Dealing with difficult sellers

I had a conversation with an agent the other day. She was working on selling a property for one of her sellers. Needless to say, it was a difficult transaction as the property was not turnkey condition. That made it challenging to sell in this market where a property needs to be pristine as buyers are being very selective. The property was the least of her concern. The primary problem was that the seller was difficult to deal with.

On several occasions where she had communicated with the seller, the seller was always confrontational and tense during the conversation. She thought the seller had a bad day but every time she called the seller to provide an update, she would get scold at for no reason. It was not as though she called the seller once a month to provide the update on the status of the property. She called twice a week to give an update of what activity she is receiving for the property.

The agent eventually brought an offer to present to the seller and immediately the seller balked at it, stating that it was low and she will not budge a dime on the price. She would not even counter although the price offer was 5% below the asking price. It became so frustrating to deal with the seller, being scold and berated each time she speak with the seller that she finally had it. She gave the seller the axe and told her to shove it down south park. Ok, she literally did not say that but you get the gist of it.

She was fed up with the tensions and agony of dealing with the seller that she fired the seller. She said a boat load of relief instantly sank to the bottom of the ocean upon getting the seller to sign the cancelation of the listing. The false accusations and verbal abuse was at the point of no return and she will no longer tolerate that type of treatment from the seller or buyer for that matter.

Sometimes, we have to learn to draw the line when the border is crossed. What would you do in this situation? I agreed with the friend and probably would have done the same thing. It is like a bad relationship where divorce is the clear solution.