My Experience with a Village real estate agent.
 

I listed my home with a Village real estate agent named Debbie Sander in August. From the start, my service from her was substandard.

In the beginning and talking with her in person, I asked her to send me a copy of the signed agreement. She never did. I asked again and she sends me a blank one. I finally got a signed one after a few calls.

Early on, I had to text her something important about the house and then days go by (or a week) and no response. I had to actually go to my open house just to talk to her. She told me her phone was "broken."

As the weeks go on, I emailed her, text her and left messages on her phone and no response. She did call me a week later about something else but never addressed my questions I emailed her about earlier. She said she must have gotten back to me and said she'll look at her phone logs. I told her I have phone logs as well and she changed the subject. She was also supposed to send me a contact name for a person regarding a small project around the house, you guessed it !- it never happened.

On one occasion, her assistant emailed me at 2:47pm saying I have a showing at 2:30pm that same day. Luckily, I left the house hours ahead for an appointment. Also her assistant emailed me on a Monday about something unimportant and then telling me to have a nice weekend. Ditzy?

On December 2nd, I left a voice mail with Debbie Sander saying i have something important to say and to call me back ASAP. To this day, I haven't heard from her. I since met with the Villages Sales Office manager and learned that Debbie had lied to me about sales statistics. I have now continued the listing contract with another Village realtor. If this original (long) 6 month contract expires, I will go with a MLS agent.

I'm sure many of you had pleasant experiences with her but, I just wanted to share mine and relay some information about her to help anyone make a discission if listing their home with a Village realtor. In my opinion, I don't think she's 100% coherent. Plus, I always wondered about a realtor using their High School picture on their business cards when you're in your sixties.

I would send this complaint to her boss. That will get results.

I have not listed a house with The Villages. However, when I have listed a house, the maximum listing contract I would agree to was 90 days. And, the contract would include a clause that said, if I lose confidence in the agent or broker, I can fire them at any time. The Villages has some good, experienced agents. Your listing contract is with The Villages, not the individual agent. Also, when listing a house for sale, I always wanted to know the names of the top selling agents in the brokerage. Why not use the best?

Why not file a complaint with the state's regulatory department?

Here is their form.

http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr.../re-2200-1.pdf

We had a substandard agent when we bought here. We contacted The Villages and asked for a different agent, no problem.
Rather than reporting to the attorney general, etc etc. why not take a deep breath and forget it , don't let it bother you. Release.
I'm sure she doesn't care.

My understanding is that Villages "realtors" do not necessarily have to have a real estate license. They do not use MLS and they are contractors contracted to TV.

Thanks for the reply. I always heard the houses sell very fast here so I didn't think about the 90 day term and any stipulations to add. I now learned.

All real estate agents must be state licensees.

That is not correct. None of The Villages agents are Realtors because The Villages, as a broker, is not a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). But, all of The Villages agents are licensed by the state to sell real estate. It is illegal to sell real estate on a commission basis without a license.

Thanks for your input. I actually did that by filling a form online and haven't heard back from them. They actually can be protected by being under the "umbrella" of the Villages.

Thanks. The sales manager did work with me and sign me up with another agent. The thing is, he never really addressed my concerns I had with Debbie and told me just to move forward. I guess I'm glad I had another option with a new realtor.

If she has a real estate license, and violates the law with respect to her fiduciary obligations to a client, the board can rescind her license. The Villages cannot prevent that.

I appreciate your reply. I did contact a "so called" Village sales manager but the realtors are "contractors" and basically work for themselves. Like I said, he did assign me another realtor.

Have seen her name as a listing agent on quite a few properties here. Wonder if she has too much on her plate? No excuse for her actions though.

Did you complete the state form before or after meeting the sales manager?

Indeed! I just checked. She has numerous "higher end" Villages listings. She is on Facebook and was at one time an associate broker with Sotheby's in the Miami area.

The "agents", not realtors, are not independent contractors with respect to you. They work for The Villages, who is the "broker" and they may have a separate agreement with the broker. An agent cannot sell a house without a licensed broker. But, your listing contract is between you and the broker, not the agent. I would suggest that you examine the listing contract to see who signed it as the broker. That is the person who you should talk with if you have an issue with the performance of the contract.

