Hello all, my fiance and I are trying to buy a home by August. We began working with this agent a few weeks back. At first she seems driven, but now she is to busy with family to show a house and we always find homes and request her to pull the information on them. Even in neighborhoods we request she doesnt find anything but when we ride ourselves we find options. And she does know that we are working on a time schedule. I have a few questions about how to deal with this for knowledge of this buy and for future knowledge when I get my own liscense. Please note we HAVE NOT SIGNED ANYTHING with her.
1. Can I just call another agent for their help?
2. She introduced us to the lender, can we use another agent and still that lender?
3. Do I have to 'terminate' her services in any special manner?
4. If I asked her to take me to view a "buy owmer" house and she is not available but we like the home and want to purchase it,is she entitled to compensation?
5. Can I use more than one agent at a time?



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Regret looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up

1) yes
2) yes
3) no
4) no
5. Yes, but it not be in your best interest.

Well how should I handle the situation? I am really working on a time schedule.

Agents will sometimes priorize their buyers and if your agent is unaware that you are on a deadline or thinks you might be not really ready to buy - the agent will put you on the back burner in order to work with more serious buyers first.

Talk to your agent and emphasize that you are on a deadline and need your needs taken care of. If things do not improve just find another agent that will provide the service you need. You do not have to feel guilt for dumping an agent that is not working for you anyway.

A question - have your needs been clearly stated, exactly the kind of home you hope to find, or have you indicated that quite a lot of qualities would make you happy. In another sense, hard to narrow down just what kind of home you do want.

For some reason, this agent has put you on the back burner. First answer might be that she does not believe you to be serious, or on a time schedule, so why devote her time if she has other active clients.

Two, she doesn't feel you "clicked" and isn't thrilled about working with you, but hasn't told you.

Three, if you have mentioned "by owner" homes, she may have decided that you aren't loyal, and if not, why waste time? If you signed a buyer exclusive with her (or any agent), they would get paid no matter what, and should be happy to take you to "by owner" homes.

My attitude is this: You have only have one chance to make a good first impression. There are so many agents out there that would love to work with you and do a great job - move on and find one of those!!

Cheri, Realtor in Iowa

The type of home I was looking for was very clear. I dont know how she would get that we are not serious when I stayed in daily contact with her and took intiative to bring addresses to her. I she was totally clear on how serious I am. I beleive she trying to hurry and throw us in something and when we didnt jump on it because it was much further than we requested she got fustrated. But I did get in touch with a recommended agent that has jumped on it! Hopefully we will find something very soon and end this headache.

Absolutely. In all fairness I think you should tell this agent first that you will be moving on to another agent if she doesn't make you a priority. If you do work with another agent, use that person for the transaction, don't just use her to show you houses and go back and write an offer with the first one.


Absolutely. If the lender is someone that works in-house in her brokerage, you may need to formally sever ties with your current agent if you want to use another agent at the *same* company. An in-house loan rep will know which agents are working with which people, and they are probably instructed to alert the agents when two differnt ones come forward with the same clients.


Not unless you signed a buyer's rep agreement with her, but I doubt you did, since you said you didn't sign any documents.



Unless she has a signed Buyer's Representative agreement securing her half of the commission, payable by you, in the event that she sells a FSBO, you don't have to pay her. Sometimes the FSBO sellers will pay the agent, but if they refuse and you don't haven't signed something agreeing to compensate her, then no.



In theory yes, but this is a bad practice and it is discouraged. Agents only get paid for deals they close. If you are jumping around to several agents someone is going to be working without compensation. If agents are aware that you are working with several Realtors, they aren't going to invest much time in you or may not want to work with you at all. It's in your best interest to find one Realtor you trust, who will work hard for you, and reward that person with your loyaly.

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[This message has been edited by Lynn_at_C21 (edited 07-03-2004).]

This is another good topic here. If nothing else, it serves as a reminder for us agents what buyers are thinking on their end when we are not the ones initiating the conversation. All clients want to be treated like they are your one and only client.

My uncle previously file for bankruptcy because of his newphews fault. He asked me to co-sign so he can purchase a home in Palmdale. The real estate agent just sent the paperwork to me to sign the offers made to the homeowners. I have never bought a home before so I did not know the process, next thing I knew the house was already on escrow and the real estate agent sent me a letter for my boss to sign.

On that letter it stated that I am purchasing a home and I have a flexible schedule at my job in carson and I would not have a problem commuting from Carson to Palmdale.

My boss did not sign the letter and I did not like the fact that he is making me lie in order to get the mortgage loan because I would not live in that house since I am only co-signing.

In the beginning I was willing to help because I was only the co-signer and he said my name could be taken out in 3 months but someone told me it would take a year and only if they refinance.

The last day to close the escrow and submit the paperwork was last week and I told the real estate agent that my boss did not want to sign any letters. I did not hear back from him until yesterday. He told me the letter from my employer was taken care of and when I asked for a copy of the letter he said they did not need it anymore and it was waived.

