Real Estate Journey

[desert_fox 32]

I agree that they do have some fiduciary relationship according to their own rules, but they are to the same degree as a normal agency contract under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), as a lawyer would be that is required to act on your behalf.

Any listing agent would do the same....List the house, lock in a commission and wait for it to sell, hopefully within the listing contract.

[LaL 418]

Just an update - no house sold, but I am much much happier with our new agent. She keeps in contact and is proactive. She hasn't "forgotten" one thing .

As for the old realtor - I had sent out the email Friday terminating her contract - but I did not get a response until Tuesday of the next week. When I was pushed - I cited communication issues and stated I would prepare a document outlining my concerns and reason for termination. The next day (before I submitted the documentation) I got a call that I owed no fee. I guess they didnt want to know how bad it was (or maybe this is a common occurance!). Either way - I "forgot" to call her back after that message.

Now, just to sell!

[Ban Hammer 12,836]

Just an update - no house sold, but I am much much happier with our new agent. She keeps in contact and is proactive. She hasn't "forgotten" one thing .

As for the old realtor - I had sent out the email Friday terminating her contract - but I did not get a response until Tuesday of the next week. When I was pushed - I cited communication issues and stated I would prepare a document outlining my concerns and reason for termination. The next day (before I submitted the documentation) I got a call that I owed no fee. I guess they didnt want to know how bad it was (or maybe this is a common occurance!). Either way - I "forgot" to call her back after that message.

Now, just to sell!

still not sold that house yet?

[LaL 418]

still not sold that house yet?

no. 5 months now. FL is like a hangnail for me at the moment

[Fandango 1,439]

The listing agent is under no obligation to even try to sell the house. Agents love to get listings as it locks in their commission when the house eventually sells. The hard part is selling the house. They depend upon the multiple listing for some other agent to sell the house. Do be fooled by the use of the word agent, as they are not obligated to you as an agent when the term is used in regular business contracts. Courts have long ago determined that a real estate agent is not really an agent under business law. The listing agent will no nothing except get the house multiple listed. If someone should walk into her office some day looking for a house, she may suggest your and if he'/she sells it....great....he gets both the listing and selling commission.

Mike, I'd have to disagree with some of your post.

The listing agent definitely has a contractual liability to the seller and as such is obligated to them.

It is true they aren't obligated to sell the house. But they have other fiduciary responsibilities which is explained nicely in laymen's terms here:

http://www.exclusivebuyersagents.com/duties.htm

Mike is correct in the sense that not all states have exclusive agency relationships between the parties. Many states have what are called 'transaction brokers'. The problem with the agency situation is that if a realtor (an extension of the broker) is acting as a buyer's agent sells a home that is listed with his company, there is a dual agency situation for the broker. So a buyer's agent broker could not promote his/her own inventor without a conflict of interst as owing fiduciary duties to each party, which doesn't make much sense.

However, transaction brokers are also bound to many obligations to the respective parties.

Tho, I'd have to disagree with the rest of the post that is highlighted in red. Esp the part I made bigger.

Speaking for myself only, when I take a listing, there is so much money coming out of my pocket. Virtual tours, weekly advertising, food and supplies for open houses and broker's opens. It's nothing to sneeze at! While it's true the lazy or stupid agent will take listings and forget them, there is nothing smart about taking something and forgetting about it. It's not good for the seller, who is depending on you to do your best, it's not good for your pocketbook, and it's also not good for your stats as tracked by the MLS. How on earth do you go on future listing presentations showing your track record that your listings sit and languish on the mkt?

I realize that there are many irresponsible people in this field, tho the same could be said for any given profession.

LAL, glad to hear the new agent is doing her job and making you happy

[kaydee457 13]

Just an update - no house sold, but I am much much happier with our new agent. She keeps in contact and is proactive. She hasn't "forgotten" one thing .

As for the old realtor - I had sent out the email Friday terminating her contract - but I did not get a response until Tuesday of the next week. When I was pushed - I cited communication issues and stated I would prepare a document outlining my concerns and reason for termination. The next day (before I submitted the documentation) I got a call that I owed no fee. I guess they didnt want to know how bad it was (or maybe this is a common occurance!). Either way - I "forgot" to call her back after that message.

