Realtors - Am I wrong to be pizzed??

[Buoy]

Never sold a house before.

Spent this morning driving home from an out of town weekend.
House has been on the market for ~2 weeks.
Told Realtor we'd be out of town until 1:00 on Sunday (with the two dogs in tow), and had already set up 24-hr notice to show any other time.
Ten minutes from home, (and ten minutes to 1:00) I get a phone call to set a showing appt. at 2:00. I've been on the road for 4 hrs, and just wanted to go home.
But, OK, need to sell the house.
Stop home, do a quick tidy-up, leave at 1:45 (with the dogs) go to the grocery, get the truck washed, and come home at 10 till 3:00.
Putting groceries away, and 10 after 3:00 Realtor shows up with clients (clearly not qualified), and says " sorry, running late, can we see the house"?
Of course, we offer to leave, but NO we'll just come in and have a look.
She brings this young couple through the house for all of 5 minutes while we're sitting on the sofa.
Very uncomfortable setting.
I planned on:
If they were still here when I got back, I'd wait at the end of the street until they left.
I know a Realtor is supposed to leave a card when they've shown the house, and there wasn't one left, but I figured after over an hour late on the appt. she must have forgotten to leave one.
What a freakin' waste of what little was left of my weekend.

 

[clayinaustin]

I have bought and sold many houses. I have never used a realtor. If you have a working brain, you can sell your home on your own. It's called a FSBO - For Sale By Owner.

Clean up the house and the yard. Run ads in the local newspaper. Have an Open House every Saturday and Sunday. Be prepared with the legal forms i.e. Sales Contract. Work your ass off and sell your home yourself.

It helps to pay for a professional appraisal. When negotiating price with a potential buyer, you can show the appraisal to justify your price. It helps to be 1% to 6% lower than other comperable houses using a Realtor.

I have no use for a Realtor.

 

[Tony]

Realtors fukup not yours. Next time she/he calls to schedule a showing ask if she plans on being on time, or if you need to stay gone all day again.

she will get the hint.

 

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

I would be pissed too. There may be some service record to see who it was that came by. I spent months when we sold ours in '06 cleaning and wiping down everything every morning before I left. I also did the same thing leave on a moments notice to allow someone to see. I eventually ditched the Realtor and sold it myself. It wasn't fun, but got lucky and sold it a month later. I made a web site, put up a sign, my fliers, ran ads and shook it loose.

Times a very different now. I wish you good luck.

 

[BBB725]

She should have called you the minute she knew she was going to be late

 

[high-tide]

Yes. I would have been. He should have called. You could have told him to take a hike. My neighbor is an agent and is at the mercy of the idiot clients who think they are doing you a favor.... however at least he showed. Just a suggestion, tell him only pre qualified buyers enter, no gaurantee but weeds the nomads out. I do not trust anybody these days. Good luck with the sale.
High-Tide

 

[Buoy]

I have bought and sold many houses. I have never used a realtor. If you have a working brain, you can sell your home on your own. It's called a FSBO - For Sale By Owner.

Clean up the house and the yard. Run ads in the local newspaper. Have an Open House every Saturday and Sunday. Be prepared with the legal forms i.e. Sales Contract. Work your ass off and sell your home yourself.

It helps to pay for a professional appraisal. When negotiating price with a potential buyer, you can show the appraisal to justify your price. It helps to be 1% to 6% lower than other comperable houses using a Realtor.

I have no use for a Realtor.

I agree with you to a point - but I don't have the time for it right now.
I'm moving 1800 miles in 5 weeks, and my wife will be leaving in 3 weeks.
I need to get my boat and trailer ready to make the trip, and I'm heading out there next week to find a place to live, and dealing with the moving Co. and scheduling everything. Packing chit that I don't want touched or lost, OH, and looking for a job.
The way it stands, the only people that are going to make money on this sale are the realtors (in this market, and the time/equity we have in it).
I don't have the time to also be selling the house myself.

 

[Buoy]

Yes. I would have been. He should have called. You could have told him to take a hike. My neighbor is an agent and is at the mercy of the idiot clients who think they are doing you a favor.... however at least he showed. Just a suggestion, tell him only pre qualified buyers enter, no gaurantee but weeds the nomads out. I do not trust anybody these days. Good luck with the sale.
High-Tide

Thanks for the Luck wishes!
This was another realty Co. that was showing, and I already have a call in to our realtor that I'm pizzed.
Was supposed to be only pre-qualified that looked at it.
Maybe this young couple in torn-up jeans and hoodies could afford it, maybe... but, I don't think they would appreciate the crown mould, hard wood floors, cabinet trim, two-level deck, Oak trim, Antique French doors etc... that I built here, over, the foreclosed rental place down the street that is selling for less
Qualify your buyer before wasting my time.

 

[Tony]

Dont underestimate the "non prequalified buyer" When I bought my place I showed up in my dirty "factory worker" clothes and the realtor took one look at me and all but told me to take a hike. I cloesed the deal and moved in 13 days later.

