Codovamom, Unfortunately, wire transfers sometimes don't get to the closings in time. I've been to many many closings where we have waited 3 or 4 hours and no money only to have to come back the next day. I don't know what time they got the money, but it sounds to me like there wasnt enough hours left in the day for her to wrap her appointments up and get the keys to your son tonight which is why she said first thing in the morning. (She might have already had a late appt set or something). Your son might have been able to pick them up from her office if he wanted to. Although he's probably frustrated that he has to wait, there really isnt much of a complaint there.

Is there a complaint worth formalizing here? Probably not. It's unfortunate that the listing agent is acting the way he is. He doesn't care because the deal is done and he has his money. Like so many people that operate somewhat independently, they should never be paid until they do the entire job or they slack. Not everyone does this, of course. But I never pay anyone the full amount until the job is done. I wish I could trust everyone to do what I paid them to do without having to hold out until the job is complete.

Wire transfers sometimes take days, & the contract undoubtedly stipulated that the keys were to be delivered once the seller had their money (funding).

I usually give the keys to the closing office (attorney or title company) at closing, & they give them to the buyer once the sale is funded, or to the buyer's agent when he comes in to collect his check.

Sylvia -- I didn't realize that wire transfers took so long. But I do think the most frustrating part was that the listing agent held onto the keys instead of delivering them to the attorney at closing. Once the bank officially had the wire transfer, my son could have picked up the keys from the attorney yesterday had that been the case. Instead he's taking more time off from work this morning to go pick them up.

Over n under -- I'm with you, had it been me at closing I wouldn't have given my funds without receiving the keys that day. My son trusted that he would have the keys the next day. I'm guessing he won't be so trusting next time. The listing agent is uncooperative and there's this nifty little rating service online to rate realtors, lets say he got less than a stellar rating from my son. So although nothing formally could be done, at least my son got some satisfaction out of rating the guy poorly.

Well why not use the rating site? I think it's a great idea, hopefully he's able to add some comments.

Where is this rating site? I think we'd all like to know!

It's called real estate ratingz -- I'm not sure if it will be very effective, not a lot of realtors are on the site from our area, but at least my son could get a little satisfaction out of giving the guy a bad rating. I haven't even gone into the other problems with this guy because I'm not one for writing long posts, but the issues with closing and not getting his keys was the last straw.

Here is a link that might be useful: real estate ratingz

Sorry about your son's hassle. Hope things go more smoothly with his move-in.

Thanks for the rating site. I entered the name of the agent who sold our last two houses and gave him a top rating. Not that he needs my help, as he is very successful. But to see the way he handles each deal, you'd think he was a hungry young newbie and not an established agent and co-owner of his office. He made us feel as if the sale of our home meant as much to him as it did to us, and he took great pains to make it as stress-free as possible.

BTW, there was trouble with a wire from our buyer's bank at our last closing and we ended up having to postpone a while. There were other glitches, too, but none were our agent's fault.