Not sure if that was intended to be humorous, but I saw this happen when I was a real estate agent. There was a local agent who listed a lot of bank owned (and therefore vacant) houses, and he had a combination of marital and financial problems. So his solution was to essentially set up house on a very limited basis (air mattress and bare essentials) in his listings. Got found out by his broker, goodbye license.
So yeah, that could be one explanation…
Go to the brokers office, explain what is happening and then while still in his office have him or a friend you bring with you call the agent and go through the fake interest call in front of the broker and let him hear it for himself.
Agent will likely lose his job via phone while you’re still sitting there.
But,before trying to fire the agent (or even calling the brokerage) the OP needs to have his ducks in a row to be able to prove that the agent is not doing his job. Real estate agent contracts make it very clear that the owner can’t unilaterally back out (otherwise a scummy owner would let the agent do all the work to arrange a sale, then fire the agent the day before closing, and avoid having to pay the agent’s commission). Maybe an honest broker would voluntarily let the OP out of the contract, but an unscrupulous one might not.
So the OP needs to make sure they know what’s in the contract AND document everything (ASAP) showing that the agent isn’t doing their end of the contract.
I’m going to have a friend of mine (not the acquaintance that lives near the property) make recorded calls to the agent (my wife neglected to record the call :rolleyes:) and assertively insist of a showing.
When he gets the showing we’re going to drive up north to where the property is and I’ll sit in the local coffee shop while he goes on the showing. We’ve got a hidden video/audio recorder ready to record everything the agent does or says.
I’m also going to talk to my attorney next week. This is the guy I normally have represent me when I sell properties own my own. I’m wishing we had just done it that way in the first place now that all of this has transpired.
My question is, during the showing if this agent turns out to be half the slimeball he so far appears to be, what are the chances I can force the agency to buy our property at our price in lieu/settlement of a lawsuit?
Something like this happened recently around here. A pair of agents were carrying on an affair at some of the houses they had listed…until a homeowner with video surveillance caught them in the act.
Umm…zero. You can’t even force a buyer to purchase a property they’ve signed a contract on - how could you force the broker to purchase the home?
What you can do is sue for damages, which in your case would be the argument that a buyer who would have bought the home was put off, and you lost the opportunity to sell to that buyer. The home is still standing, and can still be sold, so damages would only be something like the PITI you’ve paid for the period it was listed with the Bad Agent, and maybe some travel costs or something related to your having to get there. And that’s a long shot, since there’s no way to prove anyone would have bought the house.
I guess I don’t see why you want to be so dramatic about all of this. You got a shitty agent - do what you need to do to ruin his career (work with the broker, report him to the state licensing board) and then sell the house with someone else. All this cloak and dagger seems very strange - and this from an agent who completely knows and understands how emotional selling/buying can get.
When we were selling our home, the shortest “exclusive” period we could get an agent to agree to was six months. Once they have the listing you have to have some good cause to boot them. We’ve had the experience of an agent sitting on a listing and doing next to nothing (not returning phone calls, no open houses, not responding to emails, etc.) and the broker was no help. Until our relocation company (this was a corporate relocation) intervened with the head office and managed to pressure the agent into canceling the listing. But nothing near actively discouraging prospective buyers. That’s insane. Our bad agent was busy running for county commissioner or something.
My parents have bought dozens of properties over the years (personal residences, “flips”, rentals) and have seen their share of bad agents. But never anything like the OP describes.
Don’t call the broker-Call the Real Estate Commission in that state ASAP. That will get you real results. If you call the broker, he/she may just hem and haw, pat you on the head, and carry on with bad service. The broker may even be in on it with him.
Also call your area Board of Realtors and tell them you want to file a complaint. They are the liaison between the public and real estate agents. They will contact the broker and also the real estate commission.
Then call the office broker and tell them you want an unconditional release so you can list the property with another agent. If they give you any backtalk or run around, tell them it is your legal right to get a unconditional release.
Any updates?
Maybe talk to the attorney first, to make sure it’s ok to make those recordings?
Nah. Make the recordings, then find out if it would be legal to do so. If it wouldn’t, destroy them without letting the fact of their existence ever reach the outside world.
But only if that’s the more convenient order of operations for you.
No. My friend had to go out of state and can’t do it until next week at the earliest.
It is absolutely legal to record your own conversations/telephone calls in this state.
I am a commercial real estate agent. Your agent’s behavior is bizarre to say the least. You are putting an absurd amount of time and effort and cloak and danger shenanigans into solving a problem you could quite probably correct with one short phone call to the broker. After hearing your story there is no broker I can imagine who would not release you instantly from the listing.
Your real world chances of forcing the broker to buy the house because he has a lazy agent with a bad attitude are effectively zero. Don’t make it a big drama, just solve the problem.
Is 6% really a standard realtor’s fee in the USA? I’m from the UK where 1 or 2% is the standard, even that seemed like a lot to me!
Yes, it is standard, but not universal. The typical range is from 4 to 7 percent, and it is negotiable, but 6 percent is almost certainly most common in the US.
We had something similar happen, but we were on the buyer’s end. We found a house we wanted and tried to view it. Our agent had a little trouble arranging a viewing, which he found odd considering the house was not occupied. When we finally visited the property, we found they left a few things out of the description, as in a whole bathroom and bedroom, not to mention a partial lake view and boat docking privileges. We put in an offer and didn’t hear back from their agent. Our agent was once again puzzled because agents usually jump at the chance to make money. Finally we heard back and found there was an accepted contingent offer on the house (it was way below asking, contingent on the buyer selling their current home). They had 48 hours to decide to purchase, or the house was ours. So we waited, and waited, and waited. I believe our agent finally physically went to their agency to find out what was up. Anyway, the house was ours and the whole process was unnecessarily frustrating. At the closing, we’re doing all the paperwork and the seller’s agent says she was a little disappointed because the contingent offer was from her sister. This explained everything. She under-valued and under-sold the property, and made it difficult for people to view it, along with not responding to offers, hoping she could get it for her sister. As it was, we got a decent house, but the seller got screwed by their agent.
Something similar could be happening to you!
TLDR-
We had difficulty buying a house because the seller’s agent was trying to get her sister a deal on it.
Don’t forget, I’m semi-retired with quite a bit of time on my hands.
Besides, my wife and I are super pissed. We not only want to nail this guy, we’re curious as to what he’ll say during an actual showing. Waiting a week and sending in a decoy for an hour isn’t really that big of deal. The drive up will be a chance for my buddy and I to shoot the breeze.
Wow. Highly unethical.
Sounds like you are trying to entrap this agent. If you succeed at getting him fired I hope he doesn’t try to sue you for the entrapment and taking away his livelihood. He’ll have a lot of extra time on his hands as well so it might be worth his effort. He may lose but at minimum you’ll have to pay an attorney to defend you.
Good luck with your detective work and home selling.