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Xx of YY Realtors was one of the two listing agents of the home we purchased and she also represented us as our buying agent. When xx became our agent, the other listing agent, represented the sellers during the negotiations. Our offer was accepted by the sellers and we became in contract.
One week later, the appraisal report came back showing that the house was 374 square feet smaller than the original listing. We were a bit unnerved, but xx said that it wasn’t a big deal and that these appraisals may not be totally accurate. However, we wanted to get to the bottom of this, so we requested that another independent measurement be done. We hired an architect that gave us more detailed measurements, and found that the house was 624 square feet smaller than what was advertised by xx in the original listing. That’s as if two whole bedrooms just mysteriously vanished. Xx tried to sweep it under the rug by saying that that’s what the county records show, and that the house is still a good deal. But how could we be ok with this if the house was almost 20% smaller than what was advertised? We felt like we seriously overpaid for the house, but she wouldn’t do anything about it.
Agents are supposed fight for their clients, and this was the kind of thing that separates the good agents from the bad ones, but she just made excuse after excuse. We suspected that since she was also the listing agent (and she was probably taking a double commission for this deal), she didn’t want to acknowledge her mistake. We decided to try to re-negotiate the price with the sellers despite xx telling us to leave things well enough alone.
Since xx wouldn’t help us in trying to negotiate, we had to write letters to the sellers ourselves. And we eventually paid a lot of money to hire a lawyer to deal the negotiations. In the middle of negotiations, the sellers suddenly sent us a letter asking to confirm that we were buying the house at full price and suspiciously knew the details about our loan status. We were utterly confused because we were still trying to negotiate a lower price. We then found out from our mortgage broker that xx had leaked knowledge of our intent to buy the house even if we couldn’t re-negotiate to a lower price. Basically, xx gave away our poker hand to the sellers. When we confronted her about this, she denied multiple times that she was the person who leaked the info to the sellers.
Frustrated and angry, we wrote a negative review of her on Yelp describing what happened to us. One day later, the Yelp review was filtered out and xx's husband (a lawyer) sent us a cease and desist letter threatening to sue for defamation. In the letter, xx admitted that she “spoke” to the sellers about our intentions, which means she has been lying to our face. Xx never asked our permission to inform the sellers of our intentions, she violated her fiduciary duty to us, and took away all of our bargaining power. We already paid thousands of dollars for our lawyer fees and we never even got to negotiate with the sellers.
Another Yelper contacted us and told us that he, too, had had a horrible experience with xx and received a threatening letter from xx's husband after he posted a negative review.
So.. xx lied to our face multiple times and she did leak the information and she is suing us for defamation?? How bizarre is this??
Last edited by Marka; 09-13-2012 at 01:38 AM..
Reason: removed the agent's name
So contact her managing broker and local board of REALTORS for an ethics violation and the state real estate commission. You have a few ways to approach it.
This is another reason to be very wary of dual agency.
Has your attorney advised you that since you are being sued for defamation , it may not be in you best interest to keep mentioning the Realtor that is suing you in online rants?
I say rant since the other side is not here to defend themselves and am not saying you are right or wrong.
Has your attorney advised you that since you are being sued for defamation , it may not be in you best interest to keep mentioning the Realtor that is suing you in online rants?
I say rant since the other side is not here to defend themselves and am not saying you are right or wrong.
Hey, sometimes you just gotta scratch that personal intimate itch even if you are in full view of witnesses!
I agree with the above. Contact broker then contact the local board of realtors. I would be interested to hear the other side of this story however. Perhaps one of us here knows her or wants to look her up?
There are many different methods for measuring sqft. Some use the outside dimensions of the house, some use the room sizes, some count basements, some dont. They are all correct, so its not false advertising.
You cant trust realtors. Telling the realtor you were willing to pay full price was a huge mistake. Did you forget they work on commission? Proving she violated fiduciary duty would be difficult to impossible.
People sue for defamation regularly. You will need another lawyer. Good luck.
Last edited by 399083453; 11-01-2011 at 07:57 AM..
...One day later, the Yelp review was filtered out and xx's husband (a lawyer) sent us a cease and desist letter threatening to sue for defamation. In the letter, xx admitted that she “spoke” to the sellers about our intentions, ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by 399083453
...Proving she violated fiduciary duty would be difficult to impossible. ...
Apparently the OP has written proof from the agent's husband that she did violate her duty.
I agree with the other posters about contacting the agent's broker. I also agree it's probably not wise to post discussion about this if you may enter into litigation over it.
Last edited by Marka; 11-01-2011 at 01:18 PM..
Reason: removed agent's name
OP ask the mods to delete this thread. Repost it with no names mentioned if you want advice. You are shooting yourself in the foot and if you show this thread to your attorney they will turn purple at the problems you are creating for them in defending you.
Defamation is extremely difficult to prove so if they are going to sue you, they will sue you. You are entitled to think that a service provider did a bad job. There is opinion and defamation. Know the difference. Don't do things like posting this thread in a bunch of forums and make their job easier.
Thanks for all your advice. My lawyer has written proof that she was the source of the leak. I have asked the admin to remove this post (I don't know who the mods are??)
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