When the Other Agent Becomes the Biggest Risk to the Deal

Situation

I once listed an older home with plenty of character and the kinds of issues you would reasonably expect for its age: original windows, aging appliances, and some deferred maintenance.

The buyers completed their inspection. Nothing especially alarming came up.

Then the inspection response arrived.

The buyer’s agent, who was relatively new to the business, had forwarded the entire inspection report and demanded that nearly everything be repaired or replaced, along with a substantial credit.

The problem was not the inspection.

The problem was that the agent had not helped her clients separate normal age-related items from the issues that actually mattered.

Decision

Before I took that response to my sellers, I called her directly.

I wanted to understand what was driving the request and whether the buyers themselves were truly prepared to walk over these items.

What I heard was not a calm negotiation strategy. The agent had become frustrated and emotional, and she told me she would advise her buyers to walk if my sellers did not agree.

That was the real risk to the transaction.

Technical term: things got weird.

Her buyers wanted the house. My sellers wanted to sell it. The inspection had not uncovered anything that made the deal unreasonable.

But an inexperienced agent was in danger of turning a manageable inspection negotiation into a failed transaction because she had stopped thinking strategically.

Reasoning

I spoke to her directly and professionally.

Not as an opponent, but as someone trying to get the transaction back onto solid ground.

I told her that the way she was handling the conversation was more likely to cost her clients the house than anything in the inspection report.

Then we worked through the list and separated the legitimate concerns from the noise.

The goal was not to make her “lose” the negotiation. It was to help get the discussion back to the issues that actually mattered to her clients.

Outcome

The buyers narrowed their request to the items that genuinely mattered.

No additional credit was necessary.

The transaction closed.

Lesson

A good agent does more than relay demands between two sides.

They have to manage emotion, interpret information, understand leverage, and keep their client focused on the outcome they actually want.

If I had simply forwarded that original demand to my sellers without first understanding what was happening on the other side, there is a very good chance the deal would have fallen apart.

Sometimes the biggest threat to a transaction is not the house, the inspection, or even the terms.

It is an agent who lets emotion replace judgment.

For more on how I approach negotiation, read Real Estate Negotiation That Keeps the Deal Together and Price, Terms, and Certainty.