I did. I filled out a form but no response yet.

Yes, that is correct. A broker did sign it. I just went through the chain of commands. I may contact the broker soon.

Exactly. Any company who refuses to use MLS is not diligently working in your behalf.

Does anyone else think there might be two sides to this story? FWIW...Debbie Sander is the #1 sales agent for Properties of The Villages, and has been since 2020. It would be pretty tough to achieve that level of distinction if she treated people the way the OP describes. Plus, the photo she uses in her marketing materials is not her high school picture, and saying that was definitely a cheap shot. Calling out someone based on their appearance is, on the other hand, very high school-ish.

I had an awful experience with a village ‘realtor’. I contacted Jennifer Parr and was surprised to receive a phone call. I know my ‘realtor’ was spoken to and there were some other consequences for his actions or I should say lack of actions.

I put most of the blame on the seller and not on the agent. I have fired real estate agents within a month for incompetence before and I would have in this case after a few weeks. Using the villages real estate agents would have been easy because you would have just gone with another agent not another company, with me firing an outside agent, I went with another company so they lost rlms fees, photographer fees, etc..

You are very fortunate because we had an issue with the realtor when we bought here in The Villages. My husband tried to contact Jennifer Parr but his call was ignored by her.

After about one week of no response, I would have called her team leader at "The Village's Sales offices" to have her replaced.

When your contract is over, get a real estate company outside TV

Hire one of the ROGUE realtors- find Chris Day as he is the best??

Why you made this mistake with a village realtor
 

you get what you deserve because you failed to be smart and go with sally love realty on 466a. She is the biggest and the very best and far superior when selling used homes in the villages. You get what you pay for....

Just like every company there are good and bad sales people. The number one agent obviously is popular and probably does a pretty good job. Remember Real Estate has been “easy” for the last few years. Things have changed somewhat, homes are not moving as quickly. She may have been going through an adjustment period. I have been doing real estate for 27 years. I have experienced slow downs before. It is not easy addressing this with clients with high expectations based on previous years. Hopefully she gets things together and moves forward. Sellers need to be prepared to have their home stay on the market a little longer. The market in The Villages is great, the rest of the country does affect the local market. Everyone wants to come here, but they need to sell where they are to get here. I wish the commenter good luck. Be patient.

They do, and they are. They are NOT part any local board of Realtors nor do they belong to ANY MLS service.

We use Debbie to buy a house and would not recommend her again, she missed lead us on the items that should have been included in the sale in the house, and was nonresponsive on a issue following closing on the house.

Agree with your line of reasoning. There are people providing substandard services out there in various sales positions. In real estate, I’ve found agents are quite proactive because they are motivated by making a sale and will do whatever it takes.

Anyway, in this case, the OP is actually fortunate to have cut ties and moved to another agent. Things could have been much worse if she stayed with an agent who she felt wasn’t responsive.

I am in awe of your patience, I would have fired her the first time she ignored a request from me.

They do have to have a real estate license. It’s just that The Billages do not belong to the state board of realtors so they can not list thru mls and do not have to follow the standard of rules snd conduct associated with the state board of realtors.

I'm surprised to hear this about Debbie Sander. When I was searching for a home in the Villages a few years ago she was VERY helpful and knowledgeable. What impressed me the most was the fact that I was looking at manufactured homes while she was listing/selling high-end homes but yet she was there to help me. Not sure that she had an assistant then? Maybe that's the problem? Hope everything works out well for you!

Thanks for the reply. My problem wasn't with the value, sales or marketing statistics or changes. My problem was with correspondence, or lack of, with the realtor.

As always, there are two sides to every situation.

They all have a state license and not a member of MLS

If someone is employed by and representing a developer or builder, they are not required to have a real estate license. At least that was the way it was when I was a real estate broker.

The Villages Real Estate /cannot/ use MLS. They are contracted to do sales exclusively for The Villages Holding Corp, the developer and owner of the new properties. MLS agents are not allowed to sell new construction for the same reason - they are NOT contracted to sell on behalf of the owners of the property. It's a long-standing agreement. The Villages Real Estate is the Developer's sales arm.