Realtor convinced me not raise bid..

[tonypeoni]

Yes I finally found a house after 7 years of looking. Its a cash house really cheap but really is something special. I offered the realtor about 7k less than listing price. She called back the next day and said there was another bidder on the house from 3 months ago that Homepath legally had to contact. I asked her if I should raise my bid. She said I could.. So I asked her what she thought was a safe number. She said raise it 3k and its yours! Ok cool. The house is a amazing 3300 SQ FT Victorian house that dates from the civil war and on a half acre with a huge barn too. I wake up the next morning and decide I REALLY want this place. I call her and ask her to raise my offer to $500 over asking price. She pauses says nothing for 3/4 seconds and then says "NO MR PEONI, you dont want to do that your safe we'll will keep your bid where its at. Your safe". Im thinking this place is the cheapest, nicest, 3000 SQ FT house Ive seen in about 3 years. And its a victorian masterpiece... So ok I take her advice. Long story short, I get a call yesterday after waiting 5 days for homepath to respond to the offer. Miss know it all is not sure but "we" may have missed this one. I am now without fail sure she was working with another agent and investor to keep my bid low. She probably had some sort of monetary gain from this too. Is this a common practice or did I just have a bad realtor?

[look 171]

I would demand that she raise the amount. What's a few thousand after three years of looking? If that's the house you want, why not. I would call her and rip her a new one. Call the listing agent and find out what happened. I have lost a few pieces of properties with their inside deals, I can only assume, frustrates the hell out of me.

[recycled sixtie]

Something stinks badly here. I would kick up a fuss with the Real Estate Board and write letters to complain about this kind of thing to your local papers. You acted in good faith and your real estate rep. failed to disclose everything.She is supposed to be working on your behalf. You could threaten a lawsuit but not follow through with it(they would not know your final intentions though). That's the cheapest way. I feel sorry for your loss.

[chocolatelab]

Call her broker and raise hell.

[chocolatelab]

Originally Posted by look 171

I would demand that she raise the amount. What's a few thousand after three years of looking? If that's the house you want, why not. I would call her and rip her a new one. Call the listing agent and find out what happened. I have lost a few pieces of properties with their inside deals, I can only assume, frustrates the hell out of me.

This is right on. There is more insider stuff going on these days than ever.

[speeder]

You might be able to sue her and get her license yanked over something like this. Not sure what the law says, I'm purely speculating...

If there is a lesson in this story. it's that YOU are then boss in a transaction involving your money, not some realtor. They work for you.

[john70t]

There is:
1). Buyer's agent- who works exclusively for you. They legally can't disclose any of your information, just like your doctor or lawyer.
2). Seller's agent- who works exclusively for the seller. Same rules.
3). Dual agent- who represents the buyer and seller. All information is considered legally public.
Number #1 rule to investing in a 30 year obligation=Don't fall in love.

Your Realtor(TM, look it up) may know something, and is trying to help you,....after raising the price.

This behaviour may indicate problems with Title(past taxes due/ownered by partnership/etc), or known problems with the property(not inspected/built with asbestos on natural spring/etc/etc/etc.), or other build issues.


Best to modify your bid with contingencies for inspection and title.
Written. Everything.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Realtors are almost universally idiots, and I've dealt with many. I'm assuming she was contracted as a buyer's agent and you had an agreement as such. If so, you are her client and she absolutely must do what she's directed to do by you. If it went down as you say (i.e. "raise the price $500 over asking" and she says "no, you'll be fine, I'm leaving it alone") that's a clear violation. YOU are the buyer, YOU are the customer and YOU call the shots - not her. If, OTOH she said "you'll be fine, I recommend you leave it alone" and you caved and said "ok, fine", she's probably done no wrong, besides being a dolt.

There are too many forking idiots in RE. The housing bubble purged out a lot of the really bad deadweight, but certainly not all. I swear most of these guys (and gals) are cut from the same cloth as the "C" students in high school that went on to become insurance agents, travel agents or used car sales schlockers.

Raise hell. Start at her office. If she did countermand your direct order, I'd demand an immediate recission of any buyer's agency agreement with her (usually they're for 90 days or so, meaning if you got pissed and went to someone else, found a deal and closed, she'd be owed money). Make sure the agreement is terminated. Make sure her boss knows why. Then go get another buyer's agent who will actually listen to you and knows the difference between you asking for advice or a recommendation and giving a direct order.

If you don't get satisfaction that way then, yes - consider a call to your state licensing board. And next time an RE agent who works for you tells you "no" when you tell them to do something, don't just sit there. Speak up and assert control! Tough lesson.

Edit (based on the above post) - if you're smart you'll NEVER use a dual agent. IMHO such things shouldn't even be allowed under law. They're clear and blatant conflicts of interest yet a lot of states actually allow them. Get a BUYER'S agent.

[john70t]

Just to quote Sinatra: "Fools rush in".

[Porsche-O-Phile]

As a follow-up to the above, in most states I believe final sales prices are a matter of public record (recorded documents). Keep an eye on the place on Zillow; if someone else got it, it'll show up in a month or two as "recent sales" in the area and you can often find out the REAL sales price through the court or recorder (don't trust Zillow's report of the sales price, they're quite inaccurate in my expreriences, you'll need the actual data from the court). If it turns out that it was sold to someone else for less than your offer, someone (or several someones) could be in VERY deep caca.

