Hi All

I am a consumer looking for opinions from those who work in the real estate field.

I sold a house this year. The agent who listed the house for me did a very sloppy job and I had to stay on them from the very beginning. Things like multiple instances of materially incorrect info on the fact sheet, not putting the house on the 3 websites as agreed, etc. Amazingly, another agent brought a buyer forth pretty quickly into things. After I chased my agent down to get the results of a home inspection, I was told over the phone that the buyer asked for an addendum for a pretty substantial sum to fix a specific item. I asked if there was a way to verify the validity of the amount, as it sounded high to me. I was told by my agent that they didn't know anyone who could do that. I was anxious to sell the (now vacant) house, so I offered to pay 1/2 the cost of the repair over the phone. I was told the addendum and inspection report would be faxed to me the next day. As par for the course, I was only faxed the addendum, not the inspection report. It specifically said the $ was for repair of a specific item. I crossed out the amount, wrote in half that figure, initialed it and faxed it back. Several days later I was told they needed to do another addendum as the underwriter would not approve the loan with repairs needed to the house. I asked them to fax over the new addendum and oh, by the way, I never got the inspection report. Imagine my surprise when the inspection report listed the repair needed as one third of the figure listed on the addendum. We are talking thousands of dollars. The agent would not return my phone calls on the matter but their sales manager said they were sorry, the agent was remiss in not providing the report, but they couldn't see where I'd suffered any monitory damages. My contention is that I would never have countered half the original figure if I'd had all the information. I've been unable to settle this matter outside of the legal system. The agent told the Better Business Bureau that he verified the figure with a general contractor prior to calling me with the addendum information. This is just not true, or if it is, they lied to me when I asked if there was someone who could give an estimate on the repair cost.
I have a complaint pending before the Realtor board in the town where the home was sold. I will lose a day's wages in order to drive down and testify. Depending on the outcome, is this something that I should take to small claims court? Your opinion is appreciated.

I’m a little confused about who determined the cost of the repairs for that one item initially. Your agent, the buyer, the inspector or the buyer’s agent? Since none are in the business trade of the broken item I presume, how could they make any kind of estimate?
Your agent did not seem to have your best interests at heart when he quoted the wrong $ amount and did not provide to you the inspection report as promised. Your anxiousness to sell certainly cost you, you should have said no inspection report, no signature.
The Realtor Board might come up with some ethical violations on your agent’s part or they might not. These review boards will look at all the evidence and make a decision.
The option to go to small claims court is always open.

Thank you for your reply. I was trying to keep it as short as possible and may have left some things unclear. Initially, the independendant inspector hired by the buyer was the one who gave the figure (the one in the supressed inspection report). How it morphed into a figure on the addendum that was three times the amount on the report escapes me. I was faxed the addendum two days after the conversation. Until I signed it, is there really any legal obligation on my part? Remember - my statement was that I would pay half the cost of the estimate to repair. If I'd received the report along with the addendum, I'd have asked what the deal was then and there. There are 2 possible outcomes that may have happened. 1 - I'd have been told that a general contractor by the name of X had estimated the higher amount, in which case I'd prolly have verified it, or 2 - I would have countered the addendum by offering half of the amount stated on the inspection report.

The agent has made untruthful statements in his brief to the review board. It's degenerated into a he said, she said type of thing. All I can ask is whether I would be willing to invest this kind of time and effort into the hearing if I weren't telling the truth. I'm not going to get anything out of it except for the possible satisfaction of the realtor being called on the carpet for their behavior. Please let me know if this is still unclear, I am really very interested in the opinion of people who work in the field.

Best-