Ask her how she intends to pay for what she caused

If you would love to fire her, you probably won't care too much if she acquires hurt or ill feelings. You could send her a note that includes the above pictures and ask her what she will do about fixing it (explaining that she probably has no idea she even did it.) If this is in the South, you can make your note drippingly sweet. If it is in the North, you can just be matter of fact. She might send some lackey over there to tend to it, but that might be good enough. It's not really a serious problem. With a little fill, cleaning up and a little time to heal, it will look normal again. Soon.

You could send her a note with pic (and perhaps an estimate from a local landscaper for the repair) asking how soon she will have it fixed or will she be deducting the price from her commission so you can have it fixed.

If she doesn't fix it -- or even if she does, especially if you're bringing in a landscaper rather than having any yard work "do it yourself", you might consider finding out the costs of outlining that side of the driveway with a double row of pavers about sixteen inches apart and using it as a planting area -- perhaps for lirope or something similar -- and/or add posts spaced every six or eight feet with hanging basket brackets and/or solar lights -- and/or some other "do not park on the grass" indications without an actual sign.

As you address landscaping issues, do make sure you have a parking/turn around space(s) for yourselves and your guests.

Lawn looks healthy. Difficult to tell from the pic but does that tree block your view ... do make sure you can see both ways as you exit the driveway.

So, from a real estate perspective, if I ever did that to someone’s lawn I would address it immediately and pay for the repair. If there’s a chance she didn’t notice, I would give her one chance to make it right with a pleasant email request. After that, gloves off and make demands. That is unacceptable.

Like everyone else said, just ask her how she plans to fix it. I really like yardvarks advice. I am in the north so I appreciate directness, but do be polite and start from the assumption of ignorance on her part.

And if you live in a small community, be careful not to make enemies for life of your Realtor and new neighbors. Sometimes you have accept being ‘wronged’ to get along and that may mean adding dirt, racking it out and spreading grass seed and move on.

Congrats on the new home.

Aerial view was in an ad? Like a circle driveway and a lot with plenty of trees.

That's a really nice front yard and driveway and I do see what appears to be a parking/turn around space (at about one o'clock) that would enable another vehicle to drive around the circle; however, if y'all have two or more vehicles and/or a lot of guests -- and in order to avoid a lot of backing up for family and guests -- you might want to widen that parking space.

Alternately -- and only with a really solid foundation -- you could put pavers in that oval of grass (at about twelve o'clock), with or without grass between the pavers, and have the option of setting a table and pair of chairs there most of the time for a small front yard patio -- except, of course, when you're expecting a lot of company and would need to use it as guest parking space and want to avoid having your yard similarly ditched again.

Hopefully she didn't damage any sprinkler heads?

The sellers should be dealing with this. If I came home, as a seller, and saw this after a visit by buyer and agents, I would be asking them both to fix it. What if the deal falls through at the last minute? Then the seller would be stuck with the damage.

Just re-read and saw the house is empty, so yeah, it's on you to get it fixed, because the seller is probably not around to notice.

Maybe call the selling agent and tell them that your realtor did the damage ...

Call the realtor and say you want it fixed. Most offices have a couple of mostly ok tradespeople they call to do stuff cheap and quick for sellers, she can afford to take a couple hundred bucks out of her commission to fix her mistake.

While this may be the "final straw" I sense your issues are related to the total experience vs this single lawn issue. Pick your battles carefully. A negative rating on facebook, google, zillow, etc will provide a more effective "message" AFTER the closing post your review- be articulate and factual dont throw personal barbs -- this is really not a big deal as long as sprinkler heads were not damaged.

Of course at closing , where typically the agents are present, your lawyer can present the pictures and ask for a concession-- your agent will be in front of her peers and will hopefully set up.

Having moved 17 times, I wouldn’t notice this. Frankly, until the movers are out of your house, I wouldn’t bother. The movers are likely to cause more damage to the lawn. One move, three of my tables were broken, my little boy’s ship models were thrown in the bottom of a box unwrapped and heavy things stacked on top, and a box of toothpicks was triple wrapped in movers paper. Another move saw my antique corner cupboard destroyed, tire marks on a footstool, items soaking wet from rain, and my custom dining table had a leg ripped off. Moving is stressful and I am never happy until the movers are out of the house and off the property. I don’t know you or your Realtor, but if you were unhappy you could have asked the office manager/broker to step in. I have done that in the past. You could call your agent’s broker (boss) for help resolving this lawn issue.

I would absolutely contact the realtor on this. I would never "not notice this" as someone suggested above. Just be polite, send pictures, and ask that she either make repairs or compensate you for same.

I get it but to be honest if you are having renovations done this might not be the last damage to the yard It really is an easy fix get 2 bags of dirt fillt he rut and plant some grass seed in fact if you just left it the grass would fill in by itself. Maybe they had no choice if there was another car there first to me this is not worth having a fight over and if this is the last straw with the realtor then report them to the realty company and ask them to deal with it.