I am very concerned that this agent is only lying to me so he can get commission. All his lies are very fishy and I am not sure if I should still help my uncle.

any advise?

So you haven't even bought a home for yourself but are going to co-sign for an Uncle and be responsible for the whole mortgage if he defaults??

The kicker is that your Uncle will supposedly refinance in a year and pay you off. I don't see the market appreciating that much if it even goes up at all.Even if it did go up they do refi's at say 80% of the new value if your lucky.

Are you going to be living in this house??

I so no benefit to you but all the risk. I can't give legal advice. You would be nuts not to immediately pay a real estate attorney to see what ramifications now and in the future you will face.It also sounds like by them requesting your boss to sign a document that you will commute to the home and you don't live there that they might be committing fraud.

Me personally there is no way I would commit to this.If you have great income and credit you should reap the reward from that by buying your own home or investment property.

no legal advice

The reason they wanted your boss to sign that letter is because you are required to occupy the house to cosign on a conventional loan. You may have already committed loan fraud by stating that you would occupy the property. Loan fraud is a felony.

You might want to seek legal advice. I'm not sure what can be done if the sale closed last week. If the agent facilitated the fraud, he could be in big trouble, too.

I know you just wanted to help your uncle, but you have taken on a lot of risk.

Thread Necro ... this thing has been dead for over 6 years before it came back to the life!

It's sad to have a realtor that does not pay enough attention to the clients; however, it may also mean that this realtor is "popular". I am surprised that any realtor would be so busy in a market like this to take care of her clients.

There are all types of Realtors out there and many are biased. Some will not work with people on a fixed/limited income. Mostly because its not a money maker. There are others who dislike working with potential buyers who are not married. Yes, it is true. Been there, seen that.

Some of those categories need our help more than others . . . . and there's great pleasure to be had in helping someone make a purchase or sell an asset.

It's true that sometimes the money isn't the greatest; but there has to be some just to stay in business. In this State, like most others, it's illegal to discriminate on the basis of someone having a Fixed Income or being on Public Assistance or because of their Marital Status. Nor can we discriminate among people based on their being Handicapped, or their Gender, or their Sexual Orientation, or their Race or Color or National Origin, Religion, Age, or whether they have Children.

But after all of those prohibitions, please recognize that there are still some categories of Buyer who are simply not qualified to buy, so it really doesn't matter how much time and effort you devote to trying to help them, they need to use someone else's money to make a purchase. And if that's not forthcoming in the current market, whatever those conditions might be . . . . it's best to gently cut your losses and not lead them down a dead end road.

I'm not so sure its up to the realtor to decide who can and cannot afford to buy a house. That's for the bank or mortgage lender to make the call. As a first time home buyer, I had a lot of agents come out of the woodwork, calling and emailing. Then suddenly they all just disappeared. One of them had the guts to tell me why. There's no money in working with a low income couple. Fortunately my wife and I refused to give up. We found a realtor who has been in the business more than 30 years. He wasn't looking to get the most money.He was more concerned with helping us get a house. Thanks to his experience and connections we just bought a house.

You're correct. The Agent DOES NOT make a final decision on who's qualified for a loan.

But his or her knowledge and experience does serve as a real barometer regarding what the odds are that anyone will pass muster with a Lending Institution. And it is incumbent upon us to stay abreast of current mortgage rates, loan programs and the qualification procedures being employed at any point in time.

We always recommend that Buyers gets "Pre-Qualified" (at a minimum) or preferably get Pre-Approved BEFORE commencing their search or consuming any Agents time and resources. It saves time for everyone.

Experience reveals that many Buyers refuse to take that advice, insisting instead to postpone that visit to a Lender until AFTER they have located the property that they would like to purchase. And, of course, they always think they know best. In reality, no one enjoys visiting a Lender and revealing their financial capacity and/or weaknesses.

A lot of time can be saved, and if that step is performed at the beginning of the search process . . . . but every Agent has experienced the Buyers who say they have certain resources, or think that some relatives will help them make up for their own deficiencies. Believe it or not, some Buyers will actually tell fibs about they purchasing power !

In the end, the Agent is the only Guardian of his time and resources . . . . he's an Independent Contractor. He has to make sure he's spending his limited time in the right places. As long as he's not discriminating among protected classes, he can choose to work with whoever he pleases. He has to be jealous of that time.

Some people have personalities that clash. Some people refuse to take direction. Some people are perpetually late for appointments; some people lie. Some people have a lot of income; but it's strictly cash and they have never filed a 1040. For us, income that isn't documented is the same as no income.

Even when people aren't entirely forthcoming with information about their financial resources, they will often still reveal clues that give us notice of what the likelihood is that they will ever get to a Closing Table. It's our job to listen for these clues. (On the other side of the coin, the same sensitivity to picking up clues holds true with our Sellers)

I always like to know "who" I'm working with early. Someone else might wait until the end. That's our decision.