Monique vastly overestimated her ability to successfully conduct a difficult sale
I fully briefed Monique that this was going to be a challenging sale due to my location in New York, the difficult personality of the occupant-my estranged husband-and the contracting property market. Monique assured me that she could manage my husband based on her lengthy experience in property sales and would work to achieve the best price. Although she was the most expensive agent I approached, I believed her and we signed an agreement.
Her claim proved to be highly inflated. I seriously question her credibility in being able to deal with difficult people as her approach seemed to be to scurry away like a decorative kitten whenever my estranged husband took one of his many rigid positions related to the sale. Although she knew that there was a 14-16 hour time difference between Sydney and New York, the timing of her phone calls on important details related to the sale was always totally inappropriate. By necessity Monique had several meetings with my estranged husband. However, her emails to me reporting on these meetings were disturbing in their lack of detail. I am particularly upset by her insensitive emails congratulating me on the sale of my property when she knew that I was selling under threat of being taken to court and in being forced to sell was taking a massive loss. The sale was no cause for celebration for me. Monique knew this detail but did not think to modify her email communication to reflect my circumstances.
I am sure that Monique operates well when the sale is straight forward and the context is simple. I am hoping that she takes some time to reflect on this botched sale and is able to offer any future sellers in challenging circumstances, a broader and better thought out strategy.