Imagine deciding you want to buy a home. You find a real estate agent to help you with the process and expect to start looking at homes.

What would you do if the real estate agent didn’t do his job and didn’t send you information about homes you were interested in?

Would you try to get out of the contract, or would you stick with him until you eventually found a home, even if it meant you had to do all the leg work?

In this story, one couple has a nightmare experience with a bad real estate agent, and it takes a lot of work to get out of their contract with him.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Called our bad realtor’s bluff.

My better half and I are in the market for a home. We’ve been casually searching for 4 years, and this year we really kicked it into gear.

We nailed down where we wanted to live, our price range, got approved, and actually found a house we wanted to put an offer on.

We contacted an agent my husband found and said he thought he wanted to work with (due to the guy’s other interests and the niche he’d built himself in that area-right up our alley).

Against my better judgement, we signed with the guy as our buyer’s agent. I’ll call him Agent Dummy, for the purposes of this story.

Their agent found a property he thought they’d like.

So, Agent Dummy was our exclusive buyer’s agent. I personally thought he was a “yes man” but my husband didn’t see it.

He knew we would be buying sight-unseen (cannot be helped, yes it’s unwise). He went to this property, and had ONLY glowing reviews.

We asked if he saw any signs of water damage (husband has mold sickness, have to be careful), and he emphatically said there was none, whatsoever. It was “pristine”.

He kept telling us how amazing it was, how it wouldn’t last, how we’d better offer a decent chunk over asking if we want to have a chance at it.

They didn’t take his advice.

We did not feel that was a good idea.

Against his advice, we offered below asking, and it was readily accepted.

First red flag for me is an agent forcefully urging me to offer above asking with no other offers on the table.

So we get the inspection, a guy Agent Dummy recommended personally, and ended up paying twice what it should have cost ($875).

The inspector definitely did a good job and revealed a big problem.

I’ll give the inspector credit though, that report was exceedingly thorough, and we got it back within a day.

A cursory glance at the inspection report, though, showed a large area of wood floor under a window in the living room, in plain sight to Agent Dummy, was BLACK from water seeping in.

The guy says he’s got 15 years of experience, he should have seen that. But, he isn’t an inspector, and that’s not necessarily his “job”. But still, another sign he’s playing “yes man” to get us to buy ANYTHING at the highest cost.

Anyhow, we immediately back out of that deal, and tell him why.

This is an odd question for the agent to ask.

He asks “Are you mad at me”?

I was taken aback by this question coming from a grown man who says he’s an ex marine, but whatever.

I tell him it’s fine, and that we must move on to another property.

He seems quite upset by this, but agrees.

The agent messed up again, but at least the inspector seems trustworthy.

I get an email from the inspector two days later saying that he’s gotten an email from the seller of that home, asking for “another” copy of our inspection, and that he will not send it to them without our consent, as we own it.

I immediately ask Agent Dummy if he sent our inspection to the seller after we backed out, and he says he did, and says “I’m sorry I should have asked”.

I tell the inspector that we do not want our inspection shared without our consent, and that if the man wants another inspection (the seller was loaded) he can pay for his own.

They have trouble finding another home to look at.

Over the next few weeks, Agent Dummy sends us a handful of properties we had already excluded as out of our price range.

Let me say, our price range is pretty high. If I can’t find a home for under half a mil, I don’t want one.

I repeatedly tell him these are too expensive. There ARE homes within our range.

Eventually he relents and sends one or two within our range. He’s still not sending us anything that fits our criteria, though, like not even a little, and we’re actually doing all the leg-work. I keep sending him homes we’ve found online.

But their agent didn’t like those homes.

He comes up with one excuse or another as to why it won’t work.

But I tell him I want to see information on it.

He’s definitely irritated at this point, but sends me bits and pieces of information over the course of days.

After pulling out of the offer on the first home, Agent Dummy has become increasingly difficult to reach. He’s told my husband he’s so busy that he must start turning people away.

Why are they still working with this guy?

It becomes a running joke in our house: “Have you heard from Agent Dummy about that house we sent him?” “HAHA yeah right”.

Homes hitting the market at this point were going under contract within 24 hours, due to low supply. So, him taking 2,3,4 days to get us basic information like whether or not there’s an HOA, or what it uses for heat, are a detriment.

He repeatedly urges us to make offers above asking on homes he hasn’t even pulled info on, let alone set foot in. He says this is necessary because things are moving so quickly.

I’m too uncomfortable to do this. He’s playing around with $5,000 in Earnest Money, and just no.

Then she had a big realization.

I realized pretty quickly that he took us as clients only because we’d found the home already, and he thought it would be quick money for him.

Can’t say I blame him on that, but when it became clear that it was not the right property, if he did not have time for us, he should have sent us on our way.

We tell him we’re feeling neglected, and it’s taking too long to get answers on basic questions.

He keeps saying “It’s no big deal”, like that somehow makes me feel better about not buying a home because he’s too busy for us.

We ask him if there is someone else at his brokerage we can work with who has time, but he owns it, so there’s not.

The agent finally looked at another house for them.

