We Tell it Like It Is

For those that know me well, I have Type A tendencies when it comes to work. I do not have kids and I do not have hobbies. Therefore, a great deal of my time & energy goes into my job. Since my job is my life, I work hard to excel at it --this means providing great service to my clients. I am a people pleaser and have difficulties sleeping at night knowing someone is unhappy. What chaps my hyde in an extreme way is when my fellow colleagues in the business behave in a manner that is the complete opposite of what I would do. Especially when they are agents that I am working opposite of in a transaction. Thus, the reason why I am completely bent out of shape today. And yes, I am a real estate nerd without a life.

Here's my venting in a nutshell:

This past Friday, 4 pm: An engaged couple looking for a home chose me to help them submit an offer & negotiate on the purchase of a great house. They have put all of their trust in me, therefore, I will do everything in my power to help them get this house. I email the listing agent earlier in the day to let him know our plan.

6 pm Friday:   As promised, I email the offer to the listing agent. I wait. I call my clients at 8:30 pm to let them know I haven't heard back. 10 pm I give up and go to bed. I figure the sellers want to sleep on it.

9 am Saturday: I call & leave the listing agent a msg to see if he even received the offer. He emails me at 10:30 & says he didn't. 5 mins. later, I resend it. At 10:45, I call & email him again to see if he received it this time. I then call my buyers to give them an update.

2:45 Saturday: Listing agent emails me back. He thinks the offer is really low & needs me to explain why its that way before he presents it to the sellers. Miffed that he hasn't presented it yet, I tell him that its only $10k under asking price and let him know we are open to negotiate. This was at 3:30.

Sunday at Noon: I have heard nothing from the listing agent and I'm frustrated. I call & lv him a msg on his cell. I follow up w/an email and bcc my buyers on it. I express my frustration & allude to the fact that he's holding out for other potential offers, which is unfair.

2:30 Sunday: He emails me a signed PA from his sellers but with the sales price changed from $10k under asking price to $6300 over asking price. I call my buyers. Within an hour, we submit another counteroffer. The agent actually emails me back rather quickly for a change and tells me his sellers will never go for that. With my buyers' permission, I raise up the counter by another $5k and tell them that's our final offer. I send it in writing at 9pm.

Monday at Noon-ish: I resend the counteroffer after finding out the agent did not receive it the night before.

Weds at Noon (today): My buyers & I agree to pull out of the deal because we've heard nothing. I emailed the listing agent to tell him this and to explain why. He had the guts to email me back & tell me I was the one w/the problem. I gave him a very detailed response--giving the exact dates & times of each of our emails to each other. I also included the fact that I saw that he has 24 listings right now and I feel he is doing a major disservice to his clients --losing deals for them because he has too much on his plate and not enough time to communicate w/people.

There, I vented. Ethically, this blog is risky because I am not supposed to publically put down my fellow agents. However, this behavior merits some sort of public blasting, in my opinion. I'm not naming names or even exposing any details of the transaction. All I can say is people, YOU HAVE NOT A CLUE HOW YOUR AGENT IS REPRESENTING YOU.  Its scary.