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First off... I know I should have read everything I signed.. but after losing out on 3 other bids because we didn't move fast enough we didn't want to lose this home.
This home clicked some of the wants my wife wanted, We were excited and so we asked an agent who had shown us a couple of houses in the past, a couple out of 10-20-30 we had walked new and used.
My daughter/our agent was out of town and we were excited by the pictures so we called D. from [mod cut] to see if we could peek at it.
Well we like it and decided we wanted to bid on it, but come to find out there were 4 other offers and they were closing the bidding down Sunday and making a decision Monday and it was Friday, So we felt rushed and D. offer to do our bidding on it but we had to sign the offer paperwork and a paper so she could represent us, Never once telling us it was a Buyer-Agent contract for 90 days and Two counties!!!.. I would of never signed it if I had known that.
Long story short, the inspection came back bad so we opted out of buying it and we tried to pay D. $200 for her trouble not knowing we were still under contract, We had no idea...
two months later we found an even better house and my daughter worked a miracle and we bought it after outbidding 3 others...
We had kept in contact with D. this whole time and after we bought my Wife wanted to let her know and Thank her for her help with the house that we didn't buy..
That's when things went downhill.... She went cold and her broker contacted us demanding 1% of the sale price of the house we bought through my daughter.
I tried to explain that is was family I bought the house through but Mrs. H. didn't care...She demanded $2600 from us
I told her for 4-6(maybe) hours work you want $2600?
I offered to pay a reduced amount..I countered just to get them off our backs..I mean we have a new home, Aren't we suppose to be happy? but no they wanted it all and within 30 days....
I'm a year from retirement, and we wanted is our dream home...My last home and this money hungry Company [mod cut] wanted to take our last dime, We had to go to 50% income ratio just to outbid the others...
You would think with our market on fire as it is that they would have better things to do then to chase after a Seniors last dollar...
So They are now taking me to Small Claims Court.... Nice People
Word to the wise...Read everything, Heck in fact NEVER SIGN A "BUYER-AGENT AGREEMENT CONTRACT" and never do business with a comapny that has it's focus on the dollar and not your best interest
NEVER [mod cut] !!!!
Last edited by volosong; 06-08-2018 at 11:25 PM..
Reason: Sorry what happened to you, but "Comsumer Complaints" not allowed on C-D. Personalized info deleted.
Having run a small business for over 30 years, my estimation is that close to 80% of the public never reads what they are signing. R.E. contracts can be quite complex but they can also be easily negotiated up front.
Jim
Having run a small business for over 30 years, my estimation is that close to 80% of the public never reads what they are signing. R.E. contracts can be quite complex but they can also be easily negotiated up front.
Jim
You're right and I would've if I even knew I signed one, It was all electronic signatures, no face to face... if she would have explained it to us we could have avoided this but it was rush-rush before we lose out...
Live and learn! I will never sign a Buyer-Agent agreement if they insist find another realtor
Yes to the lesson to read and understand everything, but boo to the agent wanting to collect commission after never showing you anything but the first rejected house.
Legally, she probably can, but it sure isn't good public relations. She's going to get some bad mouthing and maybe have a few people decide to pick another agent.
I'd probably feel a bit differently if she had carefully explained what you were signing instead of just slipping it in there. But still. A house is a huge purchase so contracts should be read and understood.
I don't know how professional your daughter is or if she is part of a multi-agent office, but if she was going to be out of pocket when you were in the hunting/bidding stage, she should have set up an agreement with a fellow agent to fill in for her while gone. She could have made an agreement between the two of them as to how a purchase would be handled as to any commission.
20 years ago I signed one for 6 months. BIG mistake. I hated the agent. He leered at me and made crude jokes. I ended up just giving up house hunting until that contract ran out.
The next agent I got said she didn't even know agents used them here. She said most agents rely on good hard work to keep their clients happy.
