My wife and I have been looking at homes for a month or two by
internet searching and neighborhood drives. We knew it would be easier
to take on a specific agent on our behalf, but we were interested in
finding FSBOs which are easier found without an agent. We were
basically calling the listing agent of each property. Finally, we
found a house we might be interested in and met with the listing
agent. After we got an idea of his personality and ethic, we decided
that even if we don't like his listing, we'd let him find us
something. No agreements were signed, he simply asked that if he puts
some time into finding a property, that we let him take his half
commision (in quite a long drawn out speech about loyalty and good
service etc... Of course, what do we care who actually gets the
commission so we agreed. Well, we actually did consider his listed
property. There was an urgency for the sellers to sell and we told the
agent that we were coming in the following day with an offer. Well,
overnight we decided to pass on this property and called the agent the
following morning. He said, "no problem, we'll continue to look for
new properties and I'll be sending them via email as I find them". We
even armed him with a full sheet of needs, wants, and such. Well, we
never heard from the guy again. I just find this behavior odd..
especially since we were extremely strong buyers (able to put 20%
down, no sale of previous home contingency, etc). His loss. We
eventually found our dream house via another agent who persistantly
emailed listings.

Bob

"Drummer of The Vibe" wrote in message
om...
My wife and I have been looking at homes for a month or two by
internet searching and neighborhood drives. We knew it would be easier
to take on a specific agent on our behalf, but we were interested in
finding FSBOs which are easier found without an agent. We were
basically calling the listing agent of each property. Finally, we
found a house we might be interested in and met with the listing
agent. After we got an idea of his personality and ethic, we decided
that even if we don't like his listing, we'd let him find us
something. No agreements were signed, he simply asked that if he puts
some time into finding a property, that we let him take his half
commision (in quite a long drawn out speech about loyalty and good
service etc... Of course, what do we care who actually gets the
commission so we agreed. Well, we actually did consider his listed
property. There was an urgency for the sellers to sell and we told the
agent that we were coming in the following day with an offer. Well,
overnight we decided to pass on this property and called the agent the
following morning. He said, "no problem, we'll continue to look for
new properties and I'll be sending them via email as I find them". We
even armed him with a full sheet of needs, wants, and such. Well, we
never heard from the guy again. I just find this behavior odd..
especially since we were extremely strong buyers (able to put 20%
down, no sale of previous home contingency, etc). His loss. We
eventually found our dream house via another agent who persistantly
emailed listings.

Bob

Maybe he lost your e-mail address?Maybe his briefcase with all his contact
info was stolen along with his car? Maybe he had a stroke or heart attack
or died?

Then again, maybe you were better off without him?

On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 14:59:27 -0500, "Bill Houston"
wrote:


Maybe he lost your e-mail address?Maybe his briefcase with all his contact
info was stolen along with his car? Maybe he had a stroke or heart attack

This is not to far fetched.

The builders representative (resident selling agent) had the documents
with all of the information regarding our selections of color,
appliances, changes to the basic floor plan and additional features in
his brief case. We got a call from him telling us that the brief case
had been stolen from his car the night the documents prepared and had
to reconstruct al of our changes and selections the following weekend
when we returned to the area (We were selling a house in one state and
moving to one five states away.)

Several cars on the street where he lived were broken into and he had
a news paper report and a police report of the incident in his office!

On 22 Aug 2003 09:33:55 -0700, someone wrote:

My wife and I have been looking at homes for a month or two ...
etc etc
Well, we
never heard from the guy again. I just find this behavior odd..
especially since we were extremely strong buyers (able to put 20%
down, no sale of previous home contingency, etc). His loss. We
eventually found our dream house via another agent who persistantly
emailed listings.

Well, I don't see what the big deal is. BTW you are nothing special
as a buyer, a LOT of people have those basic quals, maybe you are
fooled because subprimes get a lot of publicity (or maybe you are just
self-absorbed). Around here, a strong buyer is one with no *mortgage*
contingency, never mind your 20%, that's just the minimum for a normal
conforming, loan. I have never bought with less than 20%, its not so
special.

You told the guy you were gonna make an offer, you backed down, and he
didn't bother with you for long after that. SO WHAT. There are many
agents (you found another) and many people in the market. He may
think *you* were behaving oddly for not putting an offer in on what he
thought was a wonderful property, especially after saying you would.

Really you are not all the cats meow that somebody is behaving oddly
not to bother with you. SO WHAT. You can feel satisfied that it was
his loss, since you did get a house through another agent. Isn't that
enough? What answer do you want?

Get over it.

-v.

"Drummer of The Vibe" wrote
My wife and I have been looking at homes for a month or two by
internet searching and neighborhood drives. We knew it would be easier
to take on a specific agent on our behalf, but we were interested in
finding FSBOs which are easier found without an agent. We were
basically calling the listing agent of each property. Finally, we
found a house we might be interested in and met with the listing
agent. After we got an idea of his personality and ethic, we decided
that even if we don't like his listing, we'd let him find us
something. No agreements were signed, he simply asked that if he puts
some time into finding a property, that we let him take his half
commision (in quite a long drawn out speech about loyalty and good
service etc... Of course, what do we care who actually gets the
commission so we agreed. Well, we actually did consider his listed
property. There was an urgency for the sellers to sell and we told the
agent that we were coming in the following day with an offer. Well,
overnight we decided to pass on this property and called the agent the
following morning. He said, "no problem, we'll continue to look for
new properties and I'll be sending them via email as I find them". We
even armed him with a full sheet of needs, wants, and such. Well, we
never heard from the guy again. I just find this behavior odd..

It is. If the guy fell ill, you'd think his colleagues in his company would
make sure his "clients" were taken care of. If they didn't have the decency
to do this, particularly given their experience with this life-changing
event for so many people where they may wait by the phone for any of various
details of a home search and purchase, then it's a poorly run company.

If some unexpected calamity did not befall this guy, then he's a poor agent.
As someone else said, overall, it's probably best the relationship did not
continue.

Chalk it up to experience with the real estate business. And thanks for
sharing it.

FYI, I've met more than one jerk agent in my life. I'd say it's about 50-50
jerks vs. pros.

especially since we were extremely strong buyers (able to put 20%
down, no sale of previous home contingency, etc). His loss. We
eventually found our dream house via another agent who persistantly
emailed listings.

"Drummer of The Vibe" wrote in message
om...
No agreements were signed, he simply asked that if he puts
some time into finding a property, that we let him take his half
commision (in quite a long drawn out speech about loyalty and good
service etc... Of course, what do we care who actually gets the
commission so we agreed. Well, we actually did consider his listed
property. There was an urgency for the sellers to sell and we told the
agent that we were coming in the following day with an offer. Well,
overnight we decided to pass on this property and called the agent the
following morning. He said, "no problem, we'll continue to look for
new properties and I'll be sending them via email as I find them". We
even armed him with a full sheet of needs, wants, and such. Well, we
never heard from the guy again. I just find this behavior odd..
especially since we were extremely strong buyers (able to put 20%
down, no sale of previous home contingency, etc). His loss.

Extremely strong? No. Extremely strong is cash in a briefcase. Your 20% DP
just means you avoid PMI and the seller couldn't care less. No contingency
just brings you equal with every other buyer.

His behavior wasn't odd at all. The moment you backed out he knew you were a
waste of time and probably would have been a high maintenance buyer.

Successful agents are like professional poker players. You have to know the
tells. He read your tells and folded. Smart move. Do you know why? The
backing out is like standing on your chair excited about the great hand
you're holding -- a huge tell only missed by desperate, inexperienced or
masochistic agents.