Friday, April 27, 2007

Jim Huff Realty Inc. Complaint and Disadvantages

As most of you all know, we've been house-hunting. I took the advice of a good neighbor friend and decided to ask a realtor to show me houses.Well I couldn't have made a worse decision when I chose a realtor from the Jim Huff Realty Inc. company.

I asked this Huff realtor to show me such and such houses on a Friday. This was on a Tuesday. She agreed. Then that night she called and wanted to know if me and my husband could come into her office "to look at some possible listings and for her to get to know us better" before she started showing us houses. After all, she said she didn't want to waste our time showing us houses we weren't interested in.

Well, I know my husband. There was no way he was going to sit down and talk to anyone. He's very much a do-er. So, I thought I would get this preliminary stuff out of the way on Wednesday while he was working, so I agreed to meet with her.

Come into my lair said the spider to the fly.

The bait...

I entered her office at Jim Huff Realty Inc. on Cavalier in Florence KY, and we spent about 45 minutes looking at various listings and discussing me and my husband's preferences, school districts, our price range, etc. as she had promised.

And now for the switch....

Out of nowhere and like a slap in my face she whips out this "exclusive realtor" work contract. Ya Allah! Walla! She actually had the nerve to say to me that it was actually a waste of her time to start showing me houses unless I first signed this exclusive buyer contract and promise that I would only work with her. This contract stated that if I were to buy a house in the next months, I will promise to only buy it with her and she will get the 3% commission!I couldn't believe it! I hadn't even seen one house with this woman, I had absolutely no idea what kind of work she could do, and she was demanding my loyalty to her!

This was demoralizing, demeaning, and a complete waste of me and my family's limited precious time!

What does this realtor think I am, an idiot? And who does she think she is, a lawyer or something?Lawyers perform exclusive services, and they are highly trained professionals, that require dedicated legal contracts etc. Doctors for example are also highly trained advanced professional individuals that perform exclusive services. We have a family lawyer, a family doctor, even a family veterinarian.... but a realtor is not on the same level as a Doctor or a Lawyer.

A realtor is not a highly trained professional with an advanced professional degree. She is merely a SALESMAN (well in this case a SALESWOMAN), nothing more, nothing less. She is the same as a car salesman, a furniture salesman, or the guy down the street at Buddy's Carpet Barn who sells carpets.

My parents, friends, neighbors, and clergyperson all would call me an insane fool if I signed an agreement with the salesman at Buddy's Carpet Barn promising him I'd buy some carpet from him, when he hasn't even shown me one bit of merchandise or found the right carpet in my price range!!!!!! So why should I do the same with this Huff realtor?

We are actually almost a week behind in our house hunting because of her stunt.We are currently renting and will soon go into a month-to-month fee because we will be staying past our lease period. We need to expedite the house buying process, not have ridiculous antics like this from SELFISH REALTORS like those at Jim Huff Realty Inc.

The realtor who did this to me told me that this is company policy. That means there is a serious problem with customer service and in the company vision of management at Jim Huff Realty Inc. The only conclusion I am able to make by such a selfish company policy is that this company doesn't want to help a potential home buyer; they only want to make phat cash for themselves and the buyer. That makes Jim Huff Realty Inc. by their very nature PREDATORY REALTORS when it comes to how they interact with potential buyers of homes.

Shame shame shame on you, Jim Huff Realty, Inc.!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

My wife and I went through Century 21 Gold Service Realtors in Erlanger. Bill Hauser was the Realtor. My wife knew him from a long time ago. I don't remember signing any sort of exclusive Realtor contract, but that could be because we were friends and it could be the Realtor. Either way, I never had any problem with the realtors just the mortgage broker.

Good Luck!

Rockin' Hejabi said...

Wow, thanks for your input Darrell.

If you don't mind answering, what happened with the mortgage broker?

We're rookies here as first time buyers, so any advice from others like you who know the ropes is much appreciated!

Unknown said...

Well my closing costs seemed to go up even time we met him. because they estimated taxes wrong or something. that mortgage broker is out of business now though. if you are using a mortgage broker, shop around. I didn't and it cost me more than I expected. If they give you an estimate see if you can get them to stick to that estimate. get a printout every time you see them to check for any changes.

I spoke to a realtor friend yesterday and they said that an exclusivity contract is pretty standard. Since you only need a lawyer to draw up paperwork if you wanted, the contract is to prevent people from using the realtor to do all the work in locating a house, getting price comparisons etc. and then leaving them out of the process and just having a lawyer draw up the paperwork for $600. On a $200K house that's either a six or twelve thousand dollar commision depending on if each side has a realtor. besides you don't pay the realtor anything, the sellers do. Realtors can see a lot more info about houses on the MLS than we can, including previous sale prices and any realtor notes from the last sale.
Oh and I believe the contracts have a way to end them or at least an expiration. Ask if that contract is tied to that realtor personally or just the office. Like maybe switching to another realtor in the same office.

Rockin' Hejabi said...

Thanks Darrell, for your input and insights on this crazy subject!

NO WAY will we ever sign that kinda nonesense...they can work for our business the old fashioned way or else take the highway.

We actually found "our realtor"...we've decided to go with Mark over at Kentucky Homefront Realty. He's never "doubted" our intentions and he's doing grrrrrrrrrreat work. I highly recommend him or anyone from his company! He doesn't require an exclusivity contract, and he really knows his stuff.

amanda said...

Oh dear! I hope that wasn't my aunt. (She's a Huff realtor, but I love her, of course).

I never had to sign such a contract with my Comey & Shepherd realtor, and I had a great experience with her. They're not all evil; it just seems that way, especially considering how much of your hard-earned money they get when you buy or sell a house. Good luck!

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