Warning

Hi, just wanted to pass this along to everyone in case you know of anyone buying or selling a house. Please DO NOT use Prudential Reality in Charleston SC!! We have a good agent, but Prudential was the agents on three of the houses we were TRYING to buy, We have the financing so it's not even any problem with that or anything. It's Prudential agents already having buyers for the houses we wanted, but stringing us along telling our agent (therefore us) that WE had the house, in one case even sending us a contract, IN CASE the other buyers fell through - to keep us hanging on, as back up buyers. Now we only had a certain amount of time to get this done due to the time limitations on the financing, and so Prudential has messed us up royally, wasting our time when they flat out lied to us and mislead us not once but on THREE separate houses we seriously wanted to buy!! I hope this does not happen to anyone else, so BEWARE of Prudential if you seriously want to buy a house!! If you're selling, I guess they'd be the best, because they don't mind screwing any and everybody over to sell their clients houses NO MATTER HOW UNETHICAL!!
Good Luck, tdelecia

Hello Everybody,

I wanted to write you and let you know that I HIGHLY recommend that you
DO NOT use Prudential in any way shape or form. They refuse to get
answers to you, and frankly, in my case screw me around non-stop. Now,
whenever I see a house, if it has a prudential sign, or the MLS tells me
that it is a prudential agent selling the house, I just walk away. Out
of the 4 houses that I have put bids on, they were all listed by
Prudential, and I was screwed around with on all of them!

Don't get me wrong, I can take it if I was outbid, or they just wanted
to sell to someone else, but I mean they REFUSE to get back to you, or
even tell the truth, let alone do their job.

I felt that it was my responsibility as a consumer to pass this
information along. Hopefully, some of you will take it to heart!

Thanks,
D R

Sounds more like you wrote 3 offers in multiple offer situations and yours was not the best offer. Your agent was told your offer would be accepted as a backup offer should the better offer fall through.

So just exactly how were you lied to and by whom as communication from the listing agents would have been to your agent? Did your buyers agent tell you there were multiple offers? Was the listing a varible listing? You list no specifics as to the lies you were told. Sounds as if you are just unhappy that your offers were not good enough to be accepted as the primary offer.

Mr Oaks: No that is not what happened at all! First of all we have an excellent agent with "exit lowcountry", and she keeps us informed every time she communicates with a "selling" agent. By the way it has never been our offers, we have only looked at homes within our price range, AND we are not just "pre-approved" we already have %100 financing.

Ok, house #1:we made an offer for, out agent relayed the offer, came back and told us someone else had also put in a bid...we made a pretty good counter offer, but the sellers took the other offer. Yes, we were a little let down, but it was straight-forward and above board, so we started looking again.

House #2: has been on the market about 3 months, we made an offer through our agent, owner (through agents) declined our offer, but responded he would take it if full price, so & so, changed a couple of things, AND he had previously (before we offered)had a contract on this house, but the person pulled out at the last minute, so he REQUIRED us to get the inspection and apprasial within a weeks time. The only part we were not too happy with was only having a week to get all that done, but we were willing to do it. So, we (through our agent) made the offer including everything he had asked for, and waited for his response - which we expected to be an acceptance!! Instead we waited, and the owners agent told our agent something about he (or the owner I'm not sure which) couldn't find a fax machine in Mississippi, or something like that. It was not an answer and after a WEEK we withdrew our offer and started looking again! THEN we hear through the owner's agent "Oh no, no, wait we want to take your offer, I just couldn't get the paperwork to you" etc & etc. By that time we had found the perfect house with everything we wanted in it, in the exact area we wanted, and it was at the low end of our price range instead of this one which was at the high end of what we could afford. So at 10 days after we offered the owner everything he asked for, we declined to re-instate our offer. At this point we were frustrated, unhappy and annoyed. But we figured we were better off not having to deal with that owner anyway since he was so demanding.

