Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I made an offer on a short sale a few years back. The selling broker handed us a stack of papers to sign with the offer. We didn't even look at them before we passed them to our attorney. He came back and said that one of the papers she had included was a contract for representation and dual agency, which he told us not to sign.
He returned everything to her the next day. She called us and asked us why we didn't sign everything she sent over. We told her our attorney advised us not to. She hung up on us and never spoke to us again throughout the 90 days or so the transaction lasted. The only communication from her was through our attorney and was pretty terse. No big deal for us.
I presume she wanted dual agency as the bank wasn't going to pay the full commission on the sale.
Didn't matter as the seller had a squatter in the house who tried to hold us up and pay her $5k to move out at closing.
I have an agent that I've worked with for a few years that I trust, so when they bring me deals, I don't mind if they represent both sides. I also feel like I have a pretty good idea of what's fair value in our market, and I already know the numbers I need to hit to make things work.
This breakdown of sales data from August 1-15 shows a heated seller's market throughout Southern California, except for Ventura. New listings slightly up but still at record lows, lots of properties under contract, plenty of demand but very low inventory.
They accepted our offer literally within minutes of it expiring. So it's ours but I'm still annoyed.
Why though? You proposed an offer with an expiration of 24 hours, and they accepted within 24 hours. You got exactly what you proposed.
I don't understand why others are saying you have the right to be PO'ed here. During the 24 hour timeframe, the sellers are within their right to see if their other offer wants to come up. They didn't, and they accepted your offer within the alloted time.
What exactly is the issue? If you wanted them to accept in 12 hours, you should have put that into the offer. But accepting the offer even with 30 seconds left is still technically meeting the terms that you set in place.
Unless i'm missing something here, they did exactly what you asked.
Last edited by BostonMike7; 08-20-2021 at 12:04 PM..
Many years ago we made an offer on a house I really wanted. It was new construction and sat on the market for a couple months with no apparent action and a couple of smallish price drops before we started looking. 'Coincidentally', another offer was presented the very same afternoon ours was. From the eventual buyer, an out of state relative of another agent from the same brokerage as the listing agent. I was (and still am) firmly convinced the buyer's agent was waiting for the price to drop again, and when somebody else finally showed interest he had to move forward. Probably nothing illegal... and likely happens quite a bit... but it smelled to me.
This is what I suspected, when I first read the story. Some kind of a set-up, and inside job, whatever. Maybe the other offer was coming from friends or relatives. It could be anything.
But OTOH, when a property has been on the market for 3 months, it's pretty normal for it to finally attract offers; people will conclude they can make low-ball offers and win. So, not necessarily anything fishy about it. I think the OP was smart to offer slightly above asking.
Why thought? You proposed an offer with an expiration of 24 hours, and they accepted within 24 hours. You got exactly what you proposed.
I don't understand why others are saying you have the right to be PO'ed here. During the 24 hour timeframe, the sellers are within their right to see if their other offer wants to come up. They didn't, and they accepted your offer within the alloted time.
What exactly is the issue? If you wanted them to accept in 12 hours, you should have put that into the offer. But accepting the offer even with 30 seconds left is still technically meeting the terms that you set in place.
Unless i'm missing something here, they did exactly what you asked.
I honestly didn't think of putting a time limit on our offer. Going forward I will.
The reason I'm annoyed is because let's be real....if you were going to look at a house that was sitting in this nutty market for 90 days, you'd go there thinking if you like you'll be offering less money.
We love the house and then we are told there is suddenly another offer on the house. (I wasn't convinced of that). But they said that offer was lower than asking. So I asked about offering asking price. Our realtor talks us into going higher to ensure we get the house. And we have to waive appraisal and give the sellers a free rent back for 29 days. So one would think that we'd get an answer that same day of a yes.
I had too much time to think about the offer overnight.
