I need a polite way to fire my real estate agent

[Rhone]

I'm unhappy with the agent we hired to help us with our first home purchase. He's not nearly aggressive enough, is slow to respond, and for a variety of other reasons we're going to be looking for someone else.

The hitch is that his good friend, who initially recommended him to us, works closely with my wife, and it's important that their professional relationship not be harmed at all. Further, when we procede with the househunting using someone else, this is definitely going to get back to our current agent and his friend. So we need a very nice, polite, but relatively truthful way of letting this guy go.

Any suggestions?

[lucas9000]

he's not doing a good job. just fire him. if your wife's friend gets offended then that friend is a douche.

[fnord_too]

Do you have a buyer broker agreement with him?

[Rhone]

so you've never had to work with a douche? yes, you're right in theory, but that's not the point at all. I need a nice way to do this...

[Rhone]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have a buyer broker agreement with him?

[/ QUOTE ]

We did, but it expired already, so there are no legal constraints in letting him go.

[Kirg]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm unhappy with the agent we hired to help us with our first home purchase. He's not nearly aggressive enough, is slow to respond, and for a variety of other reasons we're going to be looking for someone else.

The hitch is that his good friend, who initially recommended him to us, works closely with my wife, and it's important that their professional relationship not be harmed at all. Further, when we procede with the househunting using someone else, this is definitely going to get back to our current agent and his friend. So we need a very nice, polite, but relatively truthful way of letting this guy go.

Any suggestions?

[/ QUOTE ]

If you never have to deal with her colleague then just have her blame you for it.

Her: No, I was fine with "broker" but my husband couldn't stand him and insisted on switching brokers. If it was up to me I wouldn't have switched blah blah blah. (I'm sure there's a more subtle way to do this, but you get my drift)

Sure, her colleague is going to think you're a dominant male pig but if you're never going to socially spend time with this guy. Who cares? And she comes out clean.

[Rick Diesel]

I had almost exactly the same problem when I purchased my first house. The problem was that being inexperienced, we had entered into a buyer's agreement with him, whereby he would receive a comission on any house that we purchased within a three month time period. My wife (fiance at the time) and I were planning on actually waiting out the next two months before we started looking again, when we found the exact house we were looking for at a price that could not be beaten.

Anyway, the piece of [censored] ended up getting his comission, and afterwards I told him that he didn't deserve it and we will not ever be needing his services again.

If I were in your shoes, I would just meet with him and explain to him what you had expected him to do, and how he had come short in fulfilling those expectations. He will then plead with you to give him another chance, at which point you will tell him that he has already wasted enough of your time and opportunities, and it would be better if you both just moved on. If he cannot take it like a man, then that is his problem.

Your wife's coworker should not be offended by this whatsoever, and if the coworker is offended, then you should just explain to them the crappy effort the agent gave, and recommend to the coworker that he should not be pimping out the work of his friend because it will reflect poorly on the coworker.

[fnord_too]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Do you have a buyer broker agreement with him?

[/ QUOTE ]

We did, but it expired already, so there are no legal constraints in letting him go.

[/ QUOTE ]

Does he think he is doing a good job or does he know he sucks? If the agreement has expired that means you have been looking for at least what? Three months? Maybe tell him "Look, we are first time buyers and need a lot of hand holding. I understand the market is hot right now, so we are not the best clinets to have in this regard. I think we are going to look for an agent we don't know because we don't feel like we can't bug and annoy you to the degree we want to due to our mutual friend." If he balks, say "Ok, we will try it with you for a while, but remember, you asked for this" and proceed to pester him about everything that is important to you. (Don't go out of your way, but if you want to see more houses, bug the hell out of him. If you want more information about a property or the neighborhood, nag him for it.)

Basically, this is a big deal to you and agents are making great money right now. Let him know if you stay with him you will be demanding a lot of attention.

[Rhone]

I think he thinks he's doing a good job. I would rather completely wash my hands of him now than give him a second chance, though. He's not going to change his behavior overnight.

The other suggestion of having my wife blame me...that's an avenue I might think about...

[ddollevoet]

Just grow a set of balls and sign on with another agent. Tell your friend you've decided to explore other avenues.