Hi Guys,
My mother was selling one of her properties a few weeks ago. She had one agent around to do an appraisal, the same agent who had sold it to her over a decade ago, and the agent told her a price that my mum thought was too low, but she went ahead with listing it at that price anyway. Anyhow I told my mum to ask her to put a FROM in front of the price because at least then my mum had a chance of getting the appraised price instead of having to accept lower offers, the agent didnt do it. She also wrote a bad advertisement, did not mention any of the horse facilities or the fact that the 2 and a half acres was zoned for future urban development. I thought she didn't really try very hard... but anyway... 3 days after it was listed she contacts my mum with an offer from someone for 20k under the advertised price. My mum has an offer on another property AND she is a pushover, the RE put pressure on her to accept this low offer. I said to her dont take it your place has only been for sale for 3 days and you already feel that its too low. She tells the agent she will accept the offer. In the meantime my husband's boss finds out that we are not buying the property and lets his sister know that it is on the market, she called the agent wanting to have a look, RE tells her "sorry its sold" despite the fact that mum has not signed anything yet. Anyway I manage to convince my mum to let these other people have a look at the house and they immediately fell in love with it. They drive to the RE office and tell them they want to make an offer, the RE comes out and tells them they cannot, it is sold. They argue with her and say that they KNOW it isnt sold, they just spoke to the owner. RE goes off and gets on the phone for half an hour- not to my mother, she doesnt call mum til later on- and then eventually comes out and lets them put an offer on paper.
Eventually she calls my mum and says "I have 2 offers for you" and presents them both, the people we know through my husbands boss had offered 10k more than the first offer, but magically that first offer is now slightly more than the couple that we knew. Mum picks the couple she met anyway because she liked them and doesnt really care about the money.
We heard later from people who live in the area that this RE is known for underselling properties to herself through family and contacts etc and we think this is what she was trying to do. What do you think? I mean she did a shitty advertisement, she did not try to get the most $$ she could for her client (by pushing my mother to accept a low offer so early on and also by refusing to let at least one other party that we know of look at the property, then trying to turn them away when they wanted to make an offer!). And then after my mum accepted this couple's offer the RE said to them that she could sell the place on for them straight away if they liked!!
Sorry this is a long post, it happened a few weeks ago now so what happened is less fresh in my mind and I have gotten over my initial angriness. Do you think she was pulling a dodgy though? And if she was, what can I do? As usual my mother doesn't care, because she is a pushover and just never wants to cause any trouble for anybody and she likes the mutual friend she ended up selling it to. The couple who bought the place are annoyed about the run around that this woman gave them trying to prevent them from being able to purchase the property, and I am just plain angry that my mum has to pay this woman around $15,000 for her 4 days of work in which she turned away the people who ultimately paid more for my mums property. I do not feel that she was working on behalf of her client, I dont know what she was doing. The people who had to do all the work to get my mum some extra $ was my husband, mum and myself! What can I do?
My mother was selling one of her properties a few weeks ago. She had one agent around to do an appraisal, the same agent who had sold it to her over a decade ago, and the agent told her a price that my mum thought was too low, but she went ahead with listing it at that price anyway. Anyhow I told my mum to ask her to put a FROM in front of the price because at least then my mum had a chance of getting the appraised price instead of having to accept lower offers, the agent didnt do it. She also wrote a bad advertisement, did not mention any of the horse facilities or the fact that the 2 and a half acres was zoned for future urban development. I thought she didn't really try very hard... but anyway... 3 days after it was listed she contacts my mum with an offer from someone for 20k under the advertised price. My mum has an offer on another property AND she is a pushover, the RE put pressure on her to accept this low offer. I said to her dont take it your place has only been for sale for 3 days and you already feel that its too low. She tells the agent she will accept the offer. In the meantime my husband's boss finds out that we are not buying the property and lets his sister know that it is on the market, she called the agent wanting to have a look, RE tells her "sorry its sold" despite the fact that mum has not signed anything yet. Anyway I manage to convince my mum to let these other people have a look at the house and they immediately fell in love with it. They drive to the RE office and tell them they want to make an offer, the RE comes out and tells them they cannot, it is sold. They argue with her and say that they KNOW it isnt sold, they just spoke to the owner. RE goes off and gets on the phone for half an hour- not to my mother, she doesnt call mum til later on- and then eventually comes out and lets them put an offer on paper.
Eventually she calls my mum and says "I have 2 offers for you" and presents them both, the people we know through my husbands boss had offered 10k more than the first offer, but magically that first offer is now slightly more than the couple that we knew. Mum picks the couple she met anyway because she liked them and doesnt really care about the money.
We heard later from people who live in the area that this RE is known for underselling properties to herself through family and contacts etc and we think this is what she was trying to do. What do you think? I mean she did a shitty advertisement, she did not try to get the most $$ she could for her client (by pushing my mother to accept a low offer so early on and also by refusing to let at least one other party that we know of look at the property, then trying to turn them away when they wanted to make an offer!). And then after my mum accepted this couple's offer the RE said to them that she could sell the place on for them straight away if they liked!!
Sorry this is a long post, it happened a few weeks ago now so what happened is less fresh in my mind and I have gotten over my initial angriness. Do you think she was pulling a dodgy though? And if she was, what can I do? As usual my mother doesn't care, because she is a pushover and just never wants to cause any trouble for anybody and she likes the mutual friend she ended up selling it to. The couple who bought the place are annoyed about the run around that this woman gave them trying to prevent them from being able to purchase the property, and I am just plain angry that my mum has to pay this woman around $15,000 for her 4 days of work in which she turned away the people who ultimately paid more for my mums property. I do not feel that she was working on behalf of her client, I dont know what she was doing. The people who had to do all the work to get my mum some extra $ was my husband, mum and myself! What can I do?
