Thread: Who is my agent working for?

How can your mom accept the contract without signing it and how can she sign it without seeing it?

Sometimes when an agent is trying to talk sense to a client they see it as pressure. This is our job. If we just let all of our clients do whatever they want, nothing would get done.

In this case your agent should be talking about making a counter offer. Rejecting the offer is not a smart thing to do. You have a buyer and you want to chase them away? Not smart.

Tell your mom to come back with a counter offer $5,000 less than asking price. If the buyers are serious they will raise their offer. Then your mom can lower hr offer and hopefully there will be a middle where both buyer and seller agree on the price.

This is called negotiating. This is how deals are made. If every seller rejected every bad offer we would still be living in caves.

Originally Posted by Greg

Sometimes when an agent is trying to talk sense to a client they see it as pressure. This is our job. If we just let all of our clients do whatever they want, nothing would get done.

Well, I would have been more direct.. RE agents work for themselves... They get paid to move houses. (Oh, what can of worms had I just opened?)

But it is true, you MUST agree. If the house does not sell, the commissioned doesn't get paid, and if the house stays on the market too long, it doesn't reflect well on the agent as well.

Should I brace myself for the barrage?

Originally Posted by Greg

In this case your agent should be talking about making a counter offer. Rejecting the offer is not a smart thing to do. You have a buyer and you want to chase them away? Not smart.

Well, insulting the seller is not a good thing either... I mean $75K below asking? If it was $15K, ($20K MAYBE,) but let's say a spade is a spade. So unless you are desparate, I say the seller did the right thing.

Originally Posted by Greg

This is called negotiating. This is how deals are made. If every seller rejected every bad offer we would still be living in caves.

I am all for negotiating, I do it all the time, but the first rule is not to insult the other party you are interested in negotiating with. (But I know I have low-balled a lot in my life... Was in interested in getting the property? Well at the prices I was offering, yes, but I would have never gone up that excessively, to meet the seller's asking... Unless of course they didn't need ALL CASH and were very flexible with the terms, but then again those deals never involved a RE agent.)

This post was not to be combative or insulting, just to the point, which you can all agree that if the house doesn't move, RE agents don;t get paid.

My mom did sign, but she never got copies of the signed papers. He promised this but it's been a month.
We had no problem with someone making any kind of offer. It's worth a try. And my mom has made a counter offer, but as she told our agent at the time she had to talk to me first. After that he still called her back and pressured her before she had even gotten to call me. She is older and felt that he was trying to take advantage of that. It is only the first time he has shown the place, it just seemed a little soon to be putting the pressure on.

Originally Posted by goldraven

My mom did sign, but she never got copies of the signed papers. He promised this but it's been a month.
We had no problem with someone making any kind of offer. It's worth a try. And my mom has made a counter offer, but as she told our agent at the time she had to talk to me first. After that he still called her back and pressured her before she had even gotten to call me. She is older and felt that he was trying to take advantage of that. It is only the first time he has shown the place, it just seemed a little soon to be putting the pressure on.

I think the agent is just trying to take advantage of the elderly. Yes if a piece of property does not sell the agent doesn't get paid. But the agent has too have the sellers interest at hand first and foremost. It's called being in business and the customer is ALWAYS RIGHT!!!!

Originally Posted by REITrainingWhse

Well, insulting the seller is not a good thing either... I mean $75K below asking? If it was $15K, ($20K MAYBE,) but let's say a spade is a spade. So unless you are desparate, I say the seller did the right thing.

What if the property is listed for $20 million? Is $75k off insulting then?

Point being, there isn't enough information to determine a "fixed sum" as to the appropriateness of not being rude by most persons standards.

Originally Posted by REITrainingWhse

This post was not to be combative or insulting, just to the point, which you can all agree that if the house doesn't move, RE agents don;t get paid.

and the seller doesn't sell and the buyer doesn't buy and everyone loses. I don't understand your point other than to degrade real estate agents.

Welcome to the forum.

Originally Posted by Malok

What if the property is listed for $20 million? Is $75k off insulting then?

Yeah, I though of that, after I posted... And you're right, if the discount is within 5%-10% of asking, then maybe... But I was approaching the thread at the "badgering the client" prospective... I don't think that the RE agent has the right to beat on THEIR CLIENT to try to get them to submiss. If they don;t want to sell, then move on... If the agent doesn't like the "bull-headedness" of their client, they can ALWAYS cancel the listing agreement.

What is the current asking price? What is the home worth? Was this an agent who took the listing at your mom's price or at market value? Either way, it sounds like the agent isn't working for you in this case, but that opinion is with the facts given thus far. I can't believe that he is badgering your mom over the phone to take the offer. If it's really touchy, he should present it in person.

You're in a tough spot without the contract. However, you don't have to do what you don't want to do. Don't let the agent take control of the situation.

Question for you is - does he have any experience at all? Is he a top seller in the area?