Now where the big problem comes in, house #3, the one that has everything we want and is a very good price too. Our agent contacted the selling agent, we made a very good offer $4,000. MORE than the asking price. The selling agent gets with the owner, and we are told, "that's a great offer, we'll take it". We made the offer one day, and heard back that they would take it the next day. We filled out papers and our agent sent them to the sellers agent. After she faxed them the paperwork, our agent is trying to get in touch with the sellers agent for SEVERAL days (3 or more) the sellers agent talks to our agent, and says "Oh by the way there was a previous bid on this house, BUT the man that made the offer, got hurt and lost his job and the financing fell through....and after that happened I FORGOT to cancel the contract so they have until Dec 30th to come up with the money for the house!!! BUT there's NO WAY that's going to happen, and you have the house, but we just have to wait until Dec 31st for you to make your offer. That was a two week wait and yes, we were pretty upset an agent could FORGET to cancel a contract that fell through, said a few choice words our agent relayed to the other agent, and then we waited. All through this 2 week our agent spoke to the selling agent every few days, and each time we were told "Yes, for sure you have the house". Dec 30 was a Friday, on Sat morning Dec 31st we got a fax, the contract to sign to buy the house!! So that weekend we were all happy, and started pricing materials to finish the converted garage, and bought a few things looking towards working on the house. Early Monday morning Jan 2 our agent calls and tells us the other people closed on the house Friday night 9pm. Their offer was $4,000 less than ours, but they were still under contract to buy the house THAT'S why the selling agent FORGOT to cancel the contract, because it wasn't canceled!! We lost 2 weeks of time that we could have been seeing and/or buying a house because we were kept dangling to make sure the selling agent had a buyer in case the first deal fell through!! No, at NO time were we told we were "backup" buyers. Instead we were led to believe over & over that we had the best offer, and we HAD the house!! The other person ONLY offered the asking price, so the owner loses out too, except he doesn't really care he just wanted rid of the house. Does that clarify where we were mis-lead and lied to by the sellers agent?

Unfortunately, we believe it has something to do with that all the sellers were represented by Prudential Realty!! I'm not saying they are not good at SELLING houses, because they certainly make sure they have buyers lined up, no matter what they have to tell people.

De

What happened to you is most likely not related to the brokerage and you should refrain from bashing an entire company for the actions of a single agent. What was the listing agents response as to why you were faxed a contract on Sat. when the property closed on Friday evening? Has your agent spoken to their broker regarding this? Does your agent feel that the sellers agent did anything unethical based on your states laws? If so your agent should file a complaint. If your agent and the broker feel nothing unethical was done you should just move on and find your new home( hopefully this time one without a previous offer).I know you are upset but please place blame where it is due, with the agent and not the brokerage. It is very unfair to the other agents that work for that broker.

I wish you the best in your home search.

The previous sentence represents the epitome of what is broken within the real estate industry.

Is there one of us that having had three bad experiences from three different employees of a department store, an airline, or a phone company would not hold the company responsible? Why at the hint of client dissatisfaction do we absolve the brokerage of all responsibility for the agent under their charge?

If real estate agents as a group are to ever again earn the trust of the public this abdication of responsibility must end.

-------

De,

It sounds like you have really been having a tough time. You have come in contact with a few agents that on the surface, seem less than ethical and professional. Unfortunately, as I know you like the agent working for you, I have to lay most of the blame for your unhappiness upon her. She has a responsibility not just to keep you informed but to represent your best interests and help you obtain the property you want at the best possible terms. From where I stand, her apparent lack of negotiating skills and her failure to obtain promises in writing caused to the greatest degree your misfortunes.

Freak,
Give it a rest!
They did not have 3 bad experiences. If you had read the whole message before climbing on your soapbox you would have known.

#1 was a straight-up multiple offer that they did not get.

#2 was a difficult seller...tell me you have never had one of those! And they had found a home they liked better.

#3 was the only really bad experience and if you notice I suggested followup if their agent thought there were violations....IT was A SINGLE agent. NOT the entire firm!!

