“Protect the Sellers!” — A Realtor's Rant (and a Call for Real Change)
By a Listing Agent Who’s Officially Had Enough
Let’s talk about something serious… and seriously frustrating.
Real estate contracts are ridiculously one-sided. Buyers are protected from every angle, wrapped in legal bubble wrap, sipping latte foam while sellers are left holding the emotional and financial mess when things go sideways.
Look, I love a good buyer success story. But as a listing agent who specializes in working with sellers, I’ve seen too many heartbreaking situations where buyers walk away from a deal like it’s a brunch reservation they decided to cancel.
Meanwhile, the seller has packed up their life, rerouted their mail, and already changed their Wi-Fi password.
So who’s protecting them? Because right now, the system isn’t. And let me tell you—it’s not just a theoretical problem. It’s real. And it’s ridiculous.
🎓 That One Time in Oakdale… A Cautionary Tale
Let me paint you a picture.
I had a gorgeous listing in Oakdale last year—think dream home, highly coveted school district, perfectly staged, flawless lighting, great lot.
We went $100,000 over asking because the buyer was terrified of losing it.
We had 3 other buyers waiting in the wings, but hey—six figures over asking? We locked it down.
Inspections? ✔️
Appraisal? ✔️
Sellers packing and moving to another state? ✔️✔️
Everything was lined up for a smooth closing… until the day before closing. My phone rings. It’s the buyer’s Realtor.
“Hey, my clients don’t want the house anymore. They actually got another house under contract this morning.”
I’m sorry—what now?
You got another house under contract... today? While you’re still under contract with us? Illegal! Unprofessional! Yes!
I could practically hear my blood pressure spike.
“They said the sellers can just keep the $15,000 earnest money.”
Oh, how generous. They’ll let us keep their non-binding monopoly money in exchange for completely wrecking my sellers' lives and timeline? Thanks, Karen!
Meanwhile, my poor sellers—mid-drive, out of state, halfway to their new home—had already pre-signed for closing and had packed every last box of their life.
Yes, they were upset. Devastated, actually.
Could they sue for breach of contract? Technically, yes.
But now the house is legally tangled, off the market, and we’re stuck.
Eventually, we relisted… but we’d lost all the momentum. The market had shifted, the sparkle was gone, and we sold it $50,000 under list price.
That single buyer's decision cost my sellers over $150,000 and weeks of their life they’ll never get back.
💰 Earnest Money? More Like Earnest-ish Money
Let’s call it like it is: earnest money is a joke.
Buyers toss down a few thousand dollars—just enough to sound serious, but not enough to actually mean anything. Then they bail, and we’re left saying, “Well, at least we got $5,000.”
Yeah. Tell that to the seller who lost a cash buyer while waiting on a flaky one. Or the one who rescheduled their life around an imaginary closing.
👀 Sight-Unseen Offers: A Recipe for Regret
Another modern market trend? Buyers who send offers without even stepping foot in the house.
They’re at work, out of town, out of state—doesn’t matter. They fear losing out, so they write the offer just in case.
Spoiler: they change their minds the minute they actually walk in.
If I had a dollar for every buyer who wrote an offer from an airport lounge, then ghosted after seeing the house IRL... well, I’d have enough to fund a campaign for contract reform.
New policy suggestion: If your client hasn’t walked through the home (or had a virtual tour with you), please don’t write the offer. This is real estate, not Tinder.
🚨 Realtors and Sellers: It’s Time to Push Back
The way we do business has to evolve. These contracts have become buyer-biased to a fault, and sellers are getting burned again and again.
We need contracts that are fair.
We need consequences that are real.
And we need to start treating the seller’s time, effort, and financial security with the respect it deserves.
Because right now?
It’s not a contract.
It’s a courtesy hold with a faint promise of maybe showing up to closing.
🎤 And One More Thing… (The Wishlist Edition)
To all the buyers who treat real estate like window shopping—we have some ideas (yes, I'm dreaming)
Because when you back out of a contract a week before closing after the seller has packed up their entire life, maybe—just maybe—there should be some real consequences. So here’s my dream scenario for what should actually happen when a buyer walks away for no good reason:
📝 If You Back Out, You Owe the Seller:
✅ Moving Costs — Yes, full reimbursement. Boxes, bubble wrap, the U-Haul, the movers named Carl who scratched the wall.
✅ Storage Fees — Because they had to put half their life in a metal cube to make room for your imaginary future.
✅ Prepaid Utilities & Cleaning Services — Those sparkling baseboards didn’t scrub themselves.
✅ Emotional Damages — Nothing says "I'm fine" like crying into a glass of Cabernet while relisting a house that was already sold.
✅ Lost Market Momentum Fee — If the market shifted and they now sell for less, you pay the difference. Sorry, those vibes don’t pay the bills.
✅ Time-Wasting Tax — For every showing rescheduled, document re-sent, and “just one more question” from your lender.
✅ Audacity Surcharge — For getting a different house under contract the same day you bailed. Yes, we saw that. Yes, we’re judging.
💬 Final Word:
We don’t need buyers to be perfect. We just need them to be serious.
And if they’re not? Well, then sellers deserve more than just a measly check and a “sorry for the inconvenience.”
Let’s change the rules, balance the contract, and finally protect the people who’ve already done the hard part—letting go of their home.
Until then, I’ll be over here…
✨ staging kitchens, soothing sellers, and practicing deep breathing every time I see “Buyer cancelled. EM refunded.” ✨
To all the sellers out there feeling steamrolled, to all the listing agents losing sleep (and hair) over flaky buyers, and to every home that’s been packed up for nothing more than a broken promise: we see you.
It’s time we stop pretending that this is just “part of the process.”
No—it’s part of the problem.
Contracts should be fair.
Earnest money should be meaningful.
Buyers should be sure, not shopping.
So let’s rally. Let’s advocate. Let’s rewrite the fine print and bring balance back to the transaction. Because behind every listing is a real person, a real life, and a real story that deserves better than “Sorry, we changed our mind.”
The next time someone says, “The sellers can just keep the earnest money,”
go ahead and ask them—
“Can we also keep your audacity?”
Wyatt Poindexter - The Agency Oklahoma
#ProtectTheSellers #RealtorReality #TheListingLife #ContractsMatter #YouCanKeepYourAudacity #TheAgencyRE #WyattPoindexter
