My husband and I have dealt with the ups and downs of buying and selling a house. We’ve also dealt with good real estate agents and difficult ones. We’ve been dealt with absolute home buying disasters but through it all, we’ve learned a great deal and everything has always worked out to our benefit.
So, it comes as no surprise when I say that we recently fired a real estate agent. I definitely didn’t see this one coming but I will remind everyone out there who is either buying or selling a home to never let an agent talk down to you. They work for you and not the other way around. They have no right to ever belittle you and if you ask for proper communication, they need to be willing to give it to you. Most importantly, never accept a scare tactic or threat. Even if you did sign a contract, there are ways to get out of it.
If the agent is well established and deals primarily in luxury homes and has no time to sell your middle-income home, you may want to consider a new agent. We have had the best of luck and a great relationship with agents who are relatively new or still working hard to build their business. They are more than willing to put in the extra work and the time. It’s also important to me to find an agent who is family orientated and listens to your needs.
I once had an agent, call me in the middle of a massive wind storm, to check on me. He knew I was home alone with two toddlers and that the house was in danger of damage from fallen trees. There were people who actually lost their lives in that storm so the call was appreciated.
My first negative experience with an agent was while we were first married. Before the 2007 recession, many first time home buyers were buying condos or townhouses. We decided this was a better option than paying rent for an apartment. We were assured there was no pressure and after one afternoon of looking at condos, we decided to wait. A month later, we received a bill in the mail for the agent’s time. This had not been previously discussed with us. We scraped up the money and paid him. Less than a year later, the recession hit, condos went under and needless to say, we never did business with that agent again.
We dealt with a massive house flood in the first home we bought. At some point during the flood, the selling agent stole items from the house and accepted no responsibility for the burst pipes. We encouraged the sellers of the house to seek legal action against the agent who was in charge of looking after the house but we never did find out what became of it. We ended up getting a free house remodel so there was a silver lining. We sold that house seven years later for a profit.
We now live in a higher-end home that we love but our dream has been to own property out in the country. We are no longer naive when it comes to business. My husband has since become a successful financial planner and works in sales. Threats and aggressive sales approaches no longer work on either of us.
This time we cut our losses. We severed ties before it became too complicated and we entrusted the sale of our home, to an agent that we have worked with in the past. An agent we should have been loyal to from the start. She negotiated the right to our pictures and the contract was passed on to her. I know that we are in for an uphill battle. I know that this entire adventure could fail on us but that’s okay. We’re happy to stay where we are if it doesn’t work out. At least now, we have the assurance that we won’t be belittled, or threatened with homelessness or treated as if the sale of our house doesn’t matter.
I’m breathing a little easier now and I hope in the future I can report on the happy sale of our home.
