Hi,
I finally got a conract on the stinky carpet home. I am dealing with the craziest people I've ever not met ( the are in Ohio). You might remember the house as the one with the stinky carpet. See what they've written
Hey, okay, I have *** calmed down once again. Regardless, we do plan to go forward with the sale of the house.

Out of respect for my husband, though, I'm going to ask a favor of you, something you'd mentioned as an option you'd consider, which is to perhaps take a credit of 1/2% off the top of the commission.

Let me explain quickly why I'm asking this of you.

Whether you agree to do so or not will not alter our intent to continue forward with the contract, okay? However, **** made two valid points, in all of his ramblings, of which I have to admit that I'm in agreement with.

I apologize that he gave you a hard time throughout the negotiations, but as a managing agent myself, I know the difference between transactional and selling agents, and if you truly believed your primary role during the negotiations was only as a "transactional agent," then there is no argument to **** contention that we did not have the type of representation you were contracted by us to give.

Selling agents negotiate on behalf of their client's best interests, and convey the proposals of their clients. Transactional agents do everything but negotiate. As a selling agent, you are bound by a code of ethics to convey what the seller tells you to convey on their behalf, HOWEVER, selling agents also advise their clients, if necessary, as to what is in the sellers' best interests, if they opt NOT to take your advise, it's their right.

Transactional agents, by definition, do not advise except to what can and cannot be deemed legal and ethical in regards to the paperwork. They replace the need for two negotiating agents, and in most cases, are usually real estate lawyers or one realtor representing both the buyer and the seller during the transaction.

Secondly, to tell **** that the original contract offer officially expired at 11:01 a.m. this morning (Tuesday) is incorrect, I'm not sure if you understood the contingency concerning this issue.

Regardless whether you personally had physical possession of the signed contract from us or not, your office did, just after 10 a.m. Tuesday morning. I called you and left a voice mail at 8 a.m. and then emailed you immediately following to retrieve the fax number where you wanted me to send the signed contract. You didn't provide that information, so I sent it to the only number I had on file, the fax number for your home office, Watson Realty Hidden Hills. The fact that it was received at your home office means that we were in complete compliance to the contingency terms of the contract and thus, the contract remained active throughout the oral portion and the final written submission of the negotiations all day and evening on Tuesday. So we were not negotiating back and forth on borrowed time, as you told **** we were.

Yes, you did a lot for us initially, and I can't thank you enough. You helped us get an electric inspection done, waxed our floors, fixed a couple screens, painted a wall, removed items and put them down on the curb, put mulch down, trimmed up grass and bushes, and though I don't know a lot of realtors, I've not heard or known a realtor to go above and beyond to assist their client. But the negotiations process is when we really needed you to be in our corner, and I have to admit, I'm not in total disagreement right now with **** that I believe you were really on our side, again, kind of hard to be congenial when **** was coming down a bit hard on you, but he didn't start off being difficult, and I do agree that even when I spoke to you myself a few times, I really had the impression that you were more concerned with giving the buyers what they wanted to avoid losing them, rather than bucking for what we wanted to achieve, and maybe that's because you really believed the contract had been expired. I'm trying to understand both sides, and I'm really trying to keep the peace so that we don't wind up losing out on having a buyer, nor do I want to wind up without an agent, as your contract is expiring very soon, I don't want to wind up renting out or auctioning off the property like **** is considering doing, or just starting all over again with another agent and sitting on the property for God only knows how much longer.

I'm caught between a rock and a hard place here. You're not calling me back or responding to at least let me know you have the contract in hand this time and that you've provided the contract over to the buyers and their agent, because if they also contend that the contract expired at 11:01 a.m. because you told them we didn't sign or send back the contract at that time, using that as a bargaining chip against us and you, you've ultimately put us in a very bad light here, which may have cost us some negotiating space. That saddens me because all the arguments I made on your behalf towards **** to get him to calm down were all for nothing...

Again, we still fully intend to go forward with our intent to sell to the buyers no matter what. But I would really appreciate that you and perhaps the other agent would at least consider a commission credit back towards us for at least the 1/2 percent that you'd previously discussed with me personally.

Thanks James.
Seller

I am ready to scream at them!

Is that seriously your client's full correct name? Do you want to edit that out?
--A

I doubt that is her real name. I do not think any of us would post a clients correspondence with her name for the whole world to see...my guess is that Jax Lady thought that through and changed it before posting it. I would hope so. The confidential duty that we have with clients would certainly be called into question(IMO). I would consider email, letters, etc. to be confidential. We all know that, so that is wy I assume that you changed the name on this.

I do not know what led up to this. Did you negotiate on her behalf? She is correct about the fax machine part. If she faxed your office and it went through, she is covered. she is not demanding you take a cut, just asking.

I really hope this isn't your client's real name. Frankly to post this is irresponsible.

