Irritated with small town mindset and good ol boy feeling with real estate transaction (tenant, price)
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Okay, I'm going to acknowledge that you actually are an experienced agent, if not currently one, and not try to teach you what you already know.
Sounds like you had the makings of an intermediary situation. Did the broker include the Intermediary Relationship Notice with the written offer, as is required in Texas? Did he state how he planned to handle the intermediary situation in any way? Sounds like you have a case against not just the agent but the broker, and TAR/TREC might need to get involved. Is there even a Board of Realtors in the area you're talking about? If so, they'd likely be your first step.
It sounds like there's more than one violation of ethics and even possibly real estate law going on with that particular agency. Is it the only agency in town? <If it isn't, fire them for cause and list with the other (unless you think there may be no difference and you just have to get through it).
Does the listing agent KNOW that you were an agent in the state of Texas and actually have a clue about how this is supposed to work? Could that be behind the snippy, brief communication, because she's afraid you know more than she does?
I feel for you, really I do. It's hard enough to take off your Realtor hat and put on your seller hat when the agent listing for you is doing the job right.
Yes, the agent did include the Intermediary Relationship Notice with the written offer. She did not state how she planned to handle the situation though - in fact, we have yet to get an actual phone call from her (in three days). That's another issue I have with this whole thing. Every single email we've gotten from her has been in the buyer's favor - justifying his position - discouraging us from countering.
I think she does know I have Texas real estate experience.
I don't feel that $195,000 is an insulting offer on a $225,000 listing. Certainly nothing to get upset over.
I always counter offer, no matter what the offer was. In your case, I would have disregarded the agent's claim that the buyer wouldn't look at a counter offer. Make your agent earn her money and sit down and write out the counter offer and present it. The worst than can happen is that it will be rejected, and there is a very good chance that the buyer would come up a little bit.
Traditional bargaining would be that you would split the difference and then he would split that difference and you'd have an agreement. Less than you want and more than he wants, but a deal. I'd put in the counter offer that the buyer had X number of days to present some sort of proof that he had funds to complete the sale.
I know a heck of a lot of real estate investors and not a single one of them would give one price and refuse to negotiate. Every one of them want to buy below what they are willing to pay, so every one of them will start low and come up a little bit. The original low offer its to try to find out what your floor number is so that they don't unknowingly pay more than that.
It's too late now. You gave a flat refusal to negotiate, so that buyer has moved on.
Actually, we found out that our realtor called her broker (the buyer's agent ) and "presented" our counter offer of $212,000. This offer was not on paper, though we would have liked for it to be. I don't think she's actually told them the offer was rejected (again). She's really flying by the seat of her pants.
I don't care if they know today or tomorrow that we've rejected the offer. I don't mind them sitting and stewing a bit.
I also don't care about "traditional bargaining." There's no unwritten rule that we have to meet smack dab in the middle of any two figures. But I would expect that a potential buyer would EXPECT at least one counter offer, rather than submitting an offer and saying, "That's my only and final offer." I personally think that's an unnecessarily pushy, brash way to try to do business and it doesn't sit well with any of us. If it had been closer to the list price we might have considered it more seriously, but $30,000 difference and take it or leave it? Yeah - we'll leave it.
We're investors. Last time we went to buy a home to live in, the listing agent wouldn't even present our offer (we came unrepresented) without a prequal letter. We're known professionals in the community, and the house was way below what professionals in our area in our field could buy. We were angry that the realtor wouldn't present our offer (on the weekend, when we couldn't get a letter from the bank), so we simply went to the sellers, knocked on the door, sat down at the kitchen table, hammered out an agreement, and by the way, told the seller to tell the realtor to cut his commission down since he didn't have to share it, and since he'd almost queered the deal by his behavior.
My point is, when the person making the offer is a known quantity in the community, standing on ceremony for a prequal letter along with the initial offer may just make them move on.
195K as an initial offer on a 225K house is not that bad. If he doesn't want to increase it, so be it. But don't think that investors don't negotiate when buying houses. We do it every time. We offer low, and negotiate up to the point beyond which we will not go. Often, we get it below our walk away point. Sometimes we walk away. Sometimes we get that same property, at our price, six months or a year later.
If the house gets a lot of showings, but no offers, that means that the pool of ready buyers waiting for something appropriate to come on are not interested in the house at that price. You're now going to have to wait for someone to move into the area, who might want it, or for someone already in the area, who doesn't have the income to buy it, to get the income, and want it. In a rural area far from jobs that can finance the purchase of the house, your chances of that happening are small.
Remember, it's business. Look at the carrying costs of the house. Clearly, no one around and ready to buy wants it for 225K, or anything near it, because you haven't had a single offer. How much is it going to cost to carry it? What's the chance of the house sustaining freeze damage, or burglary, or vandalism, as it sits unoccupied? Maybe you SHOULD drop the price, sell it, and be done with it.
