Can we fire our realtor? (Buyer not under contract)
October 20, 2017 5:12 PM   Subscribe

Can we fire our realtor? This is surprisingly hard to Google! We can, right? We're buyers who aren't under contract. Feel free to weigh in on if we should as well.

We've been looking for a house for a long time and thought we had a realtor to work with when we found something. We never felt like she was paying much attention to us, but that made sense; we were moving slowly.

We started to ramp up and were a bit bummed that she continued to be fairly unavailable. But okay, we figured, we're doing okay on our own, and it's probably our fault for not planning way ahead to get on her calendar. We had started traveling to our destination city every weekend to go to open houses and occasionally asked (usually fairly last minute, like Thursday or Friday) whether she could help us get into homes that weren't having open houses. Once she got her colleague to let us in; he voluntarily offered to spend half the day showing us other places. Once we were just out of luck. (We really didn't like this guy. He said some things we found offensive.)

After a month of spending long weekends looking at open houses and weeknights studying the listings, we spotted a house that we thought was "the one." It was in the neighborhood we wanted and at the sweet spot of all our preferences: nice in the areas we valued, cut corners in areas we didn't care about to land right where we wanted to land on price. I know you can't always tell from a listing, but after seeing like 25 houses in person, we've started to be able to read between the lines.

We texted her at 9 pm Monday, followed up with a voice mail at 9:30 am Tuesday, an email, another voice mall, three texts spaced at 90 minutes intervals, another voice mail... ugh, I'm so angry recounting this. I've bought another house, and to me, this level of unresponsiveness is unusual for an agent. My original text specifically said that we wanted to put in an offer ASAP. I finally got a reply text at 3:39 pm letting me know what time the weekend open houses were at (!! we know how to use Redfin already). About 1/3 of listings in our price range are going Pending within 48 hours, so we were prepared to move fast.

She said it was too late to see the house that day, Tuesday, which yeah, now that it's 4 pm I guess it might be. Plus, she had another event from 5-7 that evening. I had all day work events midweek and couldn't find a way to travel there again until Friday. She said that they probably wouldn't look at offers until Monday and encouraged us to see it on the weekend. I did a little arm twisting to get her to agree to show it to me on Friday. She did talk to the listing agent (who works in her office and who she's selling another house with!). We got the mortgage team all ready to go with a letter, no thanks to her. She did get a heads up that they'd received another offer whose terms we'd have to be prepared to match, so we talked to the mortgage broker and felt all set there.

Then an hour before we were going to go see it, she texted me that the house went pending and that the sellers didn't want to wait for the buyers (plural) who were looking at the house today to make offers. She didn't say "they felt the offer was unbeatable" -- she said "they didn't want to wait." If I'd toured it on Tuesday and put in an offer on Wednesday, that would've at least gotten our offer looked at! Even today we were already in the fray with a bunch of competition. We wanted to move quickly; she was unavailable, so we moved slowly. Are my expectations out of whack or can I just fire her now?

Complication: we got a recommendation for someone else from our mortgage broker. ("I've been in this business for over two decades and dealt with a lot of realtors, and he's one of only about three I'd work with. He's the one who helped me buy my house.") Turns out this guy is in that same brokerage (or whatever the word is). Assuming we like him, could we switch to him? I think she'll be annoyed at being fired. She's opinionated and a persuasive advocate in the way that realtors sometimes are. Is there anything specific to do to have this break-up not have continued fall-out? Will she and Offensive Guy try to split the commission with New Guy? Will New Guy have to check in with her and hear her talk about ... whatever she'll say to explain why she let someone who said "we want to put in an offer asap" linger for over 18 hours without so much as a text in reply and then recommended that they go to the weekend open houses? Do I need to explain to him why we're switching so that he doesn't think we're bad clients?

Thanks!
posted by slidell to Work & Money (26 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I'd break my own neck from the whiplash of trying to fire her too fast. If you don't have a contract I can't see why you wouldn't and she can't argue against her own incompetence of costing you a home. I'd send a terse email that doesn't invite a response and move on. If she's that useless, it won't have been the first time she's got one.
posted by Jubey at 5:23 PM on October 20, 2017 [13 favorites]


Could you clarify whether you've signed an agreement with the original agent? We didn't sign one with ours until we put in an offer on a house, but I know everyone does not necessarily work that way. If you haven't signed anything, I believe you can just let her know you are going with a different agent since there's no legal obligation there. If you did sign an agreement, it is probably more complicated and you would need to consult whatever you signed to see what it says about terminating the agreement.
posted by rainbowbrite at 5:23 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Fire her. She sounds WAY too unresponsive. She should have an assistant (every decent realtor in a hot market does) who answers emails, sets up viewings, etc for you. You don't want a non-responsive realtor when you do put in an offer and they need to be available late at night to escalate and negotiate with the seller's agent.