I would recommend going to small claims court and defending yourself. They are hoping you will cave in and just pay them off, make them work for it. What they did is sleazy and any fair judge will see right through them especially since you offered to pay them for their wasted time while your daughter was out of state. You did sign a contract with them which was a big mistake but you did so under duress and without full knowledge of what you were doing, you didn't have informed consent because of the stress and urgency forced upon you by the sleazy brokerage company that knew full well you were already being represented by your daughter at a rival company. Their actions are reprehensible, unprofessional, and are taking advantage of senior citizens. This company has acted like they were Time-Share Salesmen and you should go and defend yourself and expose them.
Why didn't you read it prior to signing or ask questions if you didn't understand it?
If you had kept in touch, why didn't you have that agent show you homes as you found them?
I work in a small mom and pop real estate office in the Boise area, so I'm very familiar with these forms, even though I'm not an agent. Let me start by saying in 17 years, I don't remember any agent at my company ever holding someone's feet to the fire over a buyer's rep, that isn't who we are. If someone is unhappy with us and wants to go with another agent, we don't penalize them, we just part ways. So I don't condone this agent suing you.
However...contracts exist for a reason. Signing one says that you agree to the terms therein. They say in large letters at the top that they are binding, you should read before signing and consult an attorney or accountant if you don't understand something.
I have to say that the area in question is near the top of the 1st page (lines 17 through 25) and is not hidden. It is TWO entire paragraphs with multiple blanks filled in. It is the first thing listed after the names of the parties involved. If you didn't read that far, even to make sure the blanks were filled correctly, I assume you didn't read any of it. If you were doing this on Friday and they weren't closing the bidding until Sunday, you had 2 days to read it and get your daughter's opinions over the phone or email before signing anything. That is more time than most people are taking to make offers in Boise right now, where many houses are getting offers accepted the same day they go on the market, so it sounds to me like you were less rushed than average for today's market, not more. Even if you felt pressured that weekend and signed without reading, you definitely should have read them that next week, as the process was continuing, and brought up the discrepancy to the agent at that time.
You also would have had an agency disclosure brochure (known by locals as the "blue brochure" because it has big blue headers to catch your eye and encourage you to pay attention) that you had to sign that explains that you have the option to be represented or not, and specifically says on it that if you are signing a buyer or seller rep, you should check it for "When will this agreement expire" and "Can I work with other brokerages during the time of my agreement" among other things. So there is an entire mandatory form dedicated to explaining how that works.
Once you had seen the house, your agent daughter could have pulled the listing and tax record from MLS, written up the paperwork (easily) from out of town as long as she had an internet connection and sent it to you for signing, just like this agent did. And then once you signed, she could have forwarded it to the other agent. No printer necessary for either party, just an internet connection. She could have done it all while lying on the beach, for example. Was she completely out of contact for the entire weekend for some reason? If so, and she didn't advise you not to do anything without talking to her or place you into the hands of another agent she trusts while she was unavailable, then quite honestly, she should consider participating in compensating the other agent. 1% is basically a referral fee and agents often get paid referral fees for nothing more than making a phone call to pass a client to another agent.
One final thought. When you first contacted this agent and asked them to show you the house and write it up, did you ever tell them that you already had an agent you were working with, and just wanted help with this house? The agent could have written that into the agreement and made it specific for just that house, or written in an exclusion if you bought something else through your daughter. But if you didn't tell them, you can't expect them to know. 90 days for single family in Ada and Canyon county (I assume, you didn't say which counties) is pretty standard around here. If you have something in writing with you telling them, you will likely win in court. If not, it is very possible the judge would rule that you had ample time to read the document before signing and it is valid, but will likely mandate a negotiated amount due. So you have to decide whether your time going to court is worth paying a slightly lesser amount.
Also FYI, if you didn't have a signed buyer's rep with your daughter prior to signing one with this agent, your daughter could conceivably even get in trouble with the real estate board for "interfering in a contractual relationship" that you had with another agent. Probably not, since you never told her, but I've seen stranger things happen. Technically, that is what has happened here.
That is one sleazy realtor, I am a broker in CA and we have those agreements, its more to keep buyers loyal. Its a death sentence to his/her business it actually try to enforce a buyer agreement and sue their a client.
Also just because its in writing does not mean agents don;t have to explain anything, they still have to look out for your interest. Not sure on Idaho laws, but I would let them know if your sued your filing a complaint with the realtor board, state regulator and state attorney generals office.
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