bumpyride Posted August 14, 2005 Report Share Posted August 14, 2005 Here's a little tip for those of you looking for a house or property. If you're in a area where there is a tendency for bidding wars to develop, and you want a house badly, skip some agent you like, and go directly to the listing agent. He controls the access to the offers, and guess what, insider information may come into play. The Realtor gets a bigger slice of the pie if he sells it, or possibly if it's sold by another in his office, and guess who knows all the offers that come in. Just had a bit of bad luck. We bid $85,000 over the asking price, and were beat by $2000, but we had an escalator clause built in. The listing agent asked us to drop the escalator clause and proffer out best bid, because the owner didn't want to screw around. We bumped up the bid another $68,500, and guess what the listing agents buyers beat us by. $500. The asking price was $349,900. Our first bid was $435,00, and the last bid was $503,500. The listing agents buyers bid was $504,00. And get this, the listing agent at first refused to take a back up bid, for $510,000, until he was reminded of due diligence by the agent my partner had asked to submit our bid. So when you're looking at that Condo at Aspen beware. If at all possible go to the hand that you feed the most. Sour grapes? Yep. By the way, this was for raw land, I could never afford that kind of money for a house, and I will do things alone if my partner insists on making dumb moves again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dantheman0177 Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 And I thought we had some dumb rules down here to work with! If that kind of scenario happened in the real estate industry in Australia the agent would probably lose his license, or at very least get a pretty hefty fine. That is why I like to be open and transparent all the time, so everyone knows where they stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 500K-for an acre or a fraction thereof??? Hopefully, more than 1 but you never know..... Going to the listing agent to serve as your realtor is okay, if you have a signed agreement of representation, if not, remember the seller is the client, not you, and the realtor's fiduciary duty is to their client.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumpyride Posted August 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 Totally agree that the Listing Agent is the Sellers rep. So why did the Listing agent demand that we eliminate the Escalator clause. That means, of course, no matter what the other fellow bid we would beat it, furthering the gains to the seller. The only reason the Listing Agent would have us drop the clause is so that he could give his buyer the heads up, and they could beat us by $500. It was and is, I might add, 2 acres of view property. Puget Sound and the Olympics. I will be reporting the Agent to the State. Not only did he screw me, but he screwed the owner of the property. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tahoetrencher Posted August 15, 2005 Report Share Posted August 15, 2005 Bumpyride you're killing me. Please take this the right way when I say that real estate is not something that happens "to" you but rather in spite of you. Don't be bitter, there are plenty of deals out there. Get a good, ethical agent to represent you exclusively, you'll net more profit/savings with less ache. Period. Think It'll snow in Tahoe today? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumpyride Posted August 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Definitely not bitter. Hopefully a little smarter. I'd always use a person that I trust for selling my properties, though buying, I'd research myself and go to the listing agent. No sense in involving an extra stop in reaching the ultimate goal, especially if you're doing the homework yourself. Try the old "Pass the joke around the campfire", and see how it gets distorted. Much easier dealing with the one closest to the source, not to mention limiting potential conflicts that may arise. Now if I had a realtor that contacted me about a property, then it's a different story. I owe that person the right to negotiate for the property. If I were to have to call myself, that's a different scenario. It's 80 degrees, and it seems like snow is never going to come, but on the flip slide, you don't freeze your buns getting in and out of the wetsuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr. sandman Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Don't even get me started on real estate agents:flamethro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumpyride Posted August 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Go ahead do it Sandman. We need some real life experiences, and even better if it involves lawyers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr. sandman Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 O.K. but I'll post tomorrow when I have some time. (don't get too excited - no lawyers, but my wife did make one cry! (and it was a him !!)). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dantheman0177 Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 Hey careful here guys, I am an agent!!! :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Tokar Posted August 16, 2005 Report Share Posted August 16, 2005 It sounds like that listing agent was a greedy ba$tard. In real estate as everywhere else, some people are unethical, some people are not. For every horror story you hear, there are other good people playing by the rules, sometimes winning, sometimes not. My wife is a Realtor, and even though it means less $ for her she doesn't do dual agency, meaning that if someone contacted her regarding a property she has listed, she'll refer them to another agent to represent them in the transaction. Would you want your lawyer also representing your adversary in court, just because he's already familiar with the case? Good luck hunting for a place. MT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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