Should I be blaming my realtor? Am I being unreasonable?

Question

I'm in the process of selling my place and had a person come to an open house and make an offer. I received the offer late that evening and was happy with it and fully prepared to sign off on it. My realtor then insisted that we can make a counter offer and that we can try going for more. I asked him if we were being greedy, and he said we weren't and that it's reasonable to make a counter offer for a higher price. I agreed to let him try, but wasn't comfortable with this and expressed this to him, but he still pushed for it anyway.

He was to follow up with me in the morning with the outcome of doing the counter offer, but never got back to me. In the afternoon he called me and was telling me that the buyer decided to pull her offer completely after mention of a counter offer and was no longer interested in buying. It turns out she got into a car accident last night after submitting her offer and my realtor is saying that buying is going through some trauma due to the accident and would have subsequently pulled her offer even if I did accept it. I'm personally not buying his story and I think my realtor got greedy and wanted to increase his commission and now I lost a buyer who was willing to buy at a price that I was happy with, and he's just trying to his butt. I personally feel the buyer was probably overwhelmed due to the accident and after giving a reasonable offer for a home she was interested in and probably couldn't deal with negotiating the price after everything.

A Hunch · Accepted Answer

If the car accident caused her to decide not to proceed what does it matter, you would have never opened escrow.  She would have revoked the offer today anyway.

If the property is still on the market when she is ready to buy, you can negotiate with her then.

real estate guy · Answer

the bottom line is that YOU!!!!! made the counter.  He may have suggested it and even pushed it, but YOU gave permission.

In regards to buyer pulling offer.  I believe that they would have pulled the offer anyway because of the accident (at least for a while).

If the realtor was pulling a fast one, he would have said someone else.

In regards to commission.  You didn't say how much the increase was, but lets assume it was 5,000.  This would have increased his commission by only 150 to 300 dollars.  NOT enough to lose the deal completely.

Give it a few days and let the realtor go back to the buyer and see what can be done.

babyboomer1001 · Answer

None of that accident stuff matters.  It is irrelevant.  If you had accepted her offer, you would have sold the house because the contract would stand and both realtors would be entitled to their commission.  The buyer could not have pulled out without serious $$$$ consequences.  However, you AGREED to his suggested counter-offer.  You do not get to agree to it and then complain afterwards, because it fell through.  You could have said, just accept the offer but, you did not.  IF he was greedy, you were a party to the greed.  However, perhaps, he felt they would pay more and that the house was worth more so, to him, it might have been reasonable to counter the offer.  I cannot guess about that because I do not know him and I do not know the house or market where the house was sold.  The bottom line is that you agreed to the counter offer and the buyer declined and so you lost the sale.  You have yourself to blame because you made the final decision.  However, if you felt bullied into it, kept questioning it and was reluctant to do it and he talked you into it, then I would fire him and you can basically blame him for bullying you into countering the offer.

dog ma · Answer

Sure, "blame" your Realtor because he was working in your best interest to get you a better offer at market price. Yes, you are being unreasonable.

? · Answer

It is very common to counter offer if the offer is not full price so no your realtor was not being greedy. Of course there is always a risk that a person will drop their offer.

A · Answer

the realtor is working for you and his job it to get you as much as possible for your home, his commission is probably 6% so even a 10K counter offer would only give him 600.00 so I think it was the accident and not the counter offer

coraann · Answer

You are exactly correct in your suspicions. Do not have any further dealings with
this agent. Pull your listing with him and if he complains, insure him that you
intend to report his greedy practice to the real estate board.
Also...do not allow him to show your house when you list it with another agent,
from another company. He may screw that up too.

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Should I be blaming my realtor? Am I being unreasonable?

7 Answers