Mike, I totally agree. I have a deal right now where I represent the seller and buyer is not represented but her GFE had some junk fees. I mentioned to her she may be able to do better somewhere else and had a lender I work with look at the GFE and said she could do better but buyer had been recommended by family to use this lender, so there you go. At least I feel like I tried.

Nothing wrong with compassion.

Mike,

Place a reminder in your Outlook to remind you to start a marketing campaign in that neighborhood regarding short sales and how you are a great agent to use for such things. Send it into that neighborhood starting 6 months before that balloons and then once a month after that and in five years you will have that (now a seller) mindshare and you can sell the home AGAIN! :p

Mike, I appreciate your compassion as well. I might in your position be vacillating between ringing up the agent's broker and bringing it to their attention, and keeping my mouth shut.

In our area there are and have been some very predatory agents and loan people who have just horribly taken advantage of some of our Hispanic homebuyers and sellers, who already mistrust real estate and loan people enough without getting punked by the awful ones. There are good ones, too . . . I have a lovely lady in my office with an MBA who studied on both sides of the border. The clients tell her horror stories.

I LOVE Scott's idea to turn this to your advantage. You might have this seller sooner than 5 years . . .

Mike, Don't feel so bad.  You did your job.  Yeah, the Buyer's Agent probably didn't do his (or her) job and that really s*cks.

However, I was the Buyer's Agent last year in a sale that was a mess!  Short Sale, mechanic's lien, etc. I told my Buyer that I could not, in all good conscience, sell him this house. Many issues with the house itself, too. Electrical, plumbing, flooring, you name it.

"You'll hate me for the rest of your life", I said.  He insisted this was the house for him. Got him with a different mortgage broker, payments decreased a little, but not enough IMHO.  Nonetheless, he went for it and I tried to protect him as much as I could.

Flash forward one year later.....He's the founder and CEO of my raving fan club.  He calls me "the miracle worker" and says he never could have purchased a home without me.  He did up his own flyer for the Base with my pic and his glowing recommendation. Just received yet another referral from him last night.

You never know what will happen.  You do the best you can and keep your Client's best interests at heart.  Sometimes they even completely disregard your professional opinion.  But at least you listened and were honest.  You know it, they know it, but it's ultimately the Buyer's decision.

I agree that it is hard when you feel bad for the other side and there's not really anything you can do to help them.  Their agent either didn't know better himself or, most likely, didn't care.  To him it was just a sale and he had his own debts to pay.  If he did advise them and they made their own decision, then they are the ones who have to live with it.  Take Scott's idea and run with it.  Don't beat yourself up on cases like this or you'll go nuts.

Mike, I agree that this is a problem, not only from a compassion issue but also from a business view.  Here in Atlanta, as in many areas, we are having problems with large numbers of foreclosures, and it is because of situations and agents like this.  I'm not sure you can really say anything to the buyer, and it may be that their credit just sucks so bad that they don't really have any choices, but then they probably shouldn't be buying a house, and their agent doesn't have the ability or desire to tell his customer, because he may lose a sale.  I have told a few folks they really need to wait to buy, and sometimes they go find another agent to sell them a house, but like Scott said, that means future business when they are about to foreclose...

Hi Mike,

I saw almost the same thing happen last year in my old farm.  There was a property that I had been in contact with the owner for several years.  He had bought the property for his girlfriend, they broke up, and the property sat vacant for almost 3 years.  Each time I talked to him he said it was too painful.  Finally a RE sign went up (turned out to be relative.)  Over priced for the nieghborhood and conditon by $50K and it just sat.  After months of sitting I noticed it was pending in MLS.  Waited and sure enough closed at $40K over (could I have been that wrong?)  No way it went out at this price.  The end of last month the house is back on the market as a short sale.  I check title and it appears to be a 100% loan, adjustable too.  Are you surprised?  This is no longer my farm but I do keep up with what is going on.