[Z-man]

I posted on the recent realtor rant that we are in the process of moving, and we have been fortunate to have a good realtor who actually has scruples, and is helpful and sends us updates on time, and is generally speaking, a very helpful agent.

HOWEVER, it seems that the real estate market is just full of games, schemes, lying, and bottom dwelling scum suckers. I feel like I've walked into that bar on Star Wars that Obi-Wan warned young Luke Skywalker about!

So - we are looking to upgrade and move a step out from suburban NJ. Our home is on the market - it is reasonably priced at slightly higher than what other homes are getting in my area due to all of the upgrades we have done to it recently. (new kitchen & baths, new roof, new driveway, new front entryway, new barristers, new downstairs floors...etc. )

But that's not the issue. Our home will sell - it's the other side that smells worse than tooth decay. We are looking for a home in an area of North NJ that while not an exclusive town, does have some very nice developments in it. The bank is willing to loan us a good amount of money, and with the sale of our house, we can buy a very nice home on a nice property.

But the RE games are preventing us from realizing our dream home.

We found a perfect home - but it was only on the market for 5 days before the listing was temporarily removed. So we waited a month to ask what's going on - and the listing agent said that she already has another offer. So basically, we got into a bidding war. Even though we went over asking price, and our offer was higher than the other person's offer, we did not win the contract. There are more details to this story - but suffice it to say, something fishy was going on. Even my realtor feels this. It seems like the plan was to sell the home to the other buyer from the get go - and our offer was never seriously taken into consideration. So why did they have us go through all the motions?

We also found another listing - land that a developer was going to build on. While the listing is 'active' in reality, the land is under contract. But the buyer and builder do not see eye to eye on the type of house to build. Buyer wants a ranch, builder wants to put a center hall colonial on it - like ther rest of the devleopment. Every week, my realtor calls the listing agent to see what's going on, and every week, she gets the run-around. "Call back next week - we'll know then." Here's the kicker: they have been trying to figure out what to build there SINCE NOVEMBER 2013!!! So again, I firmly believe something unethical is going on.

And there are other examples of 'deals' and 'scams' that we have come across.

Now our credit score and our debt to income ratios are outstanding. Our mortgage broker said she is amazed that at our age we are in such a good financial situation. (Tip - old fashioned financial thinking goes a long way - paying off debt is the key!) So we are ideal buyers. And we are looking at homes in the $550k to $750k range, which isn't chump change. So we expect that we would be treated with a little more respect and honestly. But apparently when the stakes are high in the real estate market, the real bottom dwellers come out to play.

I just want a straight-up deal - gonna sell my house, and upgrade to a slightly nicer one. I don't want the BS/scam artist/money hungry leeches. I don't need the drama, and I won't play the stupid game.

Is the real estate market really that bad, or have I just come across a couple of anomolies?

Sorry for the rant, but I am sick of this.

-Z-man.