Real Estate Agent Horror Stories

As an investor, I used to buy, sell and rehab properties. I began small but soon got up to the point where I had over 10 properties at any given time that were in acquisition mode, rehab or on the market. I sold everything by owner and I usually turned a property within 30 days of completed rehab.

The work was beginning to overwhelm me, though. I knew that to grow my business I needed to outsource something. Having someone else market and sell the property was the most painless thing to let go of, and I also knew what I was doing from a transaction standpoint so I could easily monitor the contract’s progress, etc., so I hired a real estate agent from a major brand who, on paper, looked like she was the perfect fit for what I needed.

I had her list a condo that I just finished rehabbing. Now when I say rehab, I mean everything. Everything in the condo was new except for the bathtubs (which I had reglazed). All new electrical, appliances, fixtures, cabinets, countertops–you name it. The property was immaculate. We set the price and I signed a listing contract.

We started getting activity immediately. I spoke with the agent every 2-3 days and she kept telling me, “I showed your condo 5 times in the last 4 days,” or, “another agent called and we have X number of showings scheduled.” It was as if the entire metro Atlanta area had to have this condo.

After 3 weeks, though, I had no contracts, no offers, not even a lowball offer. I thought it was odd: over 30 people had seen this condo and not one person had an inkling of interest. What I kept hearing was, “It came down to yours and one other” and they always chose the other.

In the 4th week, I was in the area of the condo, so I dropped in to see if any agents had left cards. If so, I was going to call my agent with a heads-up.

What I found shocked me. I opened the door and flipped the light switch to “ON.” Nothing happened. I tried a few more switches. Nothing.

I figured someone must’ve cut the breaker off, so I fumbled around in the dark to try to find it. Surprisingly, the breaker was on.

I immediately called the power company from my cell phone to inquire about outages. What I found was that they had cut the power off because of non-payment. Out of all the houses that I had, I had always had the power company send the bill to my home address. With this condo, though, for whatever reason, I had them send it to the condo address itself. I had never checked the mail.

I then asked the power company how long the power had been off. This is what floored me. It was cut off 3 days after I had signed the listing contract with the agent. 3 days.

Now the condo had front windows only. So if you went into the kitchen or either bathroom, you wouldn’t be able to see a thing. I stewed for about 15 seconds max then called the agent.

“Have you noticed anything unusual about the condo lately?” She stammered for a second and said no. I then told her what happened and I told her that all the showings were nothing but lies. Lies. I cancelled the contract ASAP.

About five days later, I got a phone call back from her saying that if I sold the condo myself within the original listing time, that she was due a commission. I had to smile at this ladies gall. I called her broker immediately and told them to come and get it. I never heard from them again.

So, I ended up selling the condo on my own. I had a contract within 2 weeks of firing this idiot, and we closed 3 weeks later.