"What if the deal falls through at the last minute? Then the seller would be stuck with the damage."

Seriously?? A purchase deal fall through because of an insignificant rut in the lawn? This is not a big deal and is easily and inexpensively fixed. You all are making much too big a fuss about it........maybe 30-60 minutes to repair and for less than $100 bucks. Won't look perfect immediately but an excellent point was made that all the coming and going involved with moving in could create even more issues. Wait until after you are settled in before repairing, whoever is responsible for taking care of it. In most parts of the country you can overseed or reseed lawns untl well into September.

Technically, you don't own the house yet and if the sellers see that, they should actually be the ones to demand it be fixed. But since you have the pictures and you know who did it, I agree with others that you should ask your agent to repair it. She's receiving a commission from the sellers and should be willing to use a portion of it (most likely very small) to fix the damage she caused. I hope it doesn't become an issue with her.

You can’t fire her now. She found you the house. Your contract requires you to pay for her services.

But that’s pretty bad of her to pretend not to notice. I’d have an offhand remark, ‘after we get settled, I’ll call you about the lawn.’ Like others pointed out, it could be minor compared to moving trucks.

My hunch is that you're more frustrated with the realtor for a bunch of the other reasons you mentioned, and this is one of those "straw that broke the camel's back" situations.....

Please don't hate me - but that rut isn't all that bad. I'm going to guarantee you that if you're having renovations done to the home, someone along the way is going to drive in the yard, and/or wreck something on the inside of the home as well. Same thing goes if you're having "professional" movers move your stuff into the house. Stuff gets dinged, wrecked, whatever - it's the nature of the beast. Sad but true that a lot of people just aren't that careful and/or observant as they move through life.

I personally wouldn't even say a word to the realtor on this one. However it's going to be your house so if it's truly bugging you that badly then I like yardvaark's advice above.

Regardless of your feelings towards her, I'm sure she didn't do this on purpose. If anything, she was trying to be considerate and allow other vehicles to pass through. It's really not a big deal and I wouldn't make it one. It won't be the last one, especially if you are having renovations done.

And it's very possible that she notified someone about the rut. Just because she didn't tell you doesn't mean she didn't tell someone.

Thanks for the all the comments. I was probably a little more annoyed with the realtor for other reasons and have had time to cool off about it. I appreciate the comments. I will not be adressing this.

gardengal, no, I wasn't saying the deal would fall through because of a lawn rut! But a deal could fall through at the last minute due to job loss, death and hundreds of other reasons. The point was that the seller was not there to see the damage and IF the deal fell through, that would be the first thing that any new buyers would see when they came to see the property.

^^^ And they'd think, "oops, someone missed the curve" and move on with life.

^^ Exactly!! I cannot imagine any prospective buyer looking at that rut and deciding it would be a deterrent to purchase. That is just so far down on the list of any concerns when buying a house as to be non-existant. It's like having leaves to rake up or a few weeds to pull.

I think at least mentioning it to the realtor will help her be better at what she does. I guarantee you that she didn't even think twice about parking on the grass, not because she didn't care but because it didn't register as a detail that matters. My company is as good as we are because we've had enough vocal clients (and before them, vocal and obsessive bosses) who helped us understand that it may not be a big deal to us, but we need to consider if it'll be a big deal to the client. Those "little things" then got baked into the processes and policies.

Have you never owned a house with no curbs between the street nd the lawn? If you are upset with that small rut, what are you going to do when it happens again... and again... and again?

If you want to feel proactive, suggest your realtor have someone spend $10-$15 bucks on a couple of bags of topsoil and a few handfuls of grass seed.

Sheesh.

PS In a month you wouldn't even know it was there.

It rained here every day straight for the last 10 days. (Finally dry today, so far)

Wondering if the property might be in wet Central Florida? Most every lawn here has a rut like that in their yard. If not from a truck or car then from lawn mowers. The ground is saturated and it doesn’t take much to dig into it.

In a few weeks that rut will disappear. It’s no big deal. Good luck with your closing.

Honestly, I'd be mostly annoyed with this if I were the seller. The seller is giving the agent thousands in commission and she leaves that for the seller or buyer to deal with. She had to gun it to create that rut. It's a matter of respect for her client and the buyer to apologize and offer to get it fixed, regardless of how trivial she (and others) thinks it is. Unfortunately, too many people nowadays think that just being respectful is making a mountain out of a molehill over something that's no big deal.

In soft ground she did not need to gun anything to leave that rut. I live in the city on a street that is narrow with no curbs and a deep ditch on one side. When it has been raining the ground next to the street often has ruts this deep or more when people move over to give larger vehicles coming from the opposite direction. they all fill in given time.

I guess I'm just a bit gobsmacked that people are defending this. I would never do that to someone else's lawn and just leave. I wouldn't care about lack of curbs, or wet ground, or whether I thought it was not a big deal, or whether I left the property slowly or not. I damaged someone's property. I'm going to apologize and offer to fix it. As someone here said earlier--Sheesh.

