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This is just not acceptable.........

This agent's behavior is just not acceptable to me...I'd like to hear what you think.

I have a REO listing located at 8423 Jordan Ranch Road, Elk Grove....it was listed and sold iwith multiple offers n just a few days and went into escrow. Escrow was opened...the selling agent contractually was to get the buyer's deposit into escrow within 72 hours of acceptance. Well, we are here a week into the transaction and no deposit into escrow yet.

My transaction coordinator had tried to follow up with him several times to get disclosures to him and then to find out why there was no deposit in escrow yet. Yesterday she came to me and ask me to make a call to him about the deposit as it was time to send him a Notice to perform. I called and left a message yesterday for the selling agent and then when he did not call me back I called and left a message for his broker. This evening I received this email from him -

Hi Kathleen and Lori,
I have some bad news, the buyer's will be canceling this contract due to loan not being approved. The lender is requiring more money down and the buyer has recently had his income reduced.
I will be sending you a signed cancellation notice with the denial letter tomorrow.
Sorry for the delay in my response, I've been trying to get this deal to work with the buyer's but all avenues have been exhausted.
Thanks,

Ok, so now we have been off the market for the past week and we are going back on the market. I now as the Listing Agent have to let the Asset Manager know about this tomorrow and we have to start all over. The unacceptable part of this is two fold -

1. How unprofessional the selling agent was not to call my transaction coordinator and the escrow officer back at the beginning of this week when they started calling him so that everyone could be aware that there may be issues.

2. The agent wrote a contract and submitted it for his buyer and at that time he apparently was aware that the buyer may have an issue qualifying. And now a week later he thinks it's acceptable to send an email...no phone call, no message...only an email that his buyer will not qualify so they will be cancelling.

Sorry for the rant tonight, but I have just had enough with unprofessional agents on my REO listings. Does this agent actually think that the next time he sends over an offer on one of our REO listings, that we are going to take it seriously. I hope he understands how unprofessional this is and how much he has risk his own reputation as an agent. I'm sure he was actually trying to help his buyer, but he needed to communicate with me and my team during the past week. Anytime I have to make a call to the broker - only a couple of times in 20 years in the business - something is horribly wrong.

Thank goodness 98% of my transactions are done with very professional agents and things go smoothly. It is a pleasure to work with most agents; I just need to find a way to weed out these other ones!

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Lori Mode and Bruce Durham, Keller Williams Realty in Elk Grove, CA

The Mode & DurhaM Team in Elk Grove, CA

www.ModeandDurhaM.com

Posted by Lori Mode and Bruce Durham on 11/05/2009 10:02 PM

Comments (10)

Unacceptable Practices by Selling Agents in the ActiveRain Channel

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Originally posted at: The Mode and DurhaM Team's Blog: This is just not acceptable.........

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10 Comments on This is just not acceptable.........

NOV

Although I feel your pain, and agree that the agent should have notified you sooner, you have multiple offers that you could call back at the first sign of a red flag. There have been a number of times when my client was not the first choice in multiple offers, only to have the listing agent call back a week or so later asking if we are still interested. Many listings are saying, "back up offers only."

If the offer was contingent on inspection most agents will leave the listing in active status, "Pending, ok to show," until the inspection contingency has been removed. That would be precisely because of situations like yours.

I've been in a couple tough situations recently too through no one's fault. I have a buyer that I'd showed about 40 properties and we finally made an offer that was accepted with a conventional loan. The day we got the docs back from the seller and sent them to the loan officer we got a notice that the program that my client was qualified in cut downpayment assistance in half, and my buyer would have had to come up with another $6000 for closing. We had to cancel, there was no alternative. We are in a market where each transaction is like a poker game where aces are wild.

Hi Lori - I can certainly understand your frustration. Email would be my preferred method of contact in this situation. You've got something in writing which gives you a great reason to get the home back on the market now while you're waiting for the cancellation instructions. Hopefully one of the other multiple offers will be ready to move forward.

Mary - I agree that there are unforseen situations and I understand that. Although I may not be happy about something that happens that is unforseen I would never refer to an agent with a problem like that, as unprofessional. We all have those things happen. My problem with this transaction is first that the agent was also doing the loan and that's a red flag in itself, although the Asset Manager didn't realize that. And then the lack of response from the agent when we tried to call him repeatedly was the real problem.

I have already gone back to the other offers, and we will put this back into contract very soon. It still doesn't change the problems with this agent.

Lori, out here a scenario like that would usually mean the buyer has offers in on a dozen homes, and their favorite finally popped. Not sure all agents undertand the value of their reputation.

Reputation is everything in this business! It will bite him/her back at some point in one way or another. It is nice to hear about your war stories :) ! Erin

NOV

Erin and Barb - Reputation is important. Legacy is currency, so how Lori and Bruce handles this matters also.

You never know what was going on with this agent and probably never will. Being curious is the only way to make sure we don't pass judgement to harshly. I could picture this agent stressing out and embarassed about the situation and doing everything you could to figure out how to make it work. We don't even know what is going on with the buyer. I know that the ecomony is NUTS right now, we all know that. And layoffs, cutbacks and companies shutting down are happening everyday, and I know from experience in my life and around, with very little warning to the people these things are happening to.

I'm sure you will be the true professional and respond back to the agent, thanking them for getting back to you, showing empathy on the loss of a transaction for them and extend the invite of looking forward to working with them again. (at some time in the future, you can speak to them about etiquette of communication)

Sorry you deal died- it does happen unfortunately. Better luck on the next one.

Barb - I would hate tto think that this agent had multiple offers out with this buyer. That does happen unfortunately right now, but I do believe in this case the buyer didn't qualify. Unfortunately, the Asset Manager decided to accept this offer without a strong lender letter. I can help the Asset Managers understand this, but unfortunately it ultimately is their decision. My rant was really about the agent's lack of communication. Communication between agents is so important in a transaction and you know something is wrong when an agent is not communicating with you.

John - the property is going back on the market immediately and I know we will resell it.

Erin - you're right...reputation is everything especially right now. The problem I have is if this agent writes an offer on another one of my listings and there are multiple offers. I feel I have to tell the seller (Asset Manager) about this transaction and the lack of communication and professionalsim on the agent's part.

Darin - I too can picture the selling agent as being stressed out and embarrassed. You are right, my reputation means everything to me. I have been in the business for 20 years now and have worked very hard at keeping my reputation high as a professional. Although my first reaction was to respond to this agent with frustration, I can't do that. I have to take the high road. I know that....I think it just felt good to get it off my chest here where I knew others would understand.

With that being said, I have to also be careful should this agent send me an offer on another one of my listings.

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