention here is defamation. Obviously, the Forum would not want to be involved in ugly defamation proceedings. It’s a really public forum here, and people’s reputations can be on the line. It’s not a good path to go down. It’s one matter to say someone is a [clown] It’s another matter to allege that the [clown] is a fraudulent clown.
kay henry
Originally posted by bennido:Talking about bad agents, if we have a personal experience, can we name the bad agent and explain why they are bad in this forum ?
Guess the same goes for tradies, lawyers, banks, etc …
Bennido,
Publicizing names of bad business associations is not permitted here however you may wish to do so on:
http://www.notgoodenough.com.au
It’s a great way to express your opinions, give personal accounts, air out grievances and alert others to poor/shonky businesses and/or such related individuals, as well as keep up-to-date of which companies are lapsing in providing good customer service!!
Elinitha,
Sorry to hear about your dealings with that charming character, but there are good and bad people like that everywhere and in every profession. I do agree he was “out of line” but unfortunately I also appreciate that they are operating on behalf of the vendor, and bottom-line, in it for himself (ie. his commission)!!
I think the suggestions offered to you here are worth consideration, and maybe you may also wish to click on the provided link and have your say on his behaviour!!! And if you do, remember to fax him a copy of your posting, then see who has the last laugh!!![lmao]
Cheers,
Jo
Hi all,
Certainly souns like this agent won’t get many referrals from you elinitha.
With respect to bypassing the agent – I believe there is a little clause in the authority to sell which says something along the lines of ‘the agent is entitled to their (or part thereof) commission if they introduced the buyer to the seller.
As such in the scenario being discussed the agent may still be able to ask for their commission from the vendor anyway.
Obviously issues associated with timelines, state legislation and standard contracts and the question of proof etc may all come into play.
Derek
[email protected]Property Investment Support Available. Ongoing and never stopping. PM welcome.
Derek,
Yup this is usually the case.
But the reason for going around the agent isn’t to entice the Vendor to break their contract with the Agent out of greed, but to let them know how bad their agent is!
Of course, at the end of the day this gets down to price….if the agent does achieve an excellent result it’s unlikely the vendor will pay much attention to one or two complaining people who weren’t prepared to make a higher offer anyway
As the old saying goes – ‘he may be a bastard, but he’s MY bastard’.
Cheers,
Aceyducey
Having just sold a property – if the agent does not give your offer to the vendor – bad luck.
If you really want the property offer a price acceptable to agent. The agent is acting for the vendor not purchaser.
I remember about 6 yrs ago, when selling my PPOR at auction the agent came to me with an offer of $40k below our price. I was fuming and almost about to loose my temper. But he was conditioning me for a lower price.
So I am surprised the agent did not tell the vendor, i reckon he probably did but told you he would not as he wanted a higher price from you.
Me – i would not worry too much, make sure the agent has your number and he will contact you if there are no better offers and the vendors are serious about selling.
Hi Acey,
Appreciate your suggestion was about alerting the vendor to the agent’s actions.
However there were a couple of earlier comments that said the vendor could save on REA commission if a ‘private arrangement’ was made – hence my comments about the commission could still be claimed if the agent had introduced the buyer to the property.
Cheers
Derek
[email protected]Property Investment Support Available. Ongoing and never stopping. PM welcome.
IMHO the agent is completely in the wrong – you are entitled to make any offer you like, the vendor is entitled to reject it. But, no emotions, it’s just business and the path of least resistance is best.
No point trying to re-educate or punish the agent – pyschobabble is ingrained sometimes. Just move on to the next house, next agent.
Cheers
skippygirl))skippy, I disagree. elinitha’s assumption was that:
“Ive always been under the impression (and please do correct me if i’m wrong) that the role of a real estate agent it to be the mediator and negotiator between client and potential buyer.”
elinitha, the Agent is paid for by the vendor- if the agent was a mere negotiator between you and the buyer, then you would probably both pay halves. But if a buyer doesn’t want to hear offers below his or her range (and that can be written on the contract between agent and venfor) then the agent is entitled not to take those offers to the vendor.
On my sales contract, a price under which the property was not to be sold, was written. My agent was working for me, and didn’t want to insult me with lowball bids. That’s my right as a seller.
A buyer’s agent acts for a buyer. A RE agent acts for a seller- not as an impartial mediator.
kay henry
What if the vendor had a sudden change of heart and out of desperation accepted your offer. In some states it is unethical for the agent not to present your offer regardless of what he thinks.
Do you have a copy of the offer you faxed with timestamp as proof? If so, present it to your local Real Estate Institute if you have an issue about it.
Duncan
Originally posted by jhopper:I always thought that the selling agent was obligated to submit all offers to the seller.
I’m puzzled by this as I have seen this here often.
My wife and I have our PPOR up for sale, its speculative as the price is very high, agent knows it and knows we are not interested in anthing less than our “floor” price. We certainly don’t need any low offers being passed on to us and wasting our time.
May be different circumstances but if we say we are not interested in offers, why does an agent have to give us some dreamers price.????
You’ve got me curious now, is it similar to an auction scenario where you can have a “reserve” price and the agent can reject offers on the vendors behalf below a certain price? I have always been submitted prices, regardless of how ridiculous, and have either said no thanks, or lets negotiate.
I suppose it also depends on market conditions as to how the agent and seller can afford to act. As a general question, how do market conditions affect the way you buy and sell property? I hope this dosn’t sound like too naive a question!
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