Things Buyers Do That Real Estate Agents Hate

Avoid These Things That Can Annoy The Seller

When hiring a real estate agent to help you find your dream home, you’ll want a professional who looks out for your best interests. However, even if you hire a great agent, are you sure you are being a great buyer?

Many things home buyers do can make Realtors’ jobs more difficult and put the deal in jeopardy. We look at the behaviors you should avoid when working with a buyer’s agent.

Not Researching Where You Want to Live

When buyers haven’t researched the neighborhood they want to live in, and don’t know the area, the buyer could be wasting the real estate agent’s time. If the buyer hasn’t done their research, many of the homes will inevitably be in communities that are not suitable.

Contacting Listing Agents Directly

If you have hired a buyers agent, let them do their job and contact the listing agent for properties you are interested in. If your agent isn’t available, you shouldn’t just let the listing agent show you the home.

If your agent is often unavailable when you need them, perhaps it’s time to look for one who is.

Touring the Same Home Multiple Times

It’s fine to look at the same home multiple times if you are serious about buying. However, some buyers will ask their agent to see the property four or five times without making an offer.

While the buyer might want a second or third opinion from friends, relatives, or contractors, if you don’t make an offer, you’re wasting the Realtor’s time.

Some buyers don’t even have a firm intention of buying any home, they just want to learn more about what’s available. Wasting the Realtor’s time isn’t a great thing to do when you could learn about the local market by searching online homes for sale.

Being unwilling to Compromise

Unless you are building your own house, you should be willing to make compromises. If most things are right, but there are some cosmetic issues, these shouldn’t matter in the big picture. 

If you find a great house at the start of your search, it can be tempting to assume something better might come along later. When buyers aren’t willing to make any compromises and wait for the perfect property, they can miss out.

Getting Upset When the Agent Follows Your Requests

If you are certain about your must-haves and deal breakers, you shouldn’t be surprised when your agent doesn’t send you homes for sale that break these rules. Perhaps you can make exceptions for the right home, but if that’s the case, it’s not a must-have.

Not Being Preapproved

Buyers sometimes ask agents to be shown homes they are not qualified to buy. Even if you think you will get the loan you need to buy the house, you don’t know unless you are preapproved. The real estate agent will be wasting their time when they show you a home you are not qualified to buy.

Ignoring Your Price Range

Even if the buyer is preapproved, they will sometimes ask agents to show them homes outside this price range. While the seller might accept a lower price, too often potential buyers have unrealistic expectations about what’s possible.

Asking your agent to show you homes you can’t realistically buy, will irritate them. Looking at more expensive homes than you can afford, might be fun but it’s just wasting time.

Being Late

No one likes waiting around, so when you make appointments with your Realtor, don’t continually be late.

Being late also makes the real estate agent look bad. The seller will have likely prepared their home and made sure they have somewhere else to go during your appointment. Canceling the appointment is slightly worse, and means the seller will not look favorably on your offer even if you love the home.

Bringing Your Dog

Even if the seller has a dog, bringing your dog to a showing isn’t a good idea. Though the sellers pets are unlikely to be in the home during the showing, there could still be problems. Your dog might cause damage, perhaps marking their territory or acting up when they smell another dog.

The seller of the home could be allergic to pets, and even if they’re not there at the time, they will have a reaction when they return.

Sandy Jamison of Tuscana Properties knows firsthand why bringing a dog to a showing is a no-go.

“I’m definitely a dog-lover but not everyone is, and some are even allergic so bringing your dog with you to a showing is never a good idea. In my early years as a REALTOR, I wasn’t sure of the protocol and a buyer brought a small dog to a showing with them. Before I had a chance to realize the situation, the small dog quickly found the owner’s cat and the chase commenced. Not only did the dog leave grassy footprints throughout the home but the cat decided to leave balls of fur flying as they tore through the house. The cat ran over furniture, scratching at upholstery, and finally ran under the owner’s bed where the dog followed and cornered the poor thing. Not only did this damage the owners house but we had to apologize for the disruption. Needless to say, that seller was not too pleased with us.

If you must bring a pet, please leave them in the car. We must respect other’s homes and belongings, especially if the buyer is trying to get in good with the seller for a chance of an accepted offer.”

Not Being Honest Enough with Your Realtor

If your agent finds what they think is a great property, you don’t need to pretend you’re interested when the home isn’t for you. If you know immediately when you walk through the door that you aren’t going to want to live there, let your agent know. This can avoid wasting time and prevent them from recommending other unsuitable listings.

Damaging the Seller’s Home

When you are shown around you are a guest in the sellers home. There is no need to pick up the sellers possessions or check that appliances and fittings are working by operating them.

There are embarrassing cases of buyers breaking things in sellers’ homes that would never happen if they were more respectful. Unsurprisingly, this irritates sellers, makes the agent look unprofessional, and can be costly for the buyer.