No that is not their real name! But just to keep you'all from having a coniption, I've changed it to a generic.

Wow! Jax, I am going to tell you something that you probably don't want to hear, but, I think that maybe you should at least consider taking the 1/2 % cut, in order to keep the peace. This client seems to be very well informed, and they make some valid points. If you previously discussed making some concessions on your commission, I would go ahead and do that to make them feel like you are doing all that you can to help keep the transaction moving forward. For future reference, you will probably not want to make mention of a willingness to cut commission to prospects and clients. Doctors, attorneys, and other licensed professionals don't constantly defend their compensation, so we should not feel compelled to do so either. I would swallow my pride, pick up the phone and call them back, tell them that the contract is still valid, if indeed it is, agree to the concession on commission, THIS time, and move forward to closing. Don't let them see you sweat, chalk this one up to experience, and make sure that you clearly spell out to your clients what you expect of THEM the next time around. Hope my opinion helps.

Did you really wax there floors,take out the trash and all of that stuff?

If you did that is ridiculous!

First off if you damage there floors or other property who are they going to blame you that's who.

I don't ask people what they will be willing to do,i tell them what they need to do to get it sold.If they are control freaks or abusers i walk away because i let them know from the beginning who is the boss.

Sounds like you have a real pita seller.

You the agent absolutely has to control the transaction.I put what to expect on my website and what my listing presentation is because i don't want time wasters and control freaks bringing my business down.

I can understand your furiousness... I would be too. Your experience reminded me of the times when I got "lectured" on the phone by my Sellers for 2 hours, I was so nice to fix the repairs for them. They didnt even have to pay me. I was new and it was my first listing. I didnt know better.

So, I understand your frustration. Yikes.

Did you mean to post this to vent, or to see if you should discount your listing?

I have a deal right now where it's a preforeclosure the seller wife is mad because the husband didn't tell her and was not makeing the payments.

The late per diem fees have eaten up thousands of potential equity dollars when they sell.

They mentioned why don't you take less commission and we already have a buyer.I said your husbands inability to make the mortgage payment has nothing to do with my commission and what you net.My full commission will be paid at closing or we won't close your choice.

I just believe in life you allow people to either walk all over you or you don't ulitmately it's your decision to make on how they treat you and not there's.

Thats not all I did. I totally re-landscaped their front yard. My husband painted their living room and rescreened all of their windows. There's more. It seems that the people you do the most for are the ones who don't appreciate it. They are moving ahead with the deal even though we've told them no way on the commission reduction. I feel that we've more than earned our commission.
They realize that this is their only offer after 140 showings and 15 open houses. I can't wait for this deal to finally close and be done with it all.

Ok, I stand corrected. If you did all of that, then, they owe you MORE money! Yikes!

Some of the best lessons are the one's you PAY for! I'd bet that JaxLady won't EVER be in this position again!

I don't know, I'm such a sucker for sob stories. It's in my nature to try and help. There were warning signs about these clients that I overlooked, that I'll be on the lookout for if I find myself in this position again. Some people really do need help, I'd hate to become so cynical
that I don't help out when its deserved.

Well, Jax, just keep helping those in need, and you will be rewarded. I know it gets hard sometimes, but we cannot allow a few bad seeds to allow us to become jaded.
Hey wscottfunk, my girlfriend and I were in your neck of the woods this past weekend. We spent the weekend in Pensacola, and we shopped in Foley on our way there. We liked Pensacola so much that we started looking at homes in the area. If we decide to move, we'll have to look you up.

RisingREALTOR:

Glad you liked the area! Be sure and look me up next time you're down. No need to wait until you decide to move!

Send me your contact info and I'll keep you in mind for referrals!

JaxLady.. DO keep on believing in people! For every bad experience I have, it makes me appreciate the good people I deal with & I let them know it too!

EXAMPLE:
I have one guy who called me about three years ago from my sign. He was in need of some advice on some property that his mother had in another state. I took the time to do some research and he's sent me no less than 10 investor friends of his and is one of our biggest spokespersons! As a matter of fact, I sold his mother a home earlier this year and he kept telling his mom, "you can trust Scott, he's a good, honest guy!" How could I not go above and beyond for someone like this?? I even mowed his elderly mom's grass twice before she could move down into the home!

I have a question about the quote that follows:

Here is my question...I'm an agent & I've been told that my job is to INFORM, not ADVISE. Give the client all the information they need so that THEY can make an informed decision.

What things should I be advising of & what things should I be informing of?

TIA!
_______________________________________

QUOTE FROM OP:
Selling agents negotiate on behalf of their client's best interests, and convey the proposals of their clients. Transactional agents do everything but negotiate. As a selling agent, you are bound by a code of ethics to convey what the seller tells you to convey on their behalf, HOWEVER, selling agents also advise their clients, if necessary, as to what is in the sellers' best interests, if they opt NOT to take your advise, it's their right.

