Anyone have any dealings as a buyer's agent for Auction.com?
I was asked to represent an out of state buyer on a contract for Auction.com. I do work for this client on a routine basis. I was to be paid 1% and I signed the contract as the brokerage for the selling side. I was sent several emails by the title company giving me the impression that we were on track to close and that I was certainly representing the buyer. I received the hud statement and noticed that my brokerage was not on the hud. I addressed this with the title company three times by email why my brokerage was not showing on the hud as the selling brokerage, all it stated was that the selling brokerage was out of state and it was not the amount that I was supposed to get.
Finally I received an email from the title company stating that the closing instructions did not state that I was receive a commission and it was my job to contact Auction.com. HUH? The hud had supposedly already been approved? REALLY?
I sent the person at the title company an email back stating that per contract agreement I was supposed to be paid a commission and regardless of closing instructions the Hud was not correct.
I called the buyer's representative who said she would get a hold of someone at Auction.com and I also called the person from Auction.com who originally contacted me for the contract. He said he would get a hold of the closing department at Auction.com to try to get this straightened out.
One of my agents told me that Auction.com is notorious for stiffing agents and not paying them a commission.
I have worked with them as a listing agent. but the title companies were on top of it and I did get paid.
I have had problems with this particular title company, it is one of those out of state title companies that seems to be impossible to get anything done correctly.
I am totally flabbergasted that this has happened and I am not sure what to think.
I am going to wait until tomorrow to see if this can be resolved, but if it is not, I may need to seek further action.
Can someone let me know if I am out of touch to think I am going to be stiffed and what would my options be other than legal counsel? I do not want to get out of favor with my client, but on the other hand this is just flat out wrong. I feel like I have been had.
Replies
Why would you want to continue with this client???If they were any kind of a client and you had a good relationship with them --they would make this good to you. DUMP THEM sue for your commission and walk away once you get paid...
These are major banks like JPMorgan Chase. Sometimes when the auction fails you get the listing back, like I just did this week. Rarely, you do get a nice listing to double dip a perhaps list the buyer's former house.
As the saying goes: "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water." Also we hope the big banks come to their senses eventually and realize how important we can be to them.
Auction.com is notorious and soooo unpopular with buyers too. The whole Chase no selling agent commission thing is nothing but bizarre. Why in Gods' name would any agent - even the listing agent bring a buyer? They wouldn't of course. Auction.com gets the buyer premium plus whatever the seller agrees for a fee on top of that. Agents get to front the bills, hold open houses, supervise conditions constantly, provide reports and inspections and with the awful process this goes on much longer than a normal listing term. Try it in a rural area where the buyers are few and far between. Sometimes I think I could move to Bangelore and be an outsource agent and make more money.
We are gluttons for punishment!
I do not know why the OAR or state real estate divisions do not step in. Also Hubzu and Go homing are also notorious.
Thank you for interesting information. I won't even try to enroll in one of this "programs'.
It is my opinion that we (Realtors) are considered as peddlers as before 1913 (?). Until we don't earn respect in the industry we are not going to be the one who establish the so called "Commission" ( in my case is Compensation, since I have to work hard to earn it). I understand that we are always in the search for business opportunity, that's our nature but in the position we are at this very moment we are always to get deceived by those companies that we already know on this blog.
Auction.com snagged one of my listings. A rural property with 1.6 acres on a one lane gravel road. House needed work.
Old barn a teardown. One decent 30x40 pole building. I got to babysit it while they tried to sell it online. They failed. I think they ran it through again. Still they and Chase bank left me wondering for weeks what the status was. I put it back in MLS.
Got a cash offer from another agent. Rejected because Chase didn't tell asset mgr if it was in auction status or not. Only then the asset mgr pressed Chase for a status. Then next day I was told it's back on retail status. What a waste of time. Now we'll see if we can get a sale. Resubmitting the cash offer. Oh by the way, they reduced the price to $28000.
I have had three Auction.com listings. Buyers agents need to read the fine print. It will tell you if there is no buyers agent commission and what you need to do if there is a commission. Two went thru over twelve rounds of Auction.com before selling at auction at about 50% of list price.. The seller pulled the third one after several rounds. We sold it for list price in one week.
If you take the listing you get a blazing 1% commission, will be required to do a weekly inspection ( no fee to you), a BPO and a two day Open House ( Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 4). I just turned one down and told them 2% with a $1,500 minimum, no open house, no free BPO and a fee for each inspection. They will probably give it to some other lucky Realtor but I will not work for peanuts.
you are right and if we can get enough agents to put their foot down, things might change.
Right on the auction site they have the terms for anyone to see. Working too much on these deals will probably cause us to miss some easier business, especially right now and thru the summer.
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