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Buyer's Agent Troubles
Our buyer's agent has become less and less helpful. She's busy, so we understand slow responses, but now we feel it is playing into us missing home purchase opportunities. She didn't text us to tell us a house sold until we were on the road on our way to the showing.
We asked to look at a house and instead of replying yes or no, she emailed us a database search of all homes in the area in our price range, including homes we've already seen! We now feel this is not helpful. We really like a property, but if she isn't okay with showing it to us, what do we do? What if we signed a contract with her? How do we politely share our concerns with her?
We are not buying an expensive house and we know her commission will be low. We're sorry for this and we have been considerate, only asking to see houses we would consider putting an offer on. We often drive by and inspect houses before we ask to be shown them. We know realtors need to get paid and that every time she has to drive around with us, her commission profit is lower... We're so desperate for advice... What do we do?
Re: Buyer's Agent Troubles
Actually, what you described doesn't sound so crazy to me. We saw some houses that we really liked where she went to put in an offer and then found out it already had an offer. The status of a house can change in the blink of an eye, or it might not be updated in the listing one day and the next day you go back and find out it's under contract. I wouldn't hold that against her unless you know for sure that she knew the house was under contract for a while before telling you.
And we had a similar experience with the database - she would flag things for us but left it open so we could search for our own choices as well. We loved it, personally.
I can see if your styles don't mesh, but honestly I would take a laid-back realtor over a pushy one any day. We were in a similar boat - didn't have a huge budget, looked at tons of houses - but I'm glad the realtor we had didn't push us into the wrong house.
She should definitely be willing to show you houses that you specifically request to see, so I would very specifically say "When can we arrange a showing for the house on ____ street?"
If you're in a competitive environment and need someone pushier, then express that to her. But you do have to keep in mind that you're a little fish and that she might have clients more worth her time. If that's the case, then you should just take the time to personally go through the database and set up showings for houses you like ASAP.
We've tried to be considerate because we know we're not major clients, but if she feels we weren't worth her time, would it be best for both parties to terminate our contract?
We go through the database ourselves and we asked if we could see a certain house and provided the listing #. Instead of acknowledging our request, she sent us a generic link to the database again. We've seen 9 houses over the course of 5 months, so I don't feel like we've been a lot of work...
We just lost another opportunity today because we asked if she could help us set up an offer/bid and she didn't respond.
If she's not responding to requests for showings and offers, you need to find another realtor ASAP.
We can't give you specific advice on getting out of a contract without seeing it, but it generally only applies to houses you viewed while working with her. You should be fine for houses you find once you stop working with her.
Good luck!