I Am Not The Enemy, The Devil, Or The Antichrist, Mr/Ms. Seller!

I apologize - I have never had to deal with such a situation as I'm in right now, and I need a safe place to speak out and receive good solid advice to move forward with.

My buyers are in contract with a non-represented seller, who had her house listed in the local MLS for a flat fee. This post is not about flat fee or full service brokerages and their respective differences.

We had a goat rodeo of a home inspection Monday, because the seller wanted to direct what items would be inspected and how.  The inspector almost walked, and I was told "I want you to stay out of it" when we were discussing running the dishwasher.

The seller accused me of not preparing her for the home inspection, and put me in the "virtual doghouse" along with her attorney who she also claimed did not prep her correctly. Truth be told, what I did tell her about the home inspection was it would take 3-4 hours, and we would test all the systems of the house.  I did not go into detail tha we would test every single bathroom sink, faucet and drain, all windows, all doors, all appliances staying with the house.

Now, could I have done a better job explaining what a home inspection is? In hindsight, yes. Point taken.

I attempted to set up the appraisal today and manage those expectations; we have an additional binder due 4/4 once we agree on repairs and what will be taken care of, and ideally, it would be nice to the appraisal back to see if we also have a price disparity to deal with concurrently.  We were all looking for nice, neat, prettily bowed package from the beginning, and that's what I was working towards. Plus, as the buyer's agent, it's my job.

Seller was having none of that - she had too many things to do, this was too many people in her house, she had a life outside of attempting to sell her house, and how dare I suggest we add one more thing to her schedule this week.  Try as I may, she was not going to budge, the soonest the appraiser could visit is Monday; which in reality is not the end of the world, as there is no time restriction to getting the appraisal done, we are closing end of May, but it was the nice neat 'we're all moving forward together package part" I was trying to get her buy in on, which had been so important in the beginning.

If you decide to list your house on your own, or show your house on your own and sell your house on your own, may I suggest you at least spend some time on sites such as Active Rain, Localism, Trulia and Zillow and read through their handy-titled sections on "Home Buying", "Home Selling", etc?

I am not the enemy, the devil, the antichrist, the boogeyman - I'm just trying to do my job and get everyone to where they want to go.

 

Carol Zingone is a full service Broker Associate proudly affiliated with Prudential Network Realty in Atlantic Beach, FL.  I help buyers and sellers locally, regionally, and internationally.  With hundreds of happy buyers and sellers over the course of my career, I'm thrilled to help first time buyers, military buyers, seniors, investors, 1031 exchange properties, short sales and REO's.  I have spent hours honing my expertise, including the designations of Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI), Loss Mitigation Certification (LMC) , Short Sales, Foreclosures, REO's, (SFR), and Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES).  Recently honored as the Realtor of the Year for the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors for 2009, I pride myself on providing excellent expertise to all buyers and sellers. Search the MLS via www.carolzingone.com  for Jacksonville and area listings!