Realtor / Open House Question - Should I be angry?

[Mustang]

Granted, I'm pissed, but I'll let others try to talk me down or just poke me and make me more mad.

We had an open house this weekend that the realtor didn't advertise at all. No flags leading up to the open house, no sign, no ads and nothing on the internet.

The realtor says no one showed up. (Of course, you didn't advertise it so, unless someone was driving by they wouldn't know)

In our eyes, it gets worse.

The open house ended around 1430 and around 1600 we had someone show up at our house and tell us they were there for our open house, walked around the entire house calling out for someone and no one was around.

Uhh.. WTF? Just a little tooooo much of an open house.

Just the latest in a string of shitty service from this realtor. I have a call/email out to them to discuss this and getting out of the contract. Hopefully they just back out and we go our separate ways.

[Karlifornia]

Originally Posted by Mustang

\
The open house ended around 1430 and around 1600 we had someone show up at our house and tell us they were there for our open house, walked around the entire house calling out for someone and no one was around.

Dude...if it's been 408 years since someone came to look at it, chances are you aren't gonna sell that house.

[molson]

You could just start a "anyone want to buy a house?" thread.

[tarcone]

I like the fact that the realtor left and left the house open. All your valuables still there?

In this market you would think a realtor was busting ass to sell houses.

[gstelmack]

If it wasn't advertised, how did someone know to come by, even if late?

[muns]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I like the fact that the realtor left and left the house open. All your valuables still there?

In this market you would think a realtor was busting ass to sell houses.

You would think, but in my case, (house has been on the market for over a year now) the realator was lazy and figured that the market sucked and that no one was making money so if it was gonna sell it was gonna happen and if it didnt it didnt......... I just changed my realtor 2 days ago.

[Cringer]

From someone with a wife whom is a realtor, and someone who is now becoming one, fire the bastard. That was crap man. Not sure about how it works in your state, but it should be fairly easy to get out of your listing agreement with your realtor.

edit: also I would suggest complaining to the realtor's broker (unless they are the main broker for their office/company) and perhaps the local Realtor Association, about leaving your house open for people to just walk into.

[JediKooter]

In this day and age with the internet and other resources, have you though about doing the sale yourself? Plus, the 'commission' goes to you and not some realtor.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

If it wasn't advertised, how did someone know to come by, even if late?

By advertised, I meant in the week leading up. The day of (At 12:30) a flag was put out in front saying open house.

The person that went through the house was there by chance. She was with a friend that grew up in that neighborhood and they were just driving by her old house and wanted to go in just on a whim.

[rkmsuf]

Is your realtor hot?

[Flasch186]

Unfortunately (or fortunately) during the boom a lot of shoddy realtors got into the business for the quick buck and not only didn't have the skill set needed to make a living, never learned the skill set because the market was so easy. Now that the market has gotten tough the one's lacking are leaving the business or hanging on for dear life. The one's who have the skills are still doing fairly well or not suffering as bad. I'm sorry for your bad luck. My parents went with a flat fee MLS lister after a bad experience with a realtor and had more showings that way than with the realtor however their home still didnt sell and now the foreclosure process should be starting within a month unless the bank will finally be open to talking about a short sale.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

Dude...if it's been 408 years since someone came to look at it, chances are you aren't gonna sell that house.

If my house was that old, I'm sure it would be awesome to metal detect around it so, I probably wouldn't be selling.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

Is your realtor hot?

Fuck No

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

In this day and age with the internet and other resources, have you though about doing the sale yourself? Plus, the 'commission' goes to you and not some realtor.

Two things about this....

1)A realtor listing a house gets much more exposure just through the local MLS alone. When people go to buy a house they are more likely to look up a realtor and go through them then searching out a FSBO website.

2)You are also cutting out a large chunk of potential buyers, those who work with realtors. You are either going to have to offer a buyer's agent a commission still or you will end up having no realtors wanting to show your house because they will make no commission off of it. You are then left with a small group of people who want to buy without a realtor.

It can be done though.....

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Cringer

Two things about this....

Pretty much hit on the primary reasons we went with a realtor.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Fuck No

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[MikeVic]

Maybe she was up late watching Golden Girls and forgot to wake up for the Open House?