Now, just to sell!

No fee? They had your house sale essentially tied up for months and they had the potential to make a commision if it sold, without lifting a finger.....thye apparently just sat on the listing hoping that a buyer would materialize.

This is why I never do an exclusive when selling a house, and I've sold of few of them.......

Boy, I feel for you in this market, especially in Florida. I don't know the reasons for your wanting to sell but I was going to put my current home up for sale before the market crash and decided to just wait it out.

Not an option for you?

[cieloazul 0]

I'm not sure if you've checked sales in your area but each county in Florida has that info available on the property appraiser's site. Link to Hillsbourgh county: http://www.hcpafl.org/www/search/index.shtml . Usually there are options for sales in nearby and how many years you want to include in the search. At least you can see if anyone else is selling, the selling price and trends. The square footage, extra features (pool, etc.) are also availabe to make the comparisons to your property. I usually keep track of sales in my area (just north of Orlando) and it is extremely slow here also. I think in my neighborhood, properties are selling for around 30k-40k less than they were in fall 2005.

[LaL 418]

Just an update - no house sold, but I am much much happier with our new agent. She keeps in contact and is proactive. She hasn't "forgotten" one thing .

As for the old realtor - I had sent out the email Friday terminating her contract - but I did not get a response until Tuesday of the next week. When I was pushed - I cited communication issues and stated I would prepare a document outlining my concerns and reason for termination. The next day (before I submitted the documentation) I got a call that I owed no fee. I guess they didnt want to know how bad it was (or maybe this is a common occurance!). Either way - I "forgot" to call her back after that message.

Now, just to sell!

No fee? They had your house sale essentially tied up for months and they had the potential to make a commision if it sold, without lifting a finger.....thye apparently just sat on the listing hoping that a buyer would materialize.

This is why I never do an exclusive when selling a house, and I've sold of few of them.......

Boy, I feel for you in this market, especially in Florida. I don't know the reasons for your wanting to sell but I was going to put my current home up for sale before the market crash and decided to just wait it out.

Not an option for you?

My husband had a job offer and relocation was necessary. We had to make a pretty tough decision, but it still was the right one - despite having to get hit hard by the market crash. Waiting it out would be lovely - but I am not banking on the ability to rent out my house (although my brother there stated he would) and keep my insurance. Any reason to get out of a policy and FL will do it. That,and I would like to ue the equity I have to purchase here.

Thanks also cieloazul - I think its been a pretty rough winter - I have seen most of my comps (which are also not moving) drop 50K in the last few months. Its pretty volitile.

[chri'stina 190]

still not sold that house yet?

no. 5 months now. FL is like a hangnail for me at the moment

Hi Laura,

Hoping your house sells soon! Just to give you a glimmer of hope(maybe), a good friend's parents put their house up for sale last August/Sept in Pasco county and just sold/closed on it a couple weeks ago. So it took about 8 months but it did sell. They did have to take less than what they originally wanted, but for awhile they thought it would never sell. So maybe just a couple more months for you, I pray! Ofcourse less time than that would be better, hehe.

Did you get any relief from the new ins policies dropping sinkhole coverage(but it still covers a sinkhole that opens up or cause major damage to the home but not if it just makes small cracks on your house ) ? Not sure if that was an issue in Hillsborough. But it's saving us like $900 a year on our ins,which lowered our mortgage a bit. And since our sinkhole claim was made before our new policy change, all the repairs are covered for the length of us living here so we didn't need that part of the policy on the renewal. You can add the full sinkhole coverage back on and then it will keep the cost high, which is smart for people in my county(Hernando, sinkhole land ) to keep. But I was wondering if the same ins thing happened in Hills. or not.

Edited May 1, 2008 by stina&suj

[LaL 418]

still not sold that house yet?

no. 5 months now. FL is like a hangnail for me at the moment

Hi Laura,

Hoping your house sells soon! Just to give you a glimmer of hope(maybe), a good friend's parents put their house up for sale last August/Sept in Pasco county and just sold/closed on it a couple weeks ago. So it took about 8 months but it did sell. They did have to take less than what they originally wanted, but for awhile they thought it would never sell. So maybe just a couple more months for you, I pray! Ofcourse less time than that would be better, hehe.