I'm wondering if her telling you to keep your price low and then "oh someone else got it, gosh darn" is a way of (for example) allowing a friend of hers getting it for less and not arousing your suspicions since you simply think you got outbid now. Maybe I'm being a conspiracy theorist here, but I smell a rat and don't like to let things like this go - and I LOVE catching people pulling stuff like this... Just something to keep an eye on. Probably was a simple case of getting outbid, maybe even due to an (unprovable) back room deal but maybe not - and if not, you'll have the last laugh for sure.

[Tervuren]

Look at the thread title - "convinced me not to". He decided to go with her advice, had he continued to try to keep the raised bid, non negotiable with his agent, then I could see an issue.

[RANDY P]

Does it really comp out? Do you know for a fact it's a quick sale smoking deal?

If so, friend of Realtor knows it's a smokin deal as well- I'll bet the high bid is someone on the inside. You are being kept out of the deal. Probably will be flipped.

They talk amongst themselves to figure out whether or not to make the buyer pay more, or the seller come down.

Don't kid yourself about the "exclusive agency" ****. Never works out that way.

Call the Broker and call the listing agent yourself. Threaten to report it.

rjp

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

And when you get yourself a "buyer's agent" ensure they are the broker. Then they will have more skin in the deal and you have more recourse if they flip on you.

But, not enough information to give more than general advice. Was this person a dual agent? Did you really assert they should have bid more? Was the other deal one that was on the table and just not closed maybe like a standing offer?

Laws in Indiana are strange and NOT friendly to the landowner or person on the other side of the land deal in the case of real estate. I'm constantly annoyed at the laws here...

[Joel8005]

HomePath is Fannie and Freddie, all rules are off when dealing this entity. I have seen full price cash offers turned down in favor of a lower offer with financing contingencies. Was your offer submitted thru the Home Path site. As of Feb 1 all offers to Home Path are required to be submitted via their site, you can go online and see if the property is still an active listing. Shoot me a PM and I will give you more info. Way too many SAE's on this site to contiune this conversation in public.

Regards,

[Rusty Heap]

no different than an ebay auction you didn't win, whine whine wah wah, you lost the bid, as your own words were:


I offered the realtor about 7k less than listing price. She called back the next day and said there was another bidder on the house from 3 months ago that Homepath legally had to contact. I asked her if I should raise my bid. She said I could if I wanted.........but didn't.........


So just like ebay, either pay the "buy it now" price, or take risk at the auction.

after 3 years search and you drooled over the house and really wanted it, you scrimped (and lost it) on $7K?

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by georgeinhere

No, actually it couldn't be more different. RE is highly regulated and there are a ton of consumer protection laws. There is a ton of bad advice on this thread but the wiser thing to do, since laws vary from state to state, is to consult a lawyer.

BTW, there is a mention of a buyer's agent and using the broker, I am assuming that you mean QB. This is almost impossible unless you're using a small agency but I could go on...

There is a ton of missing information. Was your realtor the listing agent? What kind of a relationship did you have with the agent? Agency or Transactional? In writing? What were the terms? What did your contract look like? Oh so many more questions....

Call a lawyer?

That's a good way to really rack up the costs with nothing happening.

Unless you prove it's not an arms-length transaction between the bid winner and the seller you have nothing.

Call the Broker. Let the Broker or the state deal with it.

rjp

[RANDY P]

Most RE agency laws state that the agent employed by the seller has to represent the buyer's best interests-

that is, unless you go with the agent who is listing the property- then you have an issue- if you place your offer with the listing agent expecting them to fight for your best price, you will lose since they are employed by the seller and legally they have to try to get the highest price for the property.

Many times there can be a conflict of interest when the same listing agent and selling agent work for the same broker-

bonuses are paid on that as well.....that could also be a possibility.

I don't see why a selling agent would care about raising your offer if:

1)- property legitimately comps out- meaning it will pass an appraisal at that price. If it does, that means it's eligible for bank financing as far as value is concerned

2)- they get paid more.

makes no sense why any realTOR would NOT let the buyer raise bid?

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by georgeinhere

This isn't true. Dual agency does not work how you've described it. Also, there are no bonuses.

So, if someone walks into say, an "open house" you listed and you sign them on a PSA- no other RE agent around, are you representing their "best interest" at that point?

2nd thing, you don't get comped better for selling your broker's listed properties as a buying agent?

explain.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by georgeinhere

Yes, call a lawyer prior to speaking to the broker. You'll spend 30 minutes with a lawyer and pay $250, well worth it to go in informed.

...$250 to be noted that you will gain NOTHING if the appropriate non-arms-length disclosures are signed...

The only REAL remedy is to force the agent to show the offer.

rjp

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by georgeinhere

I think that we simply have different ways of looking at life. I like to know what I'm getting into before I start shooting. I've been in RE for almost 2 decades as a builder/developer/broker so I've managed to gain a little insight. However, even with my background, I would still sit down with a lawyer because every single deal/contract/situation is different.

YMMV.

I used to own a mortgage Co, been in the biz for 15+ years and have qualified as a RE agent several times in WA state.

Spending $250 to be told that you have nothing but an accusation at the onset really doesn't make much sense, does it?

rjp