[BrianD]

I'd say drop the realtor. We went through something similar when we sold our house. We went with someone well-respected in the area but it just seemed like nothing was happening properly. The realtor may have been doing the right things, but we couldn't get the communication we wanted, and we didn't see the progress we wanted. Because of this we dropped the realtor and started over with someone new. I don't know that it made the house sell any faster, but we had a better comfort level through the process.

I view this like picking a doctor. There are plenty of people out there with the skills and qualifications, but ultimately you have to be comfortable with the person you are working with. Here, competency is a question, but comfort is definitely lacking. Find someone else.

[Karlifornia]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Fuck No

This fall..Christina Applegate stars in: Don't Tell Homeowners, The Realtor Is Dead

[rkmsuf]

Be a nice guy and stick with the old bird. Just don't call her during Wheel of Fortune.

[JeeberD]

When my wife and I were home shopping, we hit at least two open houses where there was no realtor in attendance. Of course, both homes were vacant so there was nothing to steal, but I could totally imagine neighborhood kids vandalizing the property...

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

When my wife and I were home shopping, we hit at least two open houses where there was no realtor in attendance. Of course, both homes were vacant so there was nothing to steal, but I could totally imagine neighborhood kids vandalizing the property...

That is B.S. and being lazy as well. My wife has had open houses for vacant repos many times, and she is there for each one. If people show up and look at the house, even if they don't like it you have a chance at becoming their realtor and helping them find a house they like more.

[rkmsuf]

what if the neighborhood kids vandalize your wife?

[Cringer]

The I vandalize the neighborhood kids.

[rkmsuf]

seems fair

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Cringer

Two things about this....

1)A realtor listing a house gets much more exposure just through the local MLS alone. When people go to buy a house they are more likely to look up a realtor and go through them then searching out a FSBO website.

2)You are also cutting out a large chunk of potential buyers, those who work with realtors. You are either going to have to offer a buyer's agent a commission still or you will end up having no realtors wanting to show your house because they will make no commission off of it. You are then left with a small group of people who want to buy without a realtor.

It can be done though.....

No, I agree, I'm just saying maybe try something different since the traditional way has not worked too well so far.

I think it's surprising though that with as much as houses have dropped in price, that the people who didn't buy, aren't wanting to buy now.

[path12]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

No, I agree, I'm just saying maybe try something different since the traditional way has not worked too well so far.

I think it's surprising though that with as much as houses have dropped in price, that the people who didn't buy, aren't wanting to buy now.

I'd be willing to buy except that 1) I think we've still got a ways to go before the bottom and 2) that 20% down thing on mortages now is going to delay me awhile.....

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Mustang

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

No! Bad!

[kcchief19]

Due to the the risk of offending the Realtor contigent of FOFC and fear that my words might actually make it back to someone in KC, I will withhold any comments I have other than to say that was piss poor service and that any Realtor who showed my house and didn't advertise the open house and left the house unlocked would not only never be allowed on my property again but would have complaints lodged with the local real estate board, the BBB and the state attorney general office. Completely unacceptable.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Cringer

From someone with a wife whom is a realtor, and someone who is now becoming one, fire the bastard. That was crap man. Not sure about how it works in your state, but it should be fairly easy to get out of your listing agreement with your realtor.

edit: also I would suggest complaining to the realtor's broker (unless they are the main broker for their office/company) and perhaps the local Realtor Association, about leaving your house open for people to just walk into.

+1.
Been in the business 12 years*. Do what Cringer says.
Complain to the broker first, then if you get no results, complain to the local Association of REALTORS®. If you don't know who that is, then you can PM me your REALTOR®'s name, and I can tell you.

* EDIT * Not as a REALTOR®.

[Swaggs]

We are just coming off a terrible realtor experience, as well.

We were fortunate to sell our home pretty quickly in this market (although it made us wonder if we didn't underprice it), but once we got an agreement with the buyer everything turned to crap in a bucket.

Our realtor had a supposed "closing coordinator" who was out of town for the first week of our 30-day close. After she came back, she immediately told the buyers' agent that we would accept all of their requests from their inspection. She forwarded us (not sure if by accident or not), via email, two emails from the buyers that included personal financial information and one string from the buyers' agent that severely criticized one of the parties involved (that was certainly not meant for anyone else to see).

In the final few days before closing, I told the realtor that we did not want to deal with the closing coordinator anymore and he told me, "I'll do everything, from here on out, personally for you." When I called him back later that exact same day, he told me he was going on vacation for 10-days, but his business associate would handle things for us.