We send him another home, and he actually went out and took a few 15 second videos there. We ended up making an offer.

Again, he urges us to offer well over asking.

I tell him that’s not happening, and offer 30k under. Sellers countered at 25 under, and this is accepted by us.

Two days into contract, I have to ask him if we are actually under contract. NO contact from him one way or another, so no idea.

This agent really needs to get better at responding.

He eventually responds and says we are.

Ok great. 4 days into our 10 day inspection period, and still haven’t heard word one from him. I finally ask him if we’re planning to schedule any inspections.

He says “I’ll connect you tonight!” and then doesn’t.

The next day, 5 days into this inspection period, I tell him we’d like to cancel the contract, and cancel our contract with him (again).

The mold test we need will take 5-7 days, so we literally can’t get it inspected in the time left.

She shouldn’t have given him another chance.

He immediately calls me, and it does not go well. I tell him we’re unhappy, he calls me unreasonable, again says “It’s no big deal”, blah blah blah, but he begs for another chance. Literally he begged me.

So, fine, whatever. One more chance.

We find the PERFECT property, and immediately email it to him. He says he’s set an appointment to view it the next morning.

Two days later, he finally sends us a totally different (MUCH more expensive) property.

This agent is really bad at his job.

I tell him my husband has left to go there already, and MAY choose to see it when he’s there, but that we are really interested in the other one we sent him, and ask if he ever make it out to see it.

He responds with “You should make an offer on this one asap!!!” Like what dude?

So again, I ask him point blank “Did you go see the other home at XYZ, or not” and he finally admits he didn’t bother going to see it. And now, since it’s been 2 more days, there’s an accepted offer. He will not go see it so we might put a backup offer in.

The next day I receive videos of the more expensive property, that I never asked for, nor wanted.

You can’t trust anything this agent says.

My husband then arrives, having 30 hours to go to this area to look at the area, and some properties, and meet Agent Dummy. Husband texts updates on his trip to Agent Dummy along the way, but never gets a response.

I speak to Agent Dummy the night before, telling him my husband will be there in the morning. I tell him to please call and coordinate with him, that he’s available now to speak.

He told me he would, when we ended our call, but didn’t.

The next day my husband arrives, he texts to say he’s arrived, and Agent Dummy has no response. He waits, and waits, but still nothing. Tries to call, no response.

All the agent is good at is lying.

After another 7ish hours, it’s now dark, and our “agent” has ghosted him all day. Husband texts him to say we want out, that he’s driven all the way here, and been ghosted.

Agent Dummy flips his lid. Like instantly. He says he didn’t ghost anyone, and that we never told him what day he was arriving, or that he got there (obvious and provable lies) and he “figured” he’d want to rest the whole first day.

With 30 hours each way, and a full week taken off work for this, losing income, we did NOT want that, which he would have known had he asked, or coordinated at all.

Things fully collapse at this point, and become outright hostile.

This agent thinks he holds all the cards.

He says immediately that we are in a contract with him, and there’s nothing we can do. We have to work with him, OR we can agree to pay him 3% or get a new agent to agree to pay him a referral fee.

“These are the ONLY terms I’ll agree to. It’s your best option, you should take it”

I think this would be reasonable, if our reason for cancellation were not his own negligence.

I tell him there is NO way in HELL I will allow him to profit for messing us around.

He literally laughs at me, and says I have no choice.

Bad idea.

Time to talk to a lawyer.

I have an attorney look over the contract, and yes, we’re in bad shape contractually. Funnily enough, the attorney tells me he is VERY aware of this guy, and he does this all the time.

Apologizes that we’re in this mess, but says there’s nothing he can do about it.

I ask him about posting reviews of our experience, that I’m worried about a defamation suit.

He says that as long as it’s true, and I have proof, I cannot be sued for defamation.

I call the real estate commission and speak with an investigator for the entire state.

The investigator has heard of this agent too.

He asks where in the state this occurred, and I tell him.

He says “is it Agent Dummy?”, and my jaw dropped.

He says he gets a lot of calls about this guy, that there’s lots of problems, but that he hides behind pretty ironclad contracts, so he continues to do this legally.

He’s been doing it for years, apparently. He tells us that if we try to circumvent the contract, we will almost certainly be sued by this man- he’s done it before.

I tell Agent Dummy that the least he could do if he doesn’t have time to do his job, is release us.

The agent really does think he’s untouchable.

Again, he laughs.

I tell him I will report these actions to the real estate commission.

“HAHAHAHAJA” is his response.

I tell him fine, then he can expect people to hear about what’s happened to us online.

He says “I will sue you”.

I tell him that I will only be posting a true account of events, with written proof, and therefore it is not libelous, and he can sue me, but will not win.

He replies, “You two are psychopaths”

Now, she’s going to make him work, or get proof that he doesn’t do his job.

Now I really start to get angry.

I emailed Agent Dummy and told him point blank that if his terms for cancellation were not acceptable to me, and mine were not acceptable to him, then we are still legally bound.

As such, I FULLY expect him to do his job.

