After offering $125k over ask, 28 day close, and waiving appraisal, we got beat by an even higher cash offer. Make me feel better by telling me about houses you missed out on!

Selling agent "accepted" my offer through my buying agent. Then found a buyer to match my offer that she could double side the close on. Then never presented my offer that beat the new offer. Later when I met the other buyer by chance, his offer was worse than mine. Lost an easy 100k on that one.

Is that even legal?!

Quote:

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After offering $125k over ask

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Unless we are talking a multi-million dollar property, be glad.

GunRangeGal said:

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Is that even legal?!

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Illegal? Maybe. Unethical? Definitely.

AggieAdvisor16 said:

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GunRangeGal said:

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Is that even legal?!

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Illegal? Maybe. Unethical? Definitely.

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you forgot typical

Story time
We need more details

I've put four offers on homes and have gotten beaten in all. I was in the final 2 on two of them though. First house I was final two on I was beat out by an investor and second one I was final two on I did a shorter option period, high option period money, and 20k over ask. I'm now set to build a house starting in May but my price won't lock in till end of April. Since I've been waiting for the new build the house price has increased 20k and I'm worried I might get priced out come end of April....ughhh

It's a tough market out there, I feel your pain and want to give up looking but you just gotta keep moving on as the right one will come along soon!

It's not uncommon for houses to go $100-$200k over ask in this neighborhood. We confirmed that we would have won if it weren't for the cash offer... but we wouldn't have won by much.

Just a perfect house. Well maintained, private drive, acre lot neighborhood, 1700sft of decks, backs up to open space, incredible views, 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths... everