Can I get some information from the hivemind about when/if I should fire my realtor? Has anyone here done it? He is a seller's agent and I'm trying to get a sense of whether I need to investigate the services of another realtor or not.

I've wondered about it, but not done it. What are your concerns?

I have never fired a realtor, though I seriously considered it when selling our house 4 years ago. I kinda regret not shopping around.

In ME news, just had my annual physical. All systems look good, pending results from the 5 viles of blood that was drawn. I also got a flu shot. Wheeeee.

I love my doc. I definitely got more than 15 minutes of her undivided attention. We talked through all my issues and I was the one who brought up the weight issue. She pointed me to a neat free app to track calories - my fitness pal. I'll give it a shot. I also need to get back to regular karate group class twice a week. Now that I should be past the mega-OT I've been working, I plan to return to day class.

I'm sort of confused that you have a manager who is not your boss?

My boss is the Senior Director who owns my group and a few other groups, and he has direct input into a number of our projects. My manager recently got promoted to have me report to her (her official title is Project Manager which is just a way to get her paid more money). She is the one who gets the day to day stuff, because she doesn't have departments reporting to her.

Man, we're on a call now, and people give me shit for not making sense some times, but...they're saying things that are wrong. We tested it with 30 users, not hundreds. At least my gibberish is correct.

So ita, you are the one who has to shoulder the blame when the developers fail to do what they are supposed to do but you haven't been given the authority to compel them to do it? How the hell does that work? That can't possibly lead to work getting done.

flea,

So I bought the house 8 years ago at X amount of $$. The housing market has fucking crashed, and I get that, but in interviewing realtors, Realtor Ted (not his real name) told me that I needed to at least get 76% of purchase price in order to break even, but he thought I should be able to get 80% of PP if I do some minor improvements like painting and getting it cleaned.

RT is a seller’s agent, but he works in a sub-agency with buyer’s agents. There have been 3 offers on the house. The first offer came from the previous owner of the house. His offer came in the 2nd day the house was on the market (he made an offer before the house was on Trulia...!). He started WAY low. Now, the house is in MUCH better condition than when we got it from him. We replaced a bunch of stuff, new roof, etc. I felt we paid too much for the house 8 years ago. Given all of this, I felt like if he wanted the house, he needed to pay close to full price. This was not my disposition toward all offers, only this one. My conscience was on the line. I didn’t want to regret selling the house to him at discount for the rest of my life. BTW, RT represented the previous owner when I bought the house from him and supposedly hadn’t realized the previous owner was the prospective buyer until I pointed it out to him after reading the documents. I got a 3rd offer on the house 2 days ago. In the back and forth with the buyer’s agent, RT said the following (he forwarded me the email trail):

Buyer's Agent: “...attached is the offer.”
RT: “my seller rejected a YYY offer, so you can imagine what she will do with this”
BA: “...Based on my analysis of comps I would have taken the YYY offer”
RT: “Yep...me too and I am sure she would today but this will be an insult to her.”

Check this: When the previous owner offered me XXX, RT suggested that I counter with XXX+5K and say “final offer.” So RT’s comment to the other realtor is not factual. No offer is an insult to me by the way, except the one from the previous owner.

Further, should I be upset that he disclosed this to the other realtor?

Am I just flouncy?

So ita, you are the one who has to shoulder the blame when the developers fail to do what they are supposed to do but you haven't been given the authority to compel them to do it? How the hell does that work? That can't possibly lead to work getting done.

Yup. I told him that's why incompedeveloper snapped at me so much--because I did developer things because she wouldn't or couldn't. I told him that stuff used to get done and now it doesn't but I'm still responsible, and it's frustrating and it makes me look like shit in his eyes. if I don't have tools, I don't want to be pinged for not using them.

I just...I had no idea he knew she was incompetent but still thought things were being done. I told him that jackshit had been done for our business users since March and I thought I had exhausted my avenues. When do you say "Manager? Pfft. Enough asking you for stuff."

However, he wants me to establish a procedure with her when I go over her head. I don't know how to start that conversation...."When you're useless, here's my hand signal for circumventing you."

I don't have a lot of experience, but RT seems kinda dumb to have forwarded you the email in which he basically disses you to another realtor. I would be pissed about that as well. Our realtor is careful to be respectful of us and while I assume she talks informally to other realtors, she is pretty cautious in her professional dealings. (My frustration with her is sometimes I wish she would not defer so much to us; I could use some expert advice!)

I guess what it comes down to is 1) do you feel RT is respecting you and 2) do you feel he is acting in your best interests. If you don't think he's acting in your best interests, I would fire him. If you think he's acting in your best interests but disrespecting you, it's iffier - but maybe worth calling him and telling him how you feel, see how he responds, and consider firing him if his response is not what you want.

Good stuff. Have a hanky handy.

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flea,

ok thanks.

suzi,

good news on the health front!