I agree with a lot of what you're saying. Coupla things, though:
This guy is not some sort of big wig in the community. My husband is from that town and knows nearly everyone and never heard of this guy.
The offer came in Friday morning. Look, my husband and I ARE well known professionals in our community and when we started thinking about selling and buying, we got a letter from our lender stating what we qualified for on the front end, to present with any offer we made. It took about fifteen minutes over the phone. It's not that hard to do in the 21st century.
I don't consider the need for a letter from their lender as "standing on ceremony." I consider it just good business.
I also don't consider their initial offer to be that bad. I expect low initial offers. What irked all of us was the buyer's "final, only offer - take it or leave it" attitude.
It's only been on the market three weeks. No sense in panicking yet. Far from it.
Apparently, the broker and the client believe he is some sort of big wig, not subject to the ceremonies the rest of us consider good business.
Why you would accept a low offer from someone who believes it is beneath him to also present some evidence he can actually finance the deal is beyond me. Perhaps he plans for you to carry the note. Who knows?
The $50 is another red flag. Who the hell pulls their property off the market for two weeks for fifty bucks?
I'd bet fifty bucks if you had agreed to the offer, two weeks down the road he'd have been demanding all sorts of repairs or the deal would be off, take it or leave it.
Apparently, the broker and the client believe he is some sort of big wig, not subject to the ceremonies the rest of us consider good business.
Why you would accept a low offer from someone who believes it is beneath him to also present some evidence he can actually finance the deal is beyond me. Perhaps he plans for you to carry the note. Who knows?
The $50 is another red flag. Who the hell pulls their property off the market for two weeks for fifty bucks?
I'd bet fifty bucks if you had agreed to the offer, two weeks down the road he'd have been demanding all sorts of repairs or the deal would be off, take it or leave it.
EXACTLY.
We didn't relish the idea of doing business with someone starting the deal off like that.
Update and I hope the professional realtors on this forum will take note.
The realtor FINALLY called us (vs sending short, terse emails that seemed to be more supportive of the potential buyer and her agent than of us). Over the phone, she was very warm and supportive of our take on things - in fact, she agreed that it's too soon to lower the price so drastically. She also stated she felt that the buyer's offer of " this is our only and final offer, take it or leave it," was a weird, unsettling and unproductive way to handle business. She told us the buyers wanted the property for their own personal home, not simply a flip, by the way.
I think she should have called us from the get go rather than relying on emails or texts to communicate. I think an offer on paper is worth a bit more of a personal touch but hey, that's just me.
I am a Realtor for 30 years and I took note from the beginning, and from the beginning your Realtor and that Broker were totally in the wrong in every way they handled this from the start. Sounds like now they may have done some re-thinking about how they have been treating you. If it was MY listing I would have pulled it from them in a heartbeat!
They have a fiduciary relationship with YOU - not the buyer, and that has been broken. YOU are the one who pays them, not the buyer.
Find someone else to represent you. If they don't like it, file a complaint to the BOARD. btw.. KEEP all of your emails, texts, etc.
As a Realtor yourself, I don't understand why you didn't already do that.
I am a Realtor for 30 years and I took note from the beginning, and from the beginning your Realtor and that Broker were totally in the wrong in every way they handled this from the start. Sounds like now they may have done some re-thinking about how they have been treating you. If it was MY listing I would have pulled it from them in a heartbeat!
They have a fiduciary relationship with YOU - not the buyer, and that has been broken. YOU are the one who pays them, not the buyer.
Find someone else to represent you. If they don't like it, file a complaint to the BOARD. btw.. KEEP all of your emails, texts, etc.
As a Realtor yourself, I don't understand why you didn't already do that.
Because it's not her house. The house is an inherited property - inherited by OP's husband and his brother. OP is helping, but not legally in charge.
JK...who is the one that's writing the original message- the wife. I think ownership is not even in this discussion since her HUSBAND is one of the owners. Kind of makes it a "family affair" as the word "US" is used. She has a real estate background as well.
Basically you're saying.. it's none of her business since, to quote you, "she's not legally in charge".
I am a Realtor for 30 years and I took note from the beginning, and from the beginning your Realtor and that Broker were totally in the wrong in every way they handled this from the start. Sounds like now they may have done some re-thinking about how they have been treating you. If it was MY listing I would have pulled it from them in a heartbeat!
They have a fiduciary relationship with YOU - not the buyer, and that has been broken. YOU are the one who pays them, not the buyer.
Find someone else to represent you. If they don't like it, file a complaint to the BOARD. btw.. KEEP all of your emails, texts, etc.
As a Realtor yourself, I don't understand why you didn't already do that.
I must have missed where the OP stated that she had a single agency listing without a "transition to transaction brokerage" agreement (or whatever it's called in her state).
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) and "presented" our counter offer of $212,000. This offer was not on paper, though we would have liked for it to be. I don't think she's actually told them the offer was rejected 
