OK, so here's the thing..
I'm an investor. I am not a Realtor. Everything I buy and sell is my own. I have purchased about 120 properties in the past 4 years. Rarely is a Realtor involved.
However, anytime a Realtor is involved, I gladly pay the commission. I always have my for sale properties listed on the MLS, mostly so buyers can find them on Listing Book. Years ago, it was rare for a Realtor to show one of my listings. Rumor had it that Realtors didn't like working with investors or "for-sale-by-owners" as we're often known. Today, I get a lot of Realtor showings.
Here's my current delimma. I have had my real estate license. Years and years ago.. I worked as a Realtor. I have continued to take Realtor classes over the years and now I no longer have my license. Point being, I have been to a lot of the training offered to Realtors.
I am getting to my point...
Today, I made a Realtor very mad. Here's what happened and I'm still not sure I was wrong, though he is very sure I was.
I had a property listed. We had a gorgeous weekend and I think I had 7 showings in about 3 days. Sunday, March 7, I got an offer from Realtor 1. He said his client had looked at it some time before and was calling back from out of state to now make an offer. The offer was low so Monday morning I sent him a list of all we'd done to the property and the lowest price I could accept and why. I did not hear from him on Monday. I did not hear from him on Tuesday.
I also told him on Sunday and Monday that it was getting a lot of showings, probably because of the weather and the fact that we had dropped the price.
Tuesday afternoon, another Realtor called to show the house. Tuesday evening, I got home from yoga at 9:30pm and had an offer in my email from Realtor 2 for full price. I called and talked with him and told him we would take the offer and I would fax him the signed documents in the morning.
Wednesday morning, I got another offer from Realtor 1 for less than I had explained to be my minimum. I emailed to tell him I had accepted another offer at 9:30pm the night before.
Realtor 1 was very upset that he was not informed that there were multiple offers. I said, "there weren't. Until late last night, your's was the only offer but I hadn't heard from you in over 48 hours. I didn't even know if your client was still interested after my counter offer."
Here's my question, finally. He says I should have called him to tell him I had a better offer and I should have asked both buyers for their "highest and best". I said, "really? I should have told the Realtor with a full price offer that I'd have to call to check with you first even after all the time you'd had to respond to my counter?"
What do you say? Obviously, I don't know the Realtor world but I do think we all need to be able to play well together. Realtors can help my business and, with all the business I do, I can certainly help a Realtor's income. Was I supposed to call Realtor 1 before accepting offer 2? Would you have?
Realtor 1 immediately said, "this is why I don't like to work with for-sale-by-owners" and that I was going to alienate myself from the local Realtors. I would like to know the majority consensus. I told him that I thought he took a long time to do this deal and that I would never sit on an offer or counter offer that long if interested. If he's willing to wait almost 3 days to respond, I would think he could lose a lot of deals.
Thanks for your input!
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