Also, you just gotta go with your gut and your own history with this person. We spent 5 months with a realtor that we ultimately fired because, while responsive, she couldn't land a deal for us. We are in a hot market (Seattle), saw 30!!!! houses with her, put in 6!!! offers, and lost all of them because she had zero negotiation skill. We fired her, hired a new guy and had an offer accepted within a month.
posted by joan_holloway at 5:34 PM on October 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


If you live in a state where "buyer's agents" are a thing -- especially dedicated buyer's agents -- look into that.
posted by kestrel251 at 5:47 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I don't think we've signed anything. Nothing specifically with her. I would have noticed, right?

The first time we tried to work with her, she was too busy, (admitted it that time!), and referred us to a colleague. We got under contract with him, but the contract ended when the inspection came back with repairs beyond what we'd expected. We stopped looking for awhile; he moved away; she let us know that he'd moved and we could call her...

But none of that, or like an email saying "thanks we'd love to work with you when things get moving," is a contract with her, is it?
posted by slidell at 5:48 PM on October 20, 2017


Best answer: I'm sure there are some real estate agents that can give you a more definitive answer but I would say
1. yes, fire her (actually you never hired her but let her know that you are no longer working with her)
2. You have to tell New Guy that you were working with her. He will find out anyway, prepare him for the drama. If he hints that you should stay with her, make it clear that there is no way you are going to continue to work with her - the options are work with him or go to another agency.
3. I would tell him what happened in the form of asking what level of responsiveness New Guy provides. It both lets him know why you are changing and helps calibrate the expectations with New Guy about what timely response looks like.
posted by metahawk at 5:49 PM on October 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


It doesn't sound like you signed anything formal with her but you should tell her you are moving on to someone else, especially if she has ever sent you any listings. It could get awkward if she randomly sends you a listing to a place that you end up seeing with a new agent, because she could claim that she introduced it to you and is due part of the commission.
posted by joan_holloway at 5:55 PM on October 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


I would call the office manager and explain the situation and tell the manager you want to work with latest recommendation or you are considering going to a different agency. The manager will work out the internal politics.
posted by AugustWest at 5:58 PM on October 20, 2017 [8 favorites]


I loved our agent. We looked for a couple years. We were moving slow and looked at open houses, etc but whenever we contacted her she responded immediately. We put offers in on four houses before we got ours. She ALWAYS responded within minutes.

Trying to buy a house can end up being stressful. I'd look for someone I was happy with.
posted by ReluctantViking at 6:08 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yes, fire her and get a new realtor. She's not doing her job and still she expects a commission for whatever house you do buy if you do it while she's the one showing you houses. She hasn't earned it.

Whatever you do, do not sign a contract with one realtor. There are hundreds of realtors out there. Some are great, others suck. I had one try and bully me into signing a contract. Put the pen by my hand and the paper in front of me. Nope nope nope.
posted by Crystal Fox at 6:26 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Former realtor here - fire her. Realtors are hungry salespeople and you can find one a hundred times better.
posted by bendy at 6:56 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


FIRE HER fire her fire her fire her yesterday. Imagine if you WERE under contract, and some time-sensitive and serious issue came up, say, a serious problem with the home found during the inspection, and your realtor was not answering your calls. You do NOT want to enter into a tricky and expensive negotiation with an unresponsive person representing you.
posted by BlueJae at 7:13 PM on October 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


Since this is a hot market and it's in a different town from the one you are in, I'd also just check that your expectations about how agents work are correct. I'm not in the USA, but I have heard that there are some parts of the USA that are like the hot market we are in - where you basically don't bother expecting real estate agents to do anything for the buyers. They can make a killing just working with sellers only. So in that context, in a situation like you describe, you'd generally put your offer directly to the seller's agent yourself, rather than going through this woman first. And you yourself would then negotiate with that seller's agent directly. Since you say places are going pending within 48 hours, are you sure that's not what the successful buyers are doing?
posted by lollusc at 7:19 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Don't fire her. You never hired her as far as I can tell, so no need to fire.

