Before I start complaining about the agents who haven't returned my calls in the last few days, I have to say with all honesty that there have been times when I wasn't as prompt about returning that call as I should have been.  Especially when it involved feedback on listings when there had been a larger number and I didn't really have a really strong opinion about what I had shown or previewed. I know that can and probably has come back to bite me both now and in the past.

That being said; this weeks experience has just about caused me to reach a breaking point. My Buyers, a young couple looking for their first home, hoping to still get in on the Tax Credit, decided that if we expanded our search they might have a better chance of finding a home that they could write an offer on and possibly get an answer on before April 30th.  Obviously we didn't want a Fannie Mae Loan short sale but we decided that with so many short sales there might be some that had a possibility of working. Very naive on my part after 32 years experience.

There were 5 homes they liked. Two of those homes when checked already had offers submitted and were taking back up offers. They also checked out on the Fannie Mae Loan list as belonging to Fannie Mae. One was a home that had been purchased, fixed up and back on the market. That was a good thing!  The last  two indicated they were short sales but neither address was recognized on the Fannie Mae Loan list.

At that point I called the Listing Agent who told me that his co-lister was taking care of that one.  I called the co-lister who told me he wasn't near his files, didn't know, was in a meeting and would call me back later when he had a chance.  No call.  Since the list had not recognized the loan I decided to go ahead and show.  The couple liked the house, of course.  Called the co-lister again.  Very cordial this time but was at an Open and again didn't have that file but would call me when he got back to the office shortly after noon. Again, no call. Called again and left a message with another number because I did not want to miss this call.  No call back.

That evening I sent an e-mail stating I knew he was busy but perhaps when he got my message he would be near his files and could answer the questions I included in the message.  No return message.  The next morning I left another call.  "Good Morning, I so sorry I missed your call yesterday and I know you are busy but if you could give me a call on my cell, xxx-xxx-xxxx, I have a couple interested in xxx Bland St and we really need to know the answers to a couple of questions before we take the parents to see it or sit down to write and offer. Thanks and talk to you later."  No call.

Guess what?  We did go ahead and look a second time, took a chance that the "no match" was correct, wrote an offer only to have the loan officer from her computer be able to tell us that it is indeed a Fannie Mae Loan. No chance we can have an answer before the 30th. What a waste of time!  How busy can an agent be?