Conflicted about a Real Estate Agent

[Nathan Hann]

My wife and I are at a crossroads. We were referred to a real estate agent by our lender back in March. He was super hands on back then and my wife and I had yet to sign anything. Come May, we put an offer on a duplex that was accepted (our first one!) and he had us sign a contract that has us solely working with him through December 31st 2019(longer than I expected but I know this is standard practice). We didn't think anything of this because we thought we would be buying this house and we liked him. Turns out, that house, after the inspection, was not worth buying.

The issue at hand is, ever since then, we have felt a little neglected and aren't sure if this is typical or not. We have found majority of the properties and brought them to him. There have been about 2 or 3 out of the 30+ that he actually sent us, and two of those came the day we decided to back out of buying that first house. When our realtor and I first talked, I mentioned that we would be looking for properties within an hour drive radius from where he's based and he agreed to this and said that he typically drives that far, if not a little further. Now, for the last two months, he has only actively gotten us into houses in the two towns he's based in. This is even when we contact him about places outside those two towns.

My questions in all this is, does this seem normal? Is this how I should expect a real estate agent to act in the busy season? We have already talked to him once through email and once in person about how we have felt a little neglected and he has said he's trying but he has newbies working for him and he's just too busy. We are on the verge of asking him for the paperwork to back out of the agreement we signed. Thoughts?

[Brent Paul]

That sounds exactly like my first agent.  He was well known in my town and very respected. He was barely sending me anything and the stuff he did send wasn't anything I was interested in.  I would send him houses I was interested in and it would take days for him to get back to me.  This went on for 3 months of me not finding anything.  I went and got a new realtor.  Night and day difference.  He hustled and worked for not me working for him like the other guy.  Found the house I wanted for the price I wanted.  He knew exactly what I was looking for and would even go look at them first to make sure it met my criteria.  My realtor was awesome and he even got me quotes for my roof and driveway.

My advice get a new realtor.  Do you want this to continue on for another 3 months?  They are supposed to be working for you not you for them.  Start looking for another realtor.