Good response. I think you are handling the situation very well. Look it is always a pain in the ass buying a home. You are coping and will eventually find the place you want. Here are a few observations….
1 – Bob S had a great post. Yes yes yes I have had the selling agent (that is actually the agent that represents the buyer… the agent representing the seller is known as the listing agent) call me up to ask if he/she could personally present the offer to myself and my client! This is VERY VALID and it merits consideration. (Good call Bob)
2 – Getting back to your original beef, it is with the listing agent. It is very frustrating indeed. However you have to remember that the listing agent is EMPLOYED by the seller and acts under instructions from the seller… IDEALLY… If you want to challenge that system you are welcome to do so… Some would say to send a correspondence directly to the seller if you feel that the listing agent is not acting under the sellers direct instructions. Nothing is stopping you from doing that. I am not saying this will produce a desired result nor am I advising you to do so. It is an option.
3 – You have employed an agent to work for you. Thus you should instruct that agent accordingly or ask for her/his guidance on how to deal with the problem.
4 – Stick to your guns, however don’t be discouraged. If the listing agent says don’t bother writing an offer up at so and so of a price, you should assume that this statement was made because the seller asked the listing agent to do so. I really really REALLY think that most of the difficulty you have encountered is from the sellers and not the agents… you don’t have access to the sellers which is very frustrating. What is even more frustrating is you see the boneheaded results of the sellers intransgience. That the home sells later down the road for a lesser price or something like that.
5 – As far as the electronics go in the home you wanted… again, the listing agent is an agent for the seller and acts in the sellers best fiduciary interest UNDER the sellers direction. While you feel it was the underhandedness of the listing agent that killed the deal it had to be authorized in the end by the seller.
As a side note, the disdain for agents on this site is not a big deal for me. However just like I blame the buyer for buying the overpriced home even though he was stupid enough to listen to the hot air from the realtor and the blue smoke from the mortgage broker… I blame sellers for sticky pricing and not pricing to sell and playing jerk around games. There are PLENTY of lame agents that muck things up… no disagreement… Yet if you price the house at price X which was recommended (most likely incorrectly) by the listing agent… and it doesn’t sell… it doesn’t take a PHD to figure out that you need to adjust it until it does sell.