Using the Bathroom

While you might want to ensure the bathroom functions as expected, the home inspector will cover this. However, some buyers think it is acceptable to use the sellers toilet as if it were a public restroom.

Unless it is an emergency and you have no other option, this is something that should be avoided.

Not Respecting the Agent

While your agent will want to be there to help you as much as possible, they do have their own lives and other clients.

You shouldn’t put the agent in a situation where you need them to drop everything just because you feel you need something done now. While there are situations where you will need your agent to act quickly, you should have respect for their time.

Low-Ball Offers

Real estate agents use comparable sales data to judge the best price to offer for the home. But sometimes, buyers decide that they know better.

While a low-ball offer might work occasionally, most of the time it is just insulting to the seller. If you like the home, making a low-ball offer might mean the seller doesn’t want to deal with you even if you make a fair second offer. 

Though you want to avoid offering more for the home than you need to, it is easy to go too far the other way. Your agent should have a good understanding of what you should offer without offending the seller.

Having Too Many Questions

Asking questions is important to ensure the property is right for you, but sometimes buyers ask unnecessary questions.

Buyers can ask overly specific questions, that they don’t need to know and are irritating for the agent to deal with. For example, if you’re considering asking about the specifications of appliances or the thickness of insulation, maybe reconsider.

Waiting to Sign Documents

If you think you’ve found the home you want and tell your buyers agent to create an offer, don’t delay signing. The market can move fast and another buyer might make an offer while your agent waits for you to sign the document.

Take the time to read through the document so that you know what you’re signing. If you don’t understand everything in the offer, ask your agent. When your agent sends the offer to you, they want to send it straight back to the seller’s agent without delay.

Changing Your Mind During Negotiations

A buyer might be confident that they don’t care about a particular factor in negotiations, like repairs or timing. But sometimes buyers change their minds and demand the opposite of what they previously agreed to. This puts the real estate agent in a tough position, now having to backtrack on previous negotiations.

Making the Seller Wait for You to Sell Your Home

You can make your offer contingent on selling your present home, but an offer like this will not be attractive to the seller. The seller does not want to wait for an unknown amount of time, preferring an offer without such a contingency.

While using a home sale contingency is convenient, it isn’t advisable if you want your offer accepted. If you are serious about buying the home, you need to have already sold yours first.

Offering a Low Earnest Money Deposit

Your earnest money deposit will demonstrate to the seller that you are serious. The earnest money will reimburse the seller for costs if you decide to withdraw from the deal without good reason. But if you decide to offer less than the Realtor suggests, it will make your offer less appealing.

Expecting Perfection

Even brand-new properties might have one or two issues mentioned in the home inspection report. Older homes are bound to have more issues, including general wear and tear and more serious problems.

Unfortunately, some buyers expect the property to be perfect and want the seller to deal with every issue the home inspector reports. It isn’t reasonable to expect the seller to deal with every minor blemish or trivial problem. While there may be things to negotiate with the seller after the home inspector finishes their report, minor concerns shouldn’t be included.

Negotiating Obvious Problems

If you saw some clear issues when touring the property, and made an offer anyway, you shouldn’t expect to negotiate over this problem later on. Sometimes the buyer will be alerted to problems with the home in the sellers disclosure.

If you try to negotiate over issues you were already well aware of, you are unlikely to get very far. Real estate agents do not appreciate clients asking them to push for repairs or a discounted price for known issues. It makes the Realtor look bad and is almost certainly a waste of time.

Ditching Your Buyers Agent

Your real estate agent will only get paid when they find a home you want to buy and help the transaction through to closing. But if you work with an agent for months, only to agree to buy from a seller’s agent at an open house, don’t expect your agent to be happy.

You will have wasted their time and energy, cost them money, and left them with nothing to show for it. They could have spent this time with other clients or their families, instead of wasting it with you.

For the same reasons, you should avoid working with multiple agents. Unless you are looking for homes in two separate areas, or you have agreed to this arrangement with all the agents concerned, this isn’t a fair thing to do.

Getting a Loan Before Closing

If you’ve been pre-approved for a mortgage, you can’t get any new loans or lines of credit before closing. New loans will change your debt-to-income ratio and could mean you no longer qualify for the loan you need to buy the property.

This will be annoying to you as well as your agent, and just before you are about to close the deal. It could mean losing out on that property and having to start again.

Summing Up Things Buyers Do That Real Estate Agents Hate

If you have a better relationship with your real estate agent, you’ll probably have a better time finding your dream home. While you might have strong expectations, you should be realistic and prepared to make a few compromises.

Ask your agent questions when you don’t understand the process and listen to their advice. If you follow our tips, your agent won’t secretly hate you, and they’ll work harder to make sure you get the home you’re looking for at the best price.

About the author: This article was written by Luke Skar of MadisonMortgageGuys.com. As the Social Media Strategist, his role is to provide original content for all of their social media profiles as well as generate new leads from his website.

We provide award-winning customer service to clients who need to purchase a home or refinance an existing mortgage.