Transactional agents, by definition, do not advise except to what can and cannot be deemed legal and ethical in regards to the paperwork. They replace the need for two negotiating agents, and in most cases, are usually real estate lawyers or one realtor representing both the buyer and the seller during the transaction.

As an agent (advocate for the buyer/seller) you have a fiduciary duty, which should be spelled out in your contract with them.

Just found this thread and wanted to post a comment before turning in.

I don't know if everyone is aware of this or not, but if you go to Google and type in your name, a lot of your Agents Online posts will pop up as choices. So, for those of you who identify yourselves on here with your web sites and such, remember that there is a chance one of your clients will misplace your business card and Google your name to get your phone number, then stumble across some of your posts. Sorry for the run-on sentence.

It seems like we are a small group of friends on here, but actually everyone with a computer has access to what we say. People do not have to come to the Agents Online web site (or even know it exists) to read our posts; they can read them just by Googling our names and clicking on the different posts that pop up.

I just Googled a couple of my friends on here and some of their A/O posts cropped right up. For those who are registered here anonymously, it's not a problem. The rest of us need to be sure we don't get some surprises in the mail sometime down the line. I realize this site is for us to share our problems and learn possible solutions from our fellow agents, but we need to be sure that we do not violate our codes of ethics. I'm still re-reading some of mine just to be sure I did not accidentally do that late one night when I was not at my sharpest.

Just a thought.

Darlene

VERY good point, Darlene!! Scary to think of the complications that could be caused by a simple post. Murphy's Law and all that.

Darlene, That is exactly why I post anonymously on this BB and yet I have had two moderators take me to task in PM's to say that I should post my real name. I don't see how we can honestly let down our hair here and get advice about client situations if we post our real names and other contact info. I stopped posting here for a while as I was tired of the nasty comments from moderators on my choice not to post my real name, but there are very good reasons for not doing so as you have so clearly pointed out.

Yep, WVAgent, Murphy's Law knows where we live and will track us down every time.

GainSusan, I've been off a couple of weeks myself...we will both try to do better, okay.

Folks, maybe we need a separate thread on this issue because it impacts us all. I understand why some regulars and moderators feel like we should all identify ourselves on the board ***BUT*** if we do that, like GailSusan says, we can't bring up those sensitive problems that bring us to this board looking for help. We aren't here to waste time...we don't have any to waste. We are here to ask others what they would do under similar circumstances, and to ask for help in areas where we have little or no experience, and basically just to make us better at our jobs...and of course to vent. Sometimes, when we vent, we get feedback that the problem was us, not the client. So venting also benefits the clients if it helps us to see both sides of the issue. But, we can't safely vent or share or anything else if we sign on with our real names unless we spend some time editing our posts to protect our clients (very important) and ourselves. So, what's the answer??? I guess everyone just needs to make an informed choice of whether to sign on anonymously or with their real identities. How's that for dancing around the issue?

Actually, I had thought about creating an anonymous identify so I could come on here and ask those "stupid" questions that would ordinarily embarrass me to ask. NOW THERE IS A GOOD REASON FOR ANONYMITY. Don't believe the feedback that there are no stupid questions, cause not everyone feels that way.

I guess we are officially off topic now, so does anyone want to start a thread on this anonymity issue?

Darlene

I am sooo sorry for starting all of this. I never realy realised that I could be googled. We all have to exercise restraint.

JaxLady, you did not start anything but a good conversation. I hope I did not leave another impression. These type discussions help us all, and it's why we come to this site. I did not realize the Google thing for a long time, so I am still checking my posts.

We do need to exercise restraint, but dang, that is hard for any of us to do all the time. When our clients disappoint us after we have done so much for them, it can be very discouraging. I have one in particular to post if I can ever talk about it without screaming. Nothing dull about this business.

Darlene

As usual Darlene, your insights, and good common sense are right on point. Thank you for the heads up about the google search. Perhaps the moderators can configure a way to stop this, because we do need a forum that allows us to openly share ideas, and when necessary vent without fear of reprisal. I was reading somewhere lately, maybe it was here, about a forum that could only be visited by REALTORs whose identities, and license status have been verified. It is starting to sound like a really good idea.

Darlene you have made a believer of me I just changed mine... thank you.

Lemrut

Darlene...

Thanks for the tip. I didnt think about it, and should have. I am now anonymous!

I changed my info as well. Formerly wscottfunk... now Gulf Winds.

Thanks,

Scott

Thanks, everyone. I just stumbled onto it.

Rising Realtor, good idea on Realtors only. Maybe some would not agree, but maybe we could see what everyone thought about it and get some more feedback.

We need to go in our profiles and click to hide our email addresses, too. I think mine is hidden now. We can still get private messages.

We have learned this much--anonymity is a lot of trouble.