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Email templates · Real estate agent

Email template to complain about your real estate agent to their broker

Your agent is not doing the job. Showings go unanswered, offers arrive late or not at all, or you found out something about the deal that you should have heard from them first. Every licensed agent in the US works under a managing broker, the person legally responsible for the agent's conduct, and the broker is the one who can reassign you, refund a fee, or make the agent fix the problem. A complaint by email reaches the broker directly, gives them a dated record they cannot wave away, and forces a written answer. Keep it factual. You are asking the broker to solve a problem, not to take sides.

Before you send

  • A short timeline. For each problem, write the date, what should have happened, and what actually happened. Three or four items are enough; pick the clearest.
  • Copies of the messages that show it: unanswered texts, an email where the agent promised something, the listing that went up with wrong information.
  • The name and email of the managing broker. It is on the brokerage website, or on the agreement you signed.
  • The one thing you want. A new agent, a fee waived, a mistake corrected, or a release from the agreement. Complaints that ask for nothing get a polite apology and nothing else.
  • Decide whether you copy the agent. Copying them is fair and often gets things moving; leaving them off is fine if you no longer want to deal with them.
Subject Concerns about [agent name] on [property address or transaction] 
Hi [broker name],

I'm a client of [agent name] at [brokerage name] for [the sale of / the purchase of] [property address]. I'm writing to you because I've had several problems that I haven't been able to resolve with [him/her/them] directly.

- [Date]: [what happened, e.g. a showing was requested and no one replied for three days]
- [Date]: [what happened]
- [Date]: [what happened]

I raised this with [agent name] on [date] and [what the response was, or that there was none].

What I'd like is [to be reassigned to another agent at your brokerage / the documentation fee waived / the listing corrected and re-posted / a release from the agreement]. I'm not looking to make this bigger than it is, but I do need it resolved. Could you reply by [date, about five business days out] and let me know how you'd like to handle it?

I can send the messages I've referenced if that would help.

Thanks,
[Your name]
[Your phone number]

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep the rest as it is or change the tone to match how you write.

After you send

  • A good broker calls or writes within a couple of days, asks a few questions, and offers a concrete fix. Take the call, then ask them to confirm the outcome by email.
  • A bad answer defends the agent without addressing your dates, or says "we'll talk to them" with no commitment. Reply once, restate the one thing you want, and give a final date.
  • If the broker will not act and the problem is serious, such as undisclosed offers or a missed deadline that cost you money, your state's real estate licensing board takes complaints against both agents and brokers. Your emails are the record they will ask for.
  • If your only goal is to get away from the agent, skip to asking for a release and use the cancellation email instead.

Or don't send it yourself

Forward the job to myagent@standinfor.me and let StandIn run the whole thread.

StandIn is an email assistant that handles conversations with businesses for you. You write it one email saying what you need. It writes to the business, waits for the answer, follows up when they go quiet, pushes back on the number when it should, and brings the results back to your inbox for you to decide. You don't need to install an app or sign up. The first email you send is already the start of the task.

Hand this to StandIn opens an email to myagent@standinfor.me with the job already written out

To myagent@standinfor.me Subject Complain to my real estate agent's broker for me 
Hi StandIn,

I'd like you to raise a complaint with my real estate agent's managing broker and get a fix agreed in writing.

The agent and brokerage: [agent name, brokerage name, broker's name and email if you have them].
The transaction: [address; whether I'm buying or selling].
What went wrong: [two to four dated problems, one per line].
What I've already tried: [when I raised it with the agent and what they said].
What I want: [new agent / fee waived / correction / release].

Please write to the broker, follow up if they go quiet, and bring me their answer with whatever they agree to.

Thanks,
[Your name]

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