When we went to close at the lawyers' office, no one else was there (including anyone from our realtor's office) and the lawyer did not know we were coming. They had done our mortgage payout from 3-weeks earlier, so it was clearly missing interest and was inaccurate, so they had to do another one (at a $40 charge to us). The deal ended up not closing for a few days (which cost us another mortgage payment and continued interest on it) due to a hangup in the buyers' financing, so we had, as a contingency plan, agreed to rent the house to them and signed a document allowing them to do so, but the closing coordinator informs us after the scheduled closing that "they" (she and our agent) decided not to allow them to move in, as they might not be motivated to get their loan approved as quickly (which would have earned us $50 a day per the agreement).

And finally, the worst part, 10-days after the close our agent calls us and tells us that they messed up the percentage that the buyers' agent was supposed to receive (which they legitimately did) and we would have to pay an additional ~$1000. Unbelievable that three parties (both sets of realtors and the lawyers, who do this for a living) managed to miss this detail in a 2-page document.

Sorry for the ramble, but I've been stewing on this for awhile. If in the RTP area is planning to sell anytime soon, shoot me a PM so I can tell you who NOT to use.

[Shkspr]

My understanding is that Realtors will totally fuck you over every chance they get if they catch you not capitalizing their title on message boards.

And they compare notes.

Hell, I'm afraid Rizon's going to put me on the List for not using the ® thing.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

Dude...if it's been 408 years since someone came to look at it, chances are you aren't gonna sell that house.

The irony is that at this point in the thread we didn't yet have photographic proof that the Realtor was over 408 years old.

[Flasch186]

i dont know how to use the R thingy

[PackerFanatic]

Wow, this thread made me laugh. Not because of the topic (because I would be pissed too), but because of Karl's response and the picture of the lady. Awesome.

[Mustang]

Thankfully, the realtor is going to tear up the contract and we are going to go our own ways.

At first, they said the person was lying and that they were never in the house and I must have let them in. I told them no, I did not let them in and if they were never in the house, how did they know that a cat was sleeping on a chest by the window? Lucky guess?

Actually, I had a feeling that the realtor was more pissed at me.

Eh.. whatever. Sign goes down tomorrow and we look for another realtor. Good thing is this was during July rather than Sept/Oct. (About the only good thing)

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

My understanding is that Realtors will totally fuck you over every chance they get if they catch you not capitalizing their title on message boards.

And they compare notes.

Hell, I'm afraid Rizon's going to put me on the List for not using the ® thing.

QFT

Your ass is also grass and they are a lawn mower if you use the word Realtor to describe a sale agent who is not in fact licensed by the National Association of Realtors.

[Flasch186]

me

[tarcone]

Let me get this straight. Your realtor has an open house which she failed to advertise adequately, leaves and leaves your house unlocked with an open house sign in the yard, then accuses you of lying when you want out of the contract?
Wow.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Sorry for the ramble, but I've been stewing on this for awhile. If in the RTP area is planning to sell anytime soon, shoot me a PM so I can tell you who NOT to use.

And if you need a good one, I can tell you who to use. I've got a great guy who has helped us buy two houses, helped my brother and a few others we know buy, and helped us sell one.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Actually, I had a feeling that the realtor was more pissed at me.

Eh, probably just pissed they got caught.

[Huckleberry]

Before we go any further, please tell us how you pronounce the word "realtor."

Future advice will depend on the answer.

Thank you.

[Flasch186]

RealtOr if it's a friend of yours, RealtUr if it's an enemy.

[MikeVic]

real-ter.

[dacman]

Or in this case real-turd

[Huckleberry]

Yes, these people above are wise.

If you pronounce it real-a-ter, Mustang, then I suggest you hire her back and beg for forgiveness.

[Rizon]

I would get BUTT-OWNED if I ever said Real-i-tor ... or typed realtor or Realtor. Completely punished anally.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

And if you need a good one, I can tell you who to use. I've got a great guy who has helped us buy two houses, helped my brother and a few others we know buy, and helped us sell one.

I absolutely wish I'd asked before signing with this guy.

We went with a referral from a friend who was a few weeks ahead of us in the process and they were pleased at that point. This company flubbed their closing, as well (although not as badly as ours). Both of us were unhappy with the realtor overall.