Your Broker must just Love You! You blame en entire company for the actions of a single agent!! I thnk it is time you joined us all in the real world again!

Why stop at blaming the brokerage...why not blame the whole real estate industry or better yet the builders that build the houses that agents sell....no lets blame the banks for lending the money to the builders who build the houses that brokerages hire agents to sell.

Ridiculous ain't it. Blame should lie with the person doing the offending. If not then why does our country execute serial killers instead of their parents.

Excellent point Kathy.
Taken a little to the extreme. I don't buy that your agent is also not at fault here. What questions and discussions is she or he having with the sellers agents? Is she asking the right questions? Is she being offensive? All I am saying is I think you had it bad with one of a company. Maybe the industry should stick with "buyers are liars" because they've been lied to by a buyer before. By all means tell people not to deal with that company but I sense I'm only hearing a particular version and its amazing after sitting on the number of hearings i have sat on how differently the other side always see's things.

Kathy, I am confused. Are you suggesting that brokers have no responsibility for the business practices of the agents they sponsor?

Sheldon, you are right, there is ALWAYS to sides to every disagreement. Usually both sides have valid and honest points of view. What I am suggesting is that maybe if more brokers took a "buck stops here" approach, you would have fewer hearings to attend.

It is also my belief that buyers are seldom liars. So called liars usually just weren't asked the right questions or their trust was never earned.

No, I am not suggesting that at all. Who am I to even think I am qualified to make a blanket statement of that nature.

The original poster made a blanket accusation and I have a problem with blame being so casually tossed about, especially when the poster is telling me and everyone else to not do business with an entire brokerage because of the actions of one of their agents.

Blame should lie where it is deserved...period. Does the broker have a responsibility of an agents actions...yes. I'm sure a lot of brokers have been placed in positions where they have to clean up and bear the brunt of an agents mess. Does that in itself mean we should boycot his brokerage? No. Does what the agent did automatically make the broker at fault also? No. I try not to confuse the term responsibility with the term blame. Some may confuse them as synonyms but they really aren't.

I came upon this post after being subjected to my daughter (15) and her hour long rant trying to convince me it is her science teachers fault she is getting an "F" and not her fault at all. And because it is her teachers fault I have no right nixing her plans for the evening.

That probably explains my "extreme" response.

Hi Everyone,
Interesting to see that there are no "new" problems, just different days. I want to get the word out to as many of you as possible about an
internet "lead" company for Realtors. If you have not already signed up with one or more of these companies, please, please, contact me first. I, and literally thousands of other agents have been defrauded and cheated of several thousand dollars each. The issue is so serious that we are talking about millions or perhaps billions of dollars being stolen from real estate agents. This makes Enron look like childs play. I have posted this notice now in two different sections of this forum. If I am putting it in the wrong catagory,
I apologize and would appreciate any suggestions as to the best place to ensure that the most readers have access to it. I can be reached directly at "judyreedrealtor@aol.com" or
call me at"530-223-3160"
Thank you for your time
Judy Reed

Hello Again,
I just located an (old) conversation about "House values" an internet lead company. The one thing I believe that most of you may not be aware of is that now, the majority of the (buyer)leads provided by HV are simply bogus. Not real at all. So, for those who feel (and I have a suspicion that you may be working on behalf of HV)that the agent simply doesn't have the skills to convert the lead, how would any agent convert what isn't actually there? Surely you do not advocate that thousands of your fellow Realtors across the US and Canada be scammed with impunity of thousands of dollars based on all lies? I have been a fulltime Realtor for over 28 years and feel a strong commitment to the interests and well being of everyone in our industry.I know that I would be remiss if I did not warn others of these types of scams or, also let others know when appropriate of exemplary service providers.
Thanks Again
Judy Reed

J.L.Reed, if you do a search on this site for "housevalues", you'll come up with 4 pages of interesting opinions.