Monday, January 7, 2008

Agent from Hell - a rant

For those of you who've been following my real-estate saga since mid last year, the first part is just a recap of what has happened since then.

Our house has been listed on the market since July 07 and a lot of things have happened since then, the most significant of which was my realtor F going bankrupt and shutting down its business in September.

So by the start of October, we've been bombarded with solicitation letters, calls and visits from other realtors who all want to get our listing. The thing is, back then, my original realtor has not officially gone out of business yet. They've laid off their 300+ employees and are down to a staff of 20 and they're no longer answering phone calls but since they haven't officially shut down yet, our contract with them was still binding.

I have nothing against agents. Really.

I know that they're just trying to make a living and the situation with F back then was really messed up. Nobody knew what was happening and everybody wanted to get a head start on everybody else so they were putting a lot of pressure on us to sign up with them. Ang kolet!

Never mind that we got this official letter from F's lawyers cautioning us not to sign up with other agents because our contract was still binding. Never mind the web articles that we've read telling us that a decision was still pending over at the Federal courts about the listings. No, these did not seem to matter with the other agents because they were all over us, telling us that F was no longer in business and that they were holding onto our listing illegally.

Hubby and I weren't desperate to sell so we decided to just sit down and wait till the entire mess gets sorted out. We didn't want to make hasty decisions and get in trouble for that later.

By November, things did get sorted out. A Federal Court Judge allowed F to sell off its listings and a new realty company got our listing - C. An agent from C came by, talked to us and we felt comfortable with him. Now, our contract has expired and we've just authorized an extension for another 3 months.

Now, the agent from hell I am referring to is a neighbor (lives in the same complex). She's nice enough and sounds legit but she's too persistent and pushy. She would pounce on us in the parking lot or drop by unannounced. We felt ambushed in each and every one of the meetings we had with her. It wasn't pleasant.

Yesterday, I was napping and got startled by the sound of the doorbell. We weren't expecting anybody - but we had a creepy feeling - so hubby crept down quietly and tiptoed to the door. Guess who he saw through the peephole ? Yeah, the agent.

So we keep quiet and pretend to be out.

A few minutes later, the phone started ringing. We let the machine pick up and it was the agent. "Hello ? Hello ? This is your friend! I'm here at the door. Please pick up. It's your neighbor here!"

Then our cellphone started ringing (they were on silent, whew!) , the agent again.

The doorbell chimed twice more and then there was silence.

I hated feeling that way. I hated the feeling of being cornered to the point where I have to hide in my own home. But we didn't want to talk to her, we were in our PJs,... not ready for company so we felt that we had to do that.

...

This afternoon, I had signed the extension with my agent, C, for my listing with them till April. I gave the agent (neighbor) a call back to let her know. Aba, nagalit!

When I told her that I had signed an extension with my current agent, her voice got louder and she said, "but you promised to give me your listing! I'm your neighbor! Nobody else should have your listing! and you said you don't like your agent ? why sign up with him again ?"

I never promised to sign up with anybody, the most that I committed to was to think about their proposal.

She then goes on with "Do you know how many listings your agent has ? He will never work for you. He is too busy for you, he will do nothing. I will work for you, I will sell your house for you. I do advertising, I do internet, I do searches."

and then later on, in a sad voice, "I thought you liked me but well, you like the other agent. You do not want to sell your house. Go ahead." Ha ? Bastos no ?

Get over it.

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