I sent a list of houses we would never otherwise consider. He did nothing for 2 days, and for 2 days I asked him probably 10 times a day to send me documentation on them.

He asked if I even meant to send those to him, and I said “of course, you’re my agent, ARE YOU NOT?”.

He sweetly replies that he is, and that he’ll send the information that evening.

I send him like 8 more listings, all in a different geographical area (the contract was for the entire state), and all WELL below our price limit. Like some were under 100k, and all were reallllly rough.

The agent has another tactic up his sleeve.

That evening, Agent Dummy starts to try to ‘team up’ with my husband against me. For some reason he thinks this tactic will work because my husband avoids confrontation whenever possible.

He emails my husband. He forwards the listings I’ve sent, and asks my husband if I am “mentally unstable”, and says he thinks he should “get me some help”.

It does not go well, and husband tell him to “Pump his brakes” and that he has “no right” to talk about me that way.

Agent Dummy doesn’t respond. Instead he writes me, telling ME he thinks I’m unstable. His logic is that I’m not happy with him, and don’t want to work with him, and now I’m sending him properties, so I must be mentally incompetent.

I tell him again that we have 4 months left on our contract, and I am under no obligation to accept his terms for cancellation if they do not benefit me, just like he is not obligated to accept mine.

When that didn’t work, the agent tried another tactic.

He emails my husband again, saying that he’s got some agents who will “Be Reeeeaaallllyyyy nice to Vmizzle” and husband just says “we don’t need your referrals dude”.

Next day another agent calls me. Agent Dummy wants me to sign with them instead, and they’ve already agreed to accept less commission so he will be paid.

I have a lovely chat with the nice couple on the phone, and then tell them flatly that under no circumstances will I allow him to profit financially for doing this to us. He’s become openly hostile, rude, and calls us names.

They didn’t really know what to say, so we amicably ended the call.

I feel bad for the well meaning agents.

They call me back a bit later (I suppose after talking to Agent Dummy) and ask again if I’ll consider signing with them just to be done with the situation, that buyers don’t even pay the commission, and that they will even pay for my inspection!

Wow.

Once more I tell them no, that is not their responsibility and I won’t allow them to go out of pocket for this clown.

I tell them in no uncertain terms, that I would choose to wait out this contract before signing with anyone else.

That I might consider signing with them (I never would because of their affiliation with him), but only if we were released fully from the contract beforehand.

I told them that if we somehow decided to purchase one of the two homes he ‘showed’ us, that I would feel obligated to pay him, but short of that, there is no way.

Agent Dummy emails and texts more, calling me more names for refusing to sign his cancellation terms, even though he’s done the same to me.

Again, all she wants him to do is his job.

I again send him a handful of crappy listings, and very valid reasons I might want each property.

He says nothing, and I ask him every 2-3 hours to send me documentation on them. That if he’s still our agent, he’s obligated to do SOMETHING.

That he cannot legally refuse to fulfill his contractual duties, and still keep us in the contract.

He must choose.

At this point I’m building a pretty solid paper trail of begging him to do what his is contractually obligated to do, and evidence of his refusal.

Agent Dummy has started to realize that I am NOT going to go away. I keep sending him properties, and keep at him to send me info, which he never does.

They got what they wanted.

Finally, mercifully, Agent Dummy texts me that he is terminating us as clients, and that we are free to work with whoever we want.

Two days later, he finally sends me the contract cancellation.

We are elated, and sign quickly as it all is in order. After, though, I take a very close look at his actual signature on the page. He signed the cancellation “**** Off” instead of Agent Dummy.

Guy’s a real class act.

They talked to their attorney again.

Luckily, our attorney said through his laughs, that the cancellation is still binding, and if he did try to take us to court, he’d obviously have to explain to a judge that he signed a legal document with an expletive.

He assured us that we finally were done with him!

The real estate commission investigator had actually asked me to keep him updated on the outcome of the situation. So, after hearing back from the lawyer that we were indeed done, I called him back to tell him.

I told him exactly what happened, and that I just forced him to work with us until he realized he’d have 4 more months of me still not going away, so he cancelled.

Mr. Nice Investigator could not stop laughing.

Hopefully the investigator does share what worked with other people.

He told me Agent Douche calls him regularly, and uses him as a point of contact because none of the other investigators will speak to him. He tells me the guy “Has a few screws loose”.

I tell him I hope he will tell anyone else in our position what worked, and to feel free to pass my info along if necessary.

He readily accepts that offer, and we jovially end the call.

In the end I’m very glad I stood up to this jerk, and I have zero regrets.

We called his bluff, and I can pretty well bet that no one had done that to him before. He was absolutely used to bullying people into getting his way.

She should really warn people online about this guy. Post a Yelp review or something explaining what happened, or can she contact the Better Business Bureau? This guy really shouldn’t be allowed to take on clients and refuse to do his job.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person offers a suggestion.

Seriously, you can’t get anything for under a million in California.

Real estate agents really should be held to higher standards.

I feel lucky to have worked with a great realtor too.

There are great real estate agents out there, but this guy is one of the worst!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.