Did you get any relief from the new ins policies dropping sinkhole coverage(but it still covers a sinkhole that opens up or cause major damage to the home but not if it just makes small cracks on your house ) ? Not sure if that was an issue in Hillsborough. But it's saving us like $900 a year on our ins,which lowered our mortgage a bit. And since our sinkhole claim was made before our new policy change, all the repairs are covered for the length of us living here so we didn't need that part of the policy on the renewal. You can add the full sinkhole coverage back on and then it will keep the cost high, which is smart for people in my county(Hernando, sinkhole land ) to keep. But I was wondering if the same ins thing happened in Hills. or not.

I am pretty sure that change went into effect after my policy renewed (July 07) so it wont affect me until July 08. Supposedly they missed the deadline to non-renew and therefore if there has been no change to the risk (ie renters) they will continue to cover me. That was a huge sigh of relief. Citizens really is terrible if they were charging 900 alone for sinkhole coverage. SUch is life in FL insurance market though I suppose. I was nonrenewed 3 times by different companies. Then I specifically targeted Amica to work at, and they offered me a cadillac policy and are extremely loyal to their insureds (helps that I worked there as well!). We are paying a low 1500/year.

its a mess for sure. Now when we get appraised, we will also lose our homesteading.

[chri'stina 190]

still not sold that house yet?

no. 5 months now. FL is like a hangnail for me at the moment

Hi Laura,

Hoping your house sells soon! Just to give you a glimmer of hope(maybe), a good friend's parents put their house up for sale last August/Sept in Pasco county and just sold/closed on it a couple weeks ago. So it took about 8 months but it did sell. They did have to take less than what they originally wanted, but for awhile they thought it would never sell. So maybe just a couple more months for you, I pray! Ofcourse less time than that would be better, hehe.

Did you get any relief from the new ins policies dropping sinkhole coverage(but it still covers a sinkhole that opens up or cause major damage to the home but not if it just makes small cracks on your house ) ? Not sure if that was an issue in Hillsborough. But it's saving us like $900 a year on our ins,which lowered our mortgage a bit. And since our sinkhole claim was made before our new policy change, all the repairs are covered for the length of us living here so we didn't need that part of the policy on the renewal. You can add the full sinkhole coverage back on and then it will keep the cost high, which is smart for people in my county(Hernando, sinkhole land ) to keep. But I was wondering if the same ins thing happened in Hills. or not.

I am pretty sure that change went into effect after my policy renewed (July 07) so it wont affect me until July 08. Supposedly they missed the deadline to non-renew and therefore if there has been no change to the risk (ie renters) they will continue to cover me. That was a huge sigh of relief. Citizens really is terrible if they were charging 900 alone for sinkhole coverage. SUch is life in FL insurance market though I suppose. I was nonrenewed 3 times by different companies. Then I specifically targeted Amica to work at, and they offered me a cadillac policy and are extremely loyal to their insureds (helps that I worked there as well!). We are paying a low 1500/year.

its a mess for sure. Now when we get appraised, we will also lose our homesteading.

yeah that will stink.

[LaL 418]

Update : another open house this past weekend. One realtor came. Central air unit is broken (its a year old!). Buggies starting to collect (7 months in a FL home with no cleaning - yup - its overdue ) We now have a buyer incentive package on the house (to cover closing costs). A second home in my neighborhood went in foreclosure - sold @ 50% of what it was "worth" in December 07... and was listed for *less* than what I bought my house for in 2000.

We are going forward with the rental agreement with my brother in September. Looks like it will not sell. Hopefully he stays a year.

wait - does this thread count as asking for "personal advice of VJ?"

[Jenn! 918]

A second home in my neighborhood went in foreclosure - sold @ 50% of what it was "worth" in December 07... and was listed for *less* than what I bought my house for in 2000.

We are going forward with the rental agreement with my brother in September. Looks like it will not sell. Hopefully he stays a year.

Wow. I really wish we were in the position to buy right now.

If so, I think we'd move to Tampa and buy your house!

[almaty 19]

yes, and i am sure it is all your spouse's fault..dump him...

oh sorry, i got carried away..nevermind

[almaty 19]

yes, and i am sure it is all your spouse's fault..dump him...

oh sorry, i got carried away..nevermind