 

[MarylandMark]

Unprofessional- yes, however I wouldn't be too hard on her. Any showing is a good showing in this market! She should have texted if she couldn't have called.

If she is your agent I would expect her to call at a later time to explain and offer an apology. If she was the buyers agent I'd give her the benefit of the doubt that she was relaying to you an inaccurate time table her clients were giving to her.

Good luck on the sale!!

ps- my 2 cents I offer to everyone. In this market price your house for what you will take for it, do not get in the game of chasing the market down. I see houses every day that are listed for prices 5% lower than they were 6 months ago and if they were at todays price 6 months ago it would have sold. Now they have 6 more months of payment invested in the house and lower the price to what it should have been 6 months ago which is now 5% too high. Chasing it down...

 

[Bobcat]

I was selling my house on my own and the realty co. I bought it from (century 21) was bad mouthing it, telling the customers it was in a flood zone (on the lake) since then I have no use for them either.

 

[Madpoodle]

Realtor should have notified you, especially as they knew you were just getting back in town. Next time, sic the dogs on them..

LOL, Tony we did the same thing.. Showed up in shorts and flip flops, got ignored by the realtor showing the property, had a contract on his desk at 0900 the next AM, closed 30 days later...

 

[Clustergear]

I own several houses and have been involved with the purchase of a lot more. My person opinion is Real Estate Agents are like used car salesman. Not trying to start a war but everyone I have dealt with was full of B.S.

 

[Blue Oval]

Sold my 1st house myself,let a title co. close it.The 2nd house listed-1st strike realtor showed house and never called,left card.Put close away and dishes,we were gone,great way to piss a wife off,strike two called from driveway-our twins only 1 year old,and wife baby setting for a friend and I was at work,took the house off the market.Sold it two months later not trying.They are just sales people trying to make a living,but sometimes they don't get it.Good luck.

 

[MarylandMark]

I FSBO my house in early 06.

Advertised it myself, showed it myself, put on the MLS for like $400 and put a sign w/flyers in the yard.

Sold it for about $2K out of pocket vs 3% for listing agent to do the same (or most likely less).

Realtors will not show a house unless you co-op (offer them commission) so if you were to FSBO you have to do that so they will bring you a buyer.

 

[Cash Bar]

I have no use for a Realtor.

Personal opinion, and your welcome to it Clay.

However, my reference list may disagree a bit. Especially the Waterfront and Commercial clients.

 

[Cash Bar]

Bouy, you can be a bit PO'd but I'd wait to hear back.

I would've called for sure, but clients DO put you in a learch more than we admit. Especially out-of-town buyers. It takes more time and shiit happens.

I had a client that was following me from listing to listing decide to stop and get a drink and pee. Fine, but he let me keep going w/o him having any idea where the next one was. Took me 3 hrs to show 6 homes, usually like 90 mins for same route. You just never know.

 

[Buoy]

Thanks for the replies everyone - and believe me, I see both sides of the coin.
Tony, I understand what you're saying, BUT, you walked into a place expecting to do work, and make the upgrades yourself, as a young man getting started - sure.
My house is already done. It was new when I moved in, and I just did all the upgrades.
I'm sure someone wil want to move in and make some changes, or make it "there own", but all the detail work is already in place. It's not a "starter home", or a project, or a fixer-upper.
I hope you don't take that the wrong way - I certainly don't mean it that way.
I had a couple come into the house and glance it over today that are the same age as my step-daughter and her boyfriend - let's be realistic, and they should be shopping for the rental that has been foreclosed down the street.
If they can afford my house, GREAT!!
I don't care who it sells to, I just need to make it go, so I can get to AZ.

I'm just pizzed that I'm exhausted from a weekend seeing family before I move, and coming back to having a realtor make an appt. and miss it by over an hour.

 

[Ratickle]

Thanks for the replies everyone - and believe me, I see both sides of the coin.
Tony, I understand what you're saying, BUT, you walked into a place expecting to do work, and make the upgrades yourself, as a young man getting started - sure.
My house is already done. It was new when I moved in, and I just did all the upgrades.
I'm sure someone wil want to move in and make some changes, or make it "there own", but all the detail work is already in place. It's not a "starter home", or a project, or a fixer-upper.
I hope you don't take that the wrong way - I certainly don't mean it that way.
I had a couple come into the house and glance it over today that are the same age as my step-daughter and her boyfriend - let's be realistic, and they should be shopping for the rental that has been foreclosed down the street.
If they can afford my house, GREAT!!
I don't care who it sells to, I just need to make it go, so I can get to AZ.

I'm just pizzed that I'm exhausted from a weekend seeing family before I move, and coming back to having a realtor make an appt. and miss it by over an hour.

Be careful about sterotypes. I wrote a check for my first home at age 22.


And some realtors are excellent, you should have been notified but sometimes crap happens.

 

[Audiofn]

I agree they may be Trustafarians and dad is going to buy the house ya never know. I never got dressed up to see a house because I was ussually crawling around looking for problems when we were looking for out first place. My realtor hated me because I was out there low balling everyone. Well to her suprise some one bit.