Does it get any worse?

[peej9999]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and don't know if this is the right place to post this. My wife and I have had such terrible experiences selling our current home and buying a new home, I just needed to share (and vent) some of these experiences. If anyone has any advice for any of these issues, please feel free to share.

We live in MD, and wanted to upgrade to a larger single family house from our current townhouse. I’ll list the issues we have experienced below in chronological order:

1. In April we made an offer on a single family home just a mile or so up the street this offer was contingent on selling our house within 30 days. We listed our house and immediately got great traffic, in fact the first week we had 15 showings and had an offer in five days. The agents showing our house used a showing service where this service would call me at work or on my cell phone, ask if they could come in at a pre determined time, use the lockbox and show the house. It worked great for all the agents. However, on a Friday evening while my wife and I were out at dinner, I received a frantic call from our 17 year old daughter. She said she was in the shower and an agent WALKED in the house with potential buyers! As you can imagine, my wife and I were beyond upset. I immediately called our agent to explain the situation, he called the showing service which said they had no record of a showing that evening. Apparently, the agent had shown our house a few days earlier and took it upon herself to show again. Luckily it was a female but the fact of the matter is there were strangers in our house with our daughter. Our agent apologized for the mix up and said he called the agent to explain how upset we were.

2. After the first mishap, we finally signed all the necessary contracts for a May 31st settlement for our current house and the house we were buying. We went through all the usual processes of inspections, etc. We also checked in regularly with our agent just about every day to make sure everything was going smoothly. The second issue we experienced isn’t that big of a deal but was more of a nuisance. The buyer of our house wanted to come by and see the house again with her agent a few weeks later. We agreed that she could come by on a Saturday at 1pm. We made sure the house was in very decent shape, waited until 1pm, with no show. No big deal right? Our agent calls to explain they cancelled the visit so we go on with our life, sitting down to eat lunch. Ten minutes later there’s a knock on the door. It’s the buyer and her agent wanting to see the house. Again, not that big of a deal but this really had us question the buyer and her agent’s way of doing things.

3. A week later we find out from our neighbor that the buyer of our house returns by herself, takes a stroll through our yard, and knocks on the door to try and see our house again while we were not home. BTW, she chose not to get a home inspection.

4. A few weeks later I don’t know what possessed me to do this but I checked the MD Sex Offender Registry online. You can only imagine my horror when I find out there’s a registered sex offender living across the street from the new house we’re buying. I’ve read other posts that discuss this but I guess it’s not mandatory that the seller’s agent disclose this? Needless to say this bothered me and my wife. I’ve already purchased security cameras that will be mounted outside the first day we move in – if we move in…read on.

5. So it’s now the week of May 28th. We’ve changed all our utilities, changed address through USPS, took off work three days, rented a moving truck, had friends/family take off work to help us move on 5/31 and packed up our entire house. We even rented a storage unit at $130/mo to store extra furniture before we move in. On 5/29, I call my agent to get final “okay” that we’re still on track. He starts the conversation by saying there’s a snag in the process. The underwriter for the buyer of our house has requested two more pieces of paperwork and it looks as though the buyer will not have these in time for settlement on 5/31. I like to consider myself a calm person but I just about lost it. The underwriter was requesting a Verification of Deposit, and the buyers final pay stub for May which she didn’t receive until 5/31 (the day we settle). The next two days were hell for my family. We had multiple conversations with our agent, the buyers agent, the buyers lender, our agents manager, it seemed like this would never end. Oh, and let me mention while demanding an explanation from the buyers agent, he casually dropped the buyers credit score and her credit situation, saying her loan program changed a week prior which caused the underwriter to confirm more information. Is this legal for him to do? This guy seems like a complete imbicile!

Anyway, so here we are on 6/1 waiting to hear from someone that our settlement will occur on Monday, June 4. Yes this has been a huge inconvenience to my family, and I know there are worse things in life. I will tell you that this experience has definitely soured my opinion of the real estate community, its practices, and our faith in completing what should be a routine process. It’s a shame because we’ve done everything correctly, and so have the owners of the house we’re buying. Maybe we’ll look back at this in six months and laugh but right now it’s not funny at all.

PJ in MD

[BrandonSternfield]

I really don't have any advice or sound thoughts to help comfort you.

I can only offer one sentence, to be of any aid:

Realtors are people, both good professionals and bad professionals, but they are still people.

[judyo]

PJ, in 24 yrs. in the business I've had the same things happen to my clients and it is unfortunate. For any agent to have the gall to walk into a home without an appointment is unbelievable to me and I wish there was a way we could reprimand them besides just "yelling at them." It's especially difficult when they've brought in a buyer.

Canceling an appointment and then showing up? I don't get it. If that had been the only bad thing you probably wouldn't have minded very much.

One time I had a very heated conversation with one of my sellers. It was so long ago I don't remember if we had an accepted contract or if we were negotiating one. But the buyer showed up at the seller's door. This was not my buyer and the seller took it out on me. All I could do was tell the other agent to tell his buyer not to go to the seller's home. Again, can't remember if the buyer did this more than once (he must have - I do remember the seller was so angry I could hear the blood vessels popping in his face!). The crazy thing was that my "seller" had been an agent I worked with so I knew him and he knew the business. I do remember trying to calm him down and reminding him that I had no control over this buyer and could only tell the buyer's agent the problem. Unfortunately, I think this tainted the relationship I had with my seller (who had been a friend)! I don't even remember if we closed on his property or if he withdrew the listing. It was a bad situation & I could not believe how he reacted. He must have had other things going on in his life because he had always been a nice guy.

Agents are not obligated to check the Sex Offender Registry so this is something a seller needs to do themselves. You even mentioned that you didn't know what possessed you to do this so it was an afterthought.

I can't tell you how many lenders have informed us the day before closing that they still needed something or that, oops, the buyer did not get the mortgage after all. I have a lender where this never happens. But I cannot force someone else's buyer (I can't even force my own buyers) to use this fantastic lender. Some lenders will not speak to the real estate agents, or they won't speak to the listing agent. Even if they do speak to us, they string us along & make their promises. Some pan out, some don't. I wish they would be made more responsible for their pre-quals or pre-approvals. I'm waiting for the day.

Did the buyer's agent disclose confidential info? Probably, and this stuff also amazes me. I just received an offer on my listing where the agent said over & over that I should do whatever is possible for her buyers to get this home. Their offer is OK but the way she went on & on I'm going to suggest to my seller to counter at full price. I'm working for my seller, right? She said do everything possible for her buyers to get the home. IMO, that wasn't very helpful for her buyers.

It's too bad you went through a collection of bad experiences. I'm sure you understand that even the best agents can't control everything such as other agents, other clients, attorneys, inspectors, mortgage companies, etc.

Hopefully, you'll be closed and this will be a distant memory.

[lprest]

You say this soured you on the RE community- but in all honesty, only the agent who showed it w/o permission was a RE person. And she wasn't under the direct control of your agent. You could have insisted that the Buyer and her agent come back at a time more convenient to you. The RE people have no control over the Buyer by herself, over the underwriter for the Buyer's loan, over sex offenders and where they live.
RE transactions can be frustrating. We all understand that. How much worse might it have been if you had been trying to handle all the details yourself, w/o an agent involved?

[RonnieG]

PJ,

The one thing I don't see in your post is anything negative about your own agent, so it looks like they did everything they possibly could to take care of you, and the issues that came up and that were out of their control. That's a good thing! Unfortunately, your experience seems to have more to do with a wacko buyer and their lender than anything else, which no real estate agent has any control over.

With all the recent foreclosure issues, many lenders are dropping loan programs left & right, especially risky programs with low or no down payments and high loan-to-value ratios. It is not uncommon for a type of loan or program that may have been available at the time of an offer, to be dropped by a lender with little or no notice. It is also not uncommon for lenders to require additional verification of buyer's employment and funds, especially down payment and closing funds, a couple of days prior to closing. I have had cases where the lender has required the buyers to deposit all down payment and closing funds with the closing agent (title company or attorney) 24 hours prior to closing.

You are also very lucky that, in your market, a seller would accept an offer contingent on sale of your current home. In some markets, including mine, average time on market is up to 100+ days, so no listing agent here would ever advise their sellers to accept such an offer, especially if the contingent home was not even on the market yet, unless it was countered with a "First Right of Refusal" addendum that allows the seller to continue to market their home and possibly sell to another buyer that does not have such a contingency. I won't even take buyers that also need to sell a home out looking for a new home unless they list their current home first, and even then, no offers would be made until the current home is under contract, with a specific closing date.

Working out the timing and details of a simultaneous sale, new home purchase and move is probably one of the most difficult and sometimes problematic and stressful scenarios we face, both as consumers and real estate agents. As with any other complex situation: "Plan for the worst and hope for the best".

[Capt. Mike]

Ya the whole senario with the lender from our experience is not unusual.

Most recently our biggest problems come from underwriters dropping the ball. We havent had anything totally fall apart but that is due in large part because we are the REALTORS from hell in terms of followup, followup, followup, regardless of what side we have and be a pain in &$^! :-) Our last transaction almost didnt close because of an underwriter-trainee screwing things up.

Our recourse has been with the help of loan processor and loan supervisors is to request that we never again get the particular underwriters that mess things up.

As far as the runaway buyer...ya some people are pushy and crazy.

[Dan Connolly]

I think the greatest thing an agent can do for an client is to warn them of various ways that the deal can fall apart. If Sellers are not wanting anyone to just drop in unexpectedly we keep the lockbox inside the house and set it out when the Sellers know people are coming. I always tell people how difficult it is for a buyer's agent to know how long their clients will spend in each house they visit, they spend 45 min in one and don't get out of car on the next one. All appointments are approximate! We have sex offender warnings in our preprinted contracts and buyers should be checking before they make offers. As I understand it the Listing agent can't disclose that if the seller asks them not to.

In 21 years I have seen it all, 3-4 times either the Seller or Buyer (or their cosigner) have died before closing. I've seen Buyers get fired two days before closing, When the subprime fiasco hit this year I had two deals die because the loans they thought they were getting didn't exist anymore. My lender told me that one company went under and pulled the plug on one of his loans after the funds had already transferred to the closing attorney and people we at the closing table.

Agents around here are pushing for early loan approvals with earnest money going hard after a certain number of days to compensate the seller for last minute "situations".

Warn your clients of every concievable situation that could arise and they might be (slightly) less freaked out when **** happens.

[AaronSOLD]

As others have said, it's a terrible list of events but none of them are surprising in of themselves.

The biggest one for me is the unauthorized showing. In my MLS that's an automatic fine of $500 or $1000. Technically it is tresspassing! You do have a right to file a complaint with the local MLS board regarding that agent... I think you should!

[JimOlenbush]

The main problems: a lender who was not ready on time, and a buyer who is a little crazy. You don't have to tell us Realtors about those two types, we don't like them either!

We could all tell you about much worse experiences that other clients have had to deal with. If your buyer does close a little late - well, that is nothing compared to having her lose her job and not close after you have packed a moving truck. Years ago I had a seller die with a heart attack hours before closing. The buyers had all of their stuff in a Uhaul in the parking lot of the title company. It was a 7 week delay with probate. So, to answer your question in the title, yes it does get worse.

Selling a home is just a very complicated process with many, many people involved. We try to make it run as smooth as possible, but sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. Good luck with the sale!

[Joshua Sloan]

I sympathize with you on this matter. I've not only had this happen to a buyer I was working with, but also from another agents buyer on my listing. It not an easy situation to deal with and pretty difficult to know it will happen in advance. Unfortunately it's something that we see and hear about too frequently. Especially with lending guidelines for loans changing now almost daily. There are so many foreclosures popping up that banks are being very cautious who they lend to as to not take to big of a risk on a buyer. As someone had said above, think how much worse it could have been if you didn't have your agent working on your behalf.

It's tough to place blame on a situation like this.

I do however believe that showing up unexpectedly is ridiculous and unprofessional.

Good Luck, hang in there!!