Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Whole Shameful Story

So, no pictures because I forgot my camera.
But, we are back and exhausted. First, my husband books us on those horrible little jets that shake up and down. I was so frightened the whole trip. I hate to fly anyways, but here we are on those teeny little planes with the winds whipping us all over. I am still having nightmares about that plane ride. We get to Huntsville and it is crazy hot. But I can live with that. We get to our very nice hotel, and Boeing has forgotten to pay them, so we have too. So, there goes half our earnest money. But, we settle in and call the realtor. She says she is at dinner and we can pick her up at her office in an hour. Pick her up? Yes, that's right, we had to try and navigate a strange city at night to pick her up. So, we find it and pick her up and proceed to drive her around with a screaming almost-two year old in tow.
She takes us to two houses at 8 at night, which are so obviously too small. We still have no relocation packet, no housing info sheets, nothing.
So, we say we are tired and go back to the hotel. The realtor says she is busy until 330 so we just sort of bum around the hotel most of the day. I am kind of mad about this because we flew in for a house hunting trip and we are getting some pretty bad vibes. You are probably asking why we didn't go look around, well, we had no corporate card yet, so we had to pay for the 700 dollar hotel and the 300 rental car and all the gas and food so we were damn broke.

So, we are thinking she is picking us up, but no, she calls and tells us to pick her up at 4. We had found some of those home magazines and we had a few we wanted to look at. This being all we had to go on because there was no info forthcoming from her about any damn thing. Now, you may be wondering why we are upset about picking her up. As we sat at the hotel all day, we noticed something....lots and lots of realtors coming in and out carrying nice binders and driving nice cars and having lunch reservations. They were there to pick up the relocation clients who were on househunting trips. People there for the same reason we were, but they had nicer realotrs. So, my husband asked one of them what he deal was and when ewe told them what we were putting up with, they were a bit shocked. But, I digress.

So, we pick her up and go to look at some of the houses WE had to find. She had no info at all and spent most of her time on the phone with the other realtor.
Finally, she says she knows a house for sale in town, in the area we like. So, we go. And it is perfect. I loved it and I wanted it. So we say fine, we want to make an offer. And guess what, she does not like our offer. It is too low (it wasn't, it would make the seller and his realtor mad, she wasn't sure if her boss would take it.
(we offered 148,000 on a house that was 154,000, in case you are curious, Gentle Reader). Too low? Maybe, but this is how the game is played, and considering the market, it was a fair offer. So, she is balking.........so we say fine, let's go. Then she says take me back and I will type it up and I want 1000 earnest money, well, all we have is 500 because WE ARE PAYING FOR EVERYTHING, INCLUDING GAS TO SHUTTLE HER AROUND!
So, she says go get dinner and come back in an hour, by this time the baby has had it! So we go back to the hotel and order in. Then at 9 she calls and wants us to come back up there, my husband say NO we are going to bed, so here she comes, after reading it, my husband says there is no way I am signing this.
Next morning: We find some more houses by digging sround online (WE FOUND THEM). We ask to see them, she says "Sure, but I am busy until 1130, then you can come pick me up at my house". Are you crazy!!!! Pick her up! At her house!
So, we have had enough. My husband says, I am done. So he fired her. Just like that, told her we were done. Then called ERA and told them we had a mortgage already and just wanted to buy a house. Sure enough, an hour later a realtor pulls up, straps in our car seat and away we go................
We even found another house, which we did not get because the seller had crazy demands, like close in 3 weeks and use their attorney, which our mortgage company balked at and refused to let us do, which is fine. It sounded shady anyways. HELLO! DO these people read the news, Buyer's Market people! The house will sit for another six months.
I guess Boeing gets mad when you fire the Realtor they hire for you, so now we are cleaning up that mess.
Comments, please

4 comments:

Jen C said...

First realtor was an ass. i am sure Boeing pays a pretty penny to those guys to help with the relocation. wife of a coworker set up some relocation packets for our office when we were doing serious head hunting and nothing like what you went through. I am sorry yoiu had such a rough trip. BIG HUGS, have a cuppa tea and some chocolate. Fondle the yarn for a bit.

Firing her was perfectly correct by my book. no realtor has ever made us pik them up or shuttle them. Met at the office sure, but their car and their dime. Not on the phone the entire time and prepared for what we wanted. Low balling especially in this market is to be expected. Haggling whats the world coming to if you can't haggle...

Pitch a stink with Boeing about having to pay for everything too. Worse than the dang military relocation sounds like. Again big hugs and sympathy. I really hope it works out better and you get the house.

Holly said...

That was a nightmare. I am sorry. I would drove up and showed you Huntsville myself, I have only been about 10 times, but we could of made it around and no waiting.

You did the right thing to fire her and probably should of been done the 1st or 2nd day.

I bet it was hard with a little one. I am sorry you had a bad experience.

Anna said...

Wow. With all the Realtor related things I write about every day for my job...I definitely would've fired her, too. Not a way to drum up business when home sales are down.

And it's definitely not fair that you have to pay for all that the company is supposed to pay for.

((HUGS))

Hope the rest of the process isn't as stressful.

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