July 10th 2020
Writing to you from the trenches of the pandemic. It’s been a week or so since we went into contract on our 2 bedroom, 3 blocks over on the Prospect/Crown Heights border. We’ve shaken off most of the fear, and readied to embrace the uncertainty. We have many thoughts about New York real estate after a year of searching, and an intense two weeks of coming to agreement on a new property. Although we love and owe so much to our broker for his endless patience and thuroughness, dealing with seller’s agents in general has left a long lasting bad taste in our mouths. To be clear, it’s not their faults. It’s just that In every real estate interaction we were party to, someone was getting had. Someone was getting lied to. Sellers brokers warned us of other buyers chomping at the bit. It was on us to act right now, or lose the deal. And lo and behold, the property continues to languish on the market. We lost one apartment to a bidder who came brokerless, and persuaded the seller’s broker to represent him (we know because we personally contacted the seller). The seller’s broker then put his thumb on the scale in favor of earning both ends of the broker’s commission. We believe this happened a second time when a place we bid on sold to another buyer who matched our bid to the dollar. All this is to say, brokers don’t protect you from shadiness they are the shadiness. When you think about it, a broker who acts morally, and makes no attempt to pull one over on the person they’re negotiating with is not very good at her job. What real estate company would reward would an employee for just being patient and hoping their clients arrive at a quick decision? For not stepping in to coax, to embellish, to nudge a deal along faster than a client’s comfort level. I totally get it. But getting into your new home should feel pure and amazing, and because of the pressure and potentially false claims of the seller’s broker (who contacted every day to demand we sign so fast we couldn’t even wait for our appraisal to come in!), what should feel like the fruits of our choice, has the slight sting of a position we were pressured into. So, one thing we said to ourselves, is if we can help it, why would we subject ourselves to this unnecessary pressure. Why would we PAY for the displeasure? And as much as we would love to pay our terrrifc broker a fair price to handle one end of the sale, it doesn’t work like that in this rigged, dumb system. We’re not interested in paying the person who walks you in here and points out the cabinetry. So, the journey begins.