Well, it might be trivial to some, but the ruts would bother me, too. I've made ruts like that in lawns and I've always fixed them or paid others to. If your Realtor is made aware they damaged the lawn, I would expect them to cover the cost to fix it.

Had a similar situation a while back, I was there with a homeowner who was in the contract to buy the house and realtor was running late. we had our cars in the driveway and when the realtor got there, he tried to go around the cars and wiped out a retaining wall. He just told the customer get a few estimates and I will take care of it. The guy who does my landscaping fixed everything for a few hundred dollars and the realtor wrote him a check no questions asked.

Like others said, this is a minor thing, a few wheel barrels of topsoil and seed and you will never know it was there.

Good luck on your new home and don't lose any sleep over it!

A bag or two of cheap dirt from the local big box store will fill in that ditch. Grass will spread on its own.

While the property is in transition, this sort of stuff is to be expected.

Multiple realtors showing the home to multiple prospective homeowners. As in the case of the OP, meeting with tradespeople for bids on renovations. Trades in and out during the renovations. Movers backing trucks in and out. Friends & family in & out to see the new house. Stuff is going to happen. Guaranteed. Expect it. (To say nothing about the driveway having a curve and being a tad bit difficult to start with.) Even the new homeowner is likely to repeat making those ruts until they are accustomed to backing out of it. I've lived in this house for over 20 years and I managed to back out into the lawn just a couple of weeks ago. (Driving an unfamiliar car, & having a difficult driveway while focusing on getting thru the garage door opening with mirrors intact!) (All garage doors should be at least 10' wide! ;-)

My point is to accept that minor stuff like this will happen. Fix it next spring when (hopefully) life has gotten back to some kind of normal.

"Of course at closing , where typically the agents are present, your lawyer can present the pictures and ask for a concession-- your agent will be in front of her peers and will hopefully set up."

What a piece of lousy advice... A closing is for closing... not for negotiating something as trivial as this between you and your agent, or for trying to make someone look bad in the hopes of collecting money. So petty.

If it bothers you, and it would me, just be up front with her and ask if she will send someone out to repair it.

Grass won't grow back there until the pioneer weeds go through their natural cycle.

Honestly? This is small thing to get upset about -- it's a small piece of lawn. I would just let it go.

I'd leave the ruts to serve as a warning to not drive on the lawn for the moving trucks and other people. When things settle down, fix it. It's easy and won't take long.

I'm the original poster. So here's an update. Somebody attempted to fix the rut by adding dirt. I am not sure who tried to fix it but it was not done well.

We finally closed on Monday. The idiot realtor - in her haste to update zillow with the sale price - incorrectly supplied information with a sale price $55k less than actual. She continues to find ways to screw up this experience for us.

Well the lower sales price could be good or bad depending on the point of view of are you planning to stay a while or move soon again. If staying a while and your property taxes are based on values you might be able to use Zillow to lower your property taxes. If trying to sell soon then buyers will probably look at it and wonder what you did to justify a higher price so soon after buying.

Sorry about the less than stellar realtor.

Have her fix it. She has to get in touch with her board to get it done. It ruins the comps otherwise.

" It ruins the comps otherwise. "

?? Can you explain how this would possibly factor into any comps?

A professional realtor uses the town or county records for comps, not a for-profit website life Zillow.

Have her correct Zillow. It won't affect comps or taxes. Taxes are determined by the selling price registered with the county on your deed and comps are from recent sales recorded in the area.

An agent does not put in data directly to Zillow. The agent inputs all data into the local MLS and then the third party sites import this data. And Zillow is full of bad info.

If it bothers you, change it yourself. IMO, what data the third party sites are claiming is not important to me.

@gardengal48, I just saw your question in response to my comment copied below:

" It ruins the comps otherwise. "

?? Can you explain how this would possibly factor into any comps?

I see I made an assumption that ncrealestateguy actually spelled out. The assumption was that you knew the MLS feeds to Zillow so that incorrect info is corrected at the source: The MLS. I assumed that the agent had incorrectly posted the sales price in the MLS and said 'ruins the comps'.

As agents, we use the information in the MLS for sales prices/dates as our data for comps. Not Zillow. However, nc is also right that Zillow is filled with bad info. Some of that bad info is imported from the MLS and some is of Zillow's own making. When an error is made in the sales price, an agent not party to the contract has no way of knowing that until it is corrected on the MLS unless that error is obvious. It's not always obvious. In the OP's case, a $55k error may not be obvious at all and thereby affect the comps for the agents using that data for recent sales on their own listing presentations.

It is best that the OP contact the listing agent to correct. And if the LA won't fix it, contact the broker to fix. The broker would then notify the MLS to correct the error because once the sale is closed in the MLS, no further changes can be made to the info without MLS admin making the change.