My realtor friend in another state told me I was getting hosed on this deal and I was nuts for going over asking on a house that was sitting. So in that 24 hours I feel like I was getting played by my realtor and the seller's agent. I truly believe the reason the house was sitting so long was that it's overpriced. I never would have gone to see the house had I known that not only could I not come in lower, but I'd go higher
So from a seller's perspective (because I've been a seller and buyer) I would NEVER EVER let a good solid offer for over asking sit longer than a couple of hours on a house that I was struggling to sell. It was a stupid play on their end. I felt under duress to make the offer because of this mysterious other offer that suddenly showed up (which maybe it did and maybe it didn't) So the more time that went by the more time I had think of pulling my offer and coming in under asking.
They want 1.7M. We wanted to start with 1.6M and then have room to go up a little in negotiating. That was our original thought going to see the house. We walked out having offered 1.8M, the price they started with 3 months ago. How could I not feel like I overpaid because I was pressured to do so by our agent?
And I never should have waived the appraisal. Now I'm going to be nervous until the appraisal that if it comes in really low, I'll still be obligated to buy this house, possibly having paid a few hundred thousand dollars more than it's worth. We are new to California. My realtor said waiving appraisal is normal in this market. It was NEVER normal in the other 4 states I've lived and owned homes.
Someone makes a good offer you take it. Bird in the hand. Don't give your buyer time to get cold feet and start to think they overpaid for something. I love this house but the appraisal thing has me nervous. The mortgage company said we'd have to make up the difference for the mortgage to go through should it appraise low. The 100-200k I may have overpaid could be money I used for renovations.
but this market has us feeling beat down. We've lost homes in bidding wars. Lost several to cash buyers. It was very easy to strongarm us into feeling like we HAD to offer higher than we did. I hope I explained my thoughts well.
TL;DR - 24 hours going by allowed me to feel like I overpaid and feel like I was getting played
Last edited by TheLonelyGoatherd; 08-20-2021 at 11:31 AM..
This is what I suspected, when I first read the story. Some kind of a set-up, and inside job, whatever. Maybe the other offer was coming from friends or relatives. It could be anything.
But OTOH, when a property has been on the market for 3 months, it's pretty normal for it to finally attract offers; people will conclude they can make low-ball offers and win. So, not necessarily anything fishy about it. I think the OP was smart to offer slightly above asking.
This is nice to read. Thank you. I feel like my husband and I have always been smart with our money. And I was really feeling like a fool these past couple of days. Emotion played such a role in what we offered. Just the desperation of wanting a home and tired of house hunting already.
This is what I suspected, when I first read the story. Some kind of a set-up, and inside job, whatever. Maybe the other offer was coming from friends or relatives. It could be anything.
But OTOH, when a property has been on the market for 3 months, it's pretty normal for it to finally attract offers; people will conclude they can make low-ball offers and win. So, not necessarily anything fishy about it. I think the OP was smart to offer slightly above asking.
Good insight.
When we had a property listed for sale, our neighbor told us to let her know when we had an offer and she would go put in an offer for an amount $1000 over. I had never heard of this strategy but this was over ten years ago so it's probably even more common now.
If I were the seller, or advising the seller, I'd advise them to accept the 5% over. However, at this price point, it's entirely possible that the lower offer is all cash. My parents have sold homes in this price range and they have, more than once, selected lower all-cash offers over higher offers with a mortgage.
I've only sold homes at a much lower price point and I always go for top dollar even if it means taking risks with mortgages and contingencies and such; so far it's always paid off but I know it's a risk. For example, if the house doesn't appraise and the mortgage falls through and you have to start over.
I have never understood why anyone cares whether the money is from the buyers bank account or a mortgage. It all the same to me.
This is nice to read. Thank you. I feel like my husband and I have always been smart with our money. And I was really feeling like a fool these past couple of days. Emotion played such a role in what we offered. Just the desperation of wanting a home and tired of house hunting already.
When my sister was looking farther north in california, she went to see some houses where they flat out told her that the home was listed with an expectation that there would be a bidding war significantly over asking. Her budget was at the very low end for the type of house she wanted, so she never made offers on them. I think she did end up going over asking on her current place, but not at 10% like some seemed to expect.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Emotion played such a role in what we offered. Just the desperation of wanting a home and tired of house hunting already.