But don't stick with her either. You don't even have to tell her you don't want her services any more if you don't want to. It would probably be polite to do so, but it doesn't sound like she's been polite to you, so.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:20 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I've bought 6 houses and worked with 5 agents and none of them had gone more than a couple hours without responding. If I sent an urgent text they'd be on it asap. Fire her.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 7:22 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Okay, thanks! We're set on firing her. Any ideas about how to find a good agent if New Guy doesn't work out? And would you say anything about why in the "we're moving on" email or just leave it to her to figure out?
posted by slidell at 8:15 PM on October 20, 2017


I'd say words to the effect of, you think it's a poor fit because it's a hot market and you need an agent who is more available. Be brief and polite and don't feel the need to get into an email argument. If she replies back, just leave it.
posted by Jubey at 8:51 PM on October 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


We found an agent that we *loved* in Seattle, and here's how we did it:

(1) We asked all of our friends for recommendations, which yielded a big list of potential agents.
Then, using internet resources, we were able to narrow that list to three.

(2) We sat down with each of the top three and interviewed them like they were candidates for a job. (As, to use bendy's term, "hungry salespeople," our top three were totally willing to do this with us.)

(3) We picked the one of the three that we liked best, and went forward with him. It worked out wonderfully, and we used the same strategy for selecting a mortgage broker.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 9:11 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


In my firing email I said "Thank you for your time over the past few months in showing us around [city]. We have decided to pursue other tactics in our home search, which includes working with a different agent." That was sufficient.
posted by joan_holloway at 11:08 PM on October 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Yes, break up with this lady. Get multiple recommendations and interview new realtors over Skype. Ask them who answers calls when they are off (good agents work in pairs so someone is always on). Ask how long it can take to hear back from them. Ask if they know inspectors and tradespeople for the inspection period, and how they will set up those appointments. Ask what their pricing and negotiation strategies are. You can do soooooo much better than this agent.
posted by hungrytiger at 2:53 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


I don't think we've signed anything. Nothing specifically with her. I would have noticed, right?

You'd be concerned with having a buyer's broker agreement, not a contract on a single house.

It sounds like you aren't sure if you've signed anything with her -- most people don't have to ask if they would have noticed signing something. In the future, pay more attention to whether or not you've signed paperwork -- you should get a copy of it, and keep it where you can find it again.


Turns out this guy is in that same brokerage

This will make it comparatively easy to deal with. Contact newagent, explain that you've been working with another agent in their office that you aren't meshing well with and would like to work with them instead. Ask what you should do to switch to them. Even if you've signed something, a lot of this can be taken care of in house on their end.
posted by yohko at 1:26 PM on October 21, 2017


Response by poster: It sounds like you aren't sure if you've signed anything with her -- most people don't have to ask if they would have noticed signing something. In the future, pay more attention to whether or not you've signed paperwork

I was obviously being too casual in my speech. We have not signed anything with her, on paper or with e-sign. I did sign a purchase contract with a previous agent, which established a relationship not only with the potential sellers but with him. But I cannot see how that would transfer to her, (even though she took over his clients when he left), especially as the contract was terminated under the inspection contingency. We haven't signed anything else. The remaining question I had was whether verbal or email communications could create any sort of client-realtor relationship. That sounds pretty unlikely. I hope that clears things up on the "did we sign anything end," and sorry for the confusion.
posted by slidell at 1:56 PM on October 21, 2017


Response by poster: Okay, last update -- we emailed a two sentence "we've decided we will no longer need your services; best wishes on your other projects" email, and she replied "thanks for letting me know," so it's all done. Thanks for the validation and the advice on finding and interviewing future realtors.
posted by slidell at 2:40 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: P.S. All the answers were helpful, but I marked a few that particularly resonated or helped.
posted by slidell at 2:44 PM on October 21, 2017


The remaining question I had was whether verbal or email communications could create any sort of client-realtor relationship. That sounds pretty unlikely.

Please re-check your emails; per California Civil Code §1624 (Statute of Frauds), excerpted: The following contracts are invalid, unless they, or some note or memorandum thereof, are in writing and subscribed by the party to be charged or by the party’s agent:

(4) An agreement authorizing or employing an agent, broker, or any other person to purchase or sell real estate, or to lease real estate for a longer period than one year, or to procure, introduce, or find a purchaser or seller of real estate or a lessee or lessor of real estate where the lease is for a longer period than one year, for compensation or a commission.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:55 PM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Funny follow-up -- we have a great new agent, and we're interested in a certain house, and guess who the listing agent is?? It's definitely going to be a competitive situation with multiple offers, so wish us luck! I knew I wouldn't regret being as polite as possible on the way out, but she might still hold a grudge; we'll see.
posted by slidell at 10:08 PM on December 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


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