I know that realtors are supposed to work for their customers, but really they just work for their commissions. Your realtor may be lazy or inexperienced, hard to tell.
Here’s the thing- nobody will care as much as you do about your deals, that’s why you have to stay on top and ask questions. As with hairdressers, a realtor’s client often feels helpless, but the more questions you ask, the better off you’ll be.
As for “by the book”, well, that varies so much by locality and there’s so much that’s not anywhere IN the book that you just have to ask about everything.
For instance, in my town in ND, it is “customary” or “by the book” if you will, for the buyer and seller to split all closing costs 50:50. So much so, that every realtor I ever met writes that in the contract without even asking the buyer. I asked my realtor to change that so the seller paid 100% of the closing costs and she had to check to find out if that was against the “law”. Which it wasn’t. That was a few thousand dollars I saved by asking one question.
Remember, you can negotiate whatever you want on the contract. Let the realtor do their job (market the property and vet the buyer) and you do your job- determine what works best for YOU and then ask for it.
You learned a powerful lesson, one you will not make again.
We had an offer from Buyer for house. Our realtor never asked for an earnest deposit so no $ there. Scheduled to close on July 3, 2007. Received call from our realtor-problems with their loan officer-need more time. Closing postponed at Buyers request until July 13th. On July 11, we received word that they could not get the financing and the contract is being cancelled.
We sold everything!!! Sleeping on floor, no furniture, bought an RV which we will now have to pay to put in storage due to HOA rules. Also we have $1300 worth of items they wanted to buy seperate from house sale that we didn’t advertise at estate sale. House off market since June 3, 2007. No earnest deposit collected.
Do we have any recourse? They were supposedly pre-qualified by the lender.
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I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but the realtor works for you. YOU accepted the contract without earnest money when you signed it. Why didn’t you ask for any if it was important to you? And why did you agree to take your house off the market since June 3? You have some responsibility here, and it sounds like you’ve paid to learn this lesson.
I’m not an attorney, I’m not a realtor, but my opinion is it’s unlikely that you have recourse HOWEVER- that information would be in your contract. Did you read the contract before you signed it?
Hi Anne- Thanks for the info. I realize I screwed up here-but I never told him to take the listing off the MLS-he did so on his own. He didn’t ask for an earnest deposit or proof of pre-qualifying. He is my realtor-isn’t that what I am paying a %fee for-someone who makes sure everything is by the book?