Wow. It's like dating Dr. Jekyll who turns into Mr. Hyde after you marry him! Or, is it Mr. Hyde turns into Dr. Jekyll?

At any rate, A. was on their best behavior to get your business.

You're not being unreasonable.

On their best behavior to get the business, but instead the seller got the business. Ick!

Doesn't help you now, but how many people look for property on each agent's website? Their website doesn't seem important to me.

Thanks for the comments. It was so bad, it became a joke, except that there would have been a commission coming at the end. Realtor Hyde became Realtor Jekyll indeed.

The website thing I know isn't that important, but to me it could have been a sign of where the realtor's priorities were. We were afraid that B agents maybe wouldn't work as hard for the lower-priced house (and the comp situation had left us wondering if they even wanted the listing).

This is not our first time selling property. We moved from a bigger city where we bought and sold many times and always had fantastic agents working for us. Since moving to this area we have been so unimpressed with the realtors here. But we really really thought with A's experience, reputation and penchant for high end sales, that it would be a great experience.

We are left wondering a few things:
Were we just not a priority because it was a lower priced listing?
Was there a team involved with A that we didn't know about, and they were the ones messing up?
Is this experience typical for other of A's clients? We didn't get references, we relied on reputation.

I have since prepared a list of questions (gathered from here - thanks, everyone!) for the next time round, so that our expectations are clearly laid out. I don't want to be THAT high-maintenance, I just want other people to do their best, just like I try to do.

Needless to say, we won't be using or recommending A to anyone in the future.

It never even crossed my mind that this was a possibility. Are we dumb or what? I have a sneaking suspicion this was the case, and the associates were ones that we'd come across before that didn't impress at all.

If your listing is on the lower end it is true you may not get a top agent to want it, or get an agent to pay a photographer to take pics. You might be more successful getting a newer but eager agent to do a good job.

IME, Top Producing agents give less custom service than the single go - getter agent. The Top Producer meets the seller, gets the listing and then hands it off to the office employees. IMO, something gets lost along the way. Mind you, maybe not all large RE teams are run this way, but I believe most are.

Lesson learned! Are most top agents upfront about this? If we had been told about the team we would not have chosen A since we had dealings with those other agents in the past and were not happy with them.

I know one of the top producers in the country, yes, he has a team of staff under him. I'd never work with him, but many people do.

WalMart, Lowes and Target are Top Producers. But you don't go there for their customer service...

I am an agent on a team, but my "top producers" (Wife primary and husband team) handle things quite differently. Firstly, they introduce potential clients to the entire team (when available) and all of our names and pictures are on their listing presentation. That way the clients have a clear expectation and they know that if they aren't getting the service they expected, they can go straight to the top. They handle all the difficult situations and sticky situations personally.

And they have high expectations of their staff. Their "top" performance relies on having a staff to do the grunt work - scheduling the photographer, arranging the photos, social media, MLS input (which is quite tedious), paperwork, etc. And it relies on managing the staff closely - not all Real Estate Agents are leaders by nature, as I have observed closely. I think this is the most critical aspect of running a successful team.

My "top producers" focus on doing what they do best and their service applies to all listings. Right now we have listings between $70K to $1.3M. But they won't take a listing from an unreasonable or uncooperative seller. They don't let sellers run them around into the ground. Serious sellers, serious buyers.

That said, it doesn't always make sense to use the professional photographer for the lower end listings - it's just too expensive (charged by SqFt, so sometimes it is worth it for smaller listings). The photos are vetted very carefully; in fact, we are looking for a new photographer because our current go-to guy is slipping (I still think his photos are amazing but apparently they used to be better).

If you had a listing appointment with us, you would have gotten the pitch - blah blah blah. You'd see that selling a house is about PRICE and EXPOSURE so your position on the agent's website isn't as important as how many websites your listing would be shown on - most buyers are looking on realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia. You would sign the listing agreement, but set a date for the listing to go live, usually on a Thursday, maybe in a week or two. You'd have to fill out tons of paperwork including FAQs on the home that might have information you have to look up (how old the HVAC is, when that plumbing repair was done, etc) You'd have been given a punch sheet with items to complete within the established timeframe in order to get top dollar for your home. The punch sheet is usually two main items: packing up clutter and curb appeal. If there are pets, then smell is often an issue. We'd check up on your progress to schedule the photographer a few days prior to the listing date (and staging if that is appropriate). We'd have told you that there would be an open house that Sunday after the listing went live and how to prepare for showings and the open house.

It's more complicated than this (ask a successful FSBO seller!) but that's the nutshell since I need to get off this computer and get ready for an open house!

Good luck!

We just got back from Sunday lunch at a restaurant. While we were there I picked up the local Homes For Sale advertising magazine for our area. Lo and behold, there is agent A's page, but it is a team page with 2 agents that I had decided to NOT work with, after having worked with them before on a sale. Not only did they mess up the closing (went out of town with the only key) but during the negotiations, I ended offering (and paying) less because of their suggestion of where to start the bidding. I gained as the buyer, but that's not the kind of agent I want selling my house.

As I said before, had I been aware that agent A was now working with these realtors, A would have been off the list immediately. It's not that I'm opposed to the team concept. I just didn't want to have these agents representing me.

c9ilot, I like the approach that your team has. It sounds professional and I'm sure it gets good results.

Well here's a two year later update: we decided it was time to sell again and this time we gave the young guns the listing. That was B from above. It was a totally different experience. They were professional and organized. They staged the house with me. It looked like a house from a magazine!

When they posted the listing on their Facebook page it got bounced around with lots of enthusiasm.

They took professional quality photos. Everything was done at the speed of lightening. The first day we had three showings and we had an offer in hand that night.

We will be closing shortly and at a significantly higher price than two years ago so we are very thankful to God for how things turned out. We were able to help two other families who needed housing short term and they took good care of the property.

I would not hesitate to use those Young guns again because of their eagerness and professionalism. The word has spread about this team and they are now top realtors in town.

Happy for you, good ending.

I love a good follow-up post. Thanks nan-nan!

Glad all worked out this time and thank you for posting a follow-up.