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i am THISCLOSE to filing a complaint with the FHA. before i do that, i'd like to get your input.
put an offer on house a month ago. for about 60k less than asking. house is overpriced based on all comps (according to my agent and my brother who is also an agent). my agent actually recommended i offer less, but i didn't want to offend. sellers never responded to offer in writing, only verbally. and only came down 20k from asking. when i submitted another offer, upping my price, sellers never responded. neither did listing agent to my agent. they have acted very aloof and not at all interested in me or my offers from the very beginning. i am starting to think these people do not want to sell to me. why would they not continue the negotiation in this market unless this is the case?
why? because i am asian and the sellers live on the same street and do not want me in their neighborhood.
1. There is no "offend". This is business. Leave the emotions elsewhere.
2. If they don't respond they are simply letting the offer expire which is in the contract. They're probably hoping you'll go away quietly if they don't formally respond. I have seen sellers come back with a full price "counter" in writing just to get this same message across for a low ball offer.
3. Verbal responses in business are worth the paper on which they're written.
very disengenuous responses here. there is a very real possibility that discrimination is at play, considering that the seller lives on the same street. before all of you "experts" dismiss discrimination out of hand, i think it's fair to debate and wonder why the OP (buyer) is being ignored in a BUYER'S MARKET WHERE LOWBALL OFFERS ARE THE NORM, NOT THE EXCEPTION.
i could understand if it was 2005 and the seller was ignoring this buyer. but i simply do not understand this behavior in this market.
i can tell you that i have had several neighbors move out of MY neighborhood because people sold to hispanics and/or african americans. let's not be rude or naive. discrimination is out there. whether you all want to admit it or not.
very disengenuous responses here. there is a very real possibility that discrimination is at play, considering that the seller lives on the same street. before all of you "experts" dismiss discrimination out of hand, i think it's fair to debate and wonder why the OP (buyer) is being ignored in a BUYER'S MARKET WHERE LOWBALL OFFERS ARE THE NORM, NOT THE EXCEPTION.
i could understand if it was 2005 and the seller was ignoring this buyer. but i simply do not understand this behavior in this market.
i can tell you that i have had several neighbors move out of MY neighborhood because people sold to hispanics and/or african americans. let's not be rude or naive. discrimination is out there. whether you all want to admit it or not.
While I guess we can admit that there MIGHT be some discrimination at play here, we must also acknowledge that the information provided so far doesn't support that claim.
You may think that, because it's a buyers market, every seller is acting in a rational, perfectly objective manner regarding their home's value. That they are accepting of the fact that the market value of their home is not what it was three years ago, three months ago, maybe even three weeks ago. But they aren't. The reason we "experts" have dismissed the discrimination theory so quickly is tht we have all seen sellers act in ways very much like the seller described here. Whether or not you "simply do not understand this behavior in this market", we can tell you this behaviour continues. And is far more likely than the seller being so concerned with the race of the buyer that they will ignore an otherwise negotiable offer.
Last edited by Bill Keegan; 03-20-2009 at 02:54 PM..
Reason: typos
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
1,516 posts, read 4,591,098 times
Reputation: 677
Quote:
very disengenuous responses here. there is a very real possibility that discrimination is at play, considering that the seller lives on the same street. before all of you "experts" dismiss discrimination out of hand, i think it's fair to debate and wonder why the OP (buyer) is being ignored in a BUYER'S MARKET WHERE LOWBALL OFFERS ARE THE NORM, NOT THE EXCEPTION.
i could understand if it was 2005 and the seller was ignoring this buyer. but i simply do not understand this behavior in this market.
i can tell you that i have had several neighbors move out of MY neighborhood because people sold to hispanics and/or african americans. let's not be rude or naive. discrimination is out there. whether you all want to admit it or not.
Maybe lowball offers are the norm, but sellers accepting them sure ain't. I stand beside my original statement to the OP. Make a full price or legitimate offer to the seller and if they decline your offer, you've got a case. Otherwise, quit trying to be a victim. It makes me sick.
Oh, BTW, I was lowballed last year by an African American couple. I declined their offer since it was way off. Then they got serious and offered full price on an already aggressive listing price. I happily accepted their offer. Was I discriminating when I turned their initial offer down? Hell no. Show me the money and I'll show you the keys...
Excellent post Bill I gave u some reps. I really don't know what to think about OP's question. could go either way. But I still have to wonder why anyone would sell in this market if they are not really interested in selling. If they are not in a do or die situation. It's certainly not a market in which to "test the waters" from what I have read. And I assume that any listing agent would tell a seller that in this market, you have to discount. And that if you do not want to discount, you need to hang on to the property.
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
1,516 posts, read 4,591,098 times
Reputation: 677
Hey saltzman, I wouldn't, but I also wouldn't pee and moan if a seller didn't accept my lame-o offer, either...no matter what the comps say, a seller can ask ANY price they want. They may not get it, but it's their prerogative and they can decline any low offers they want, even if the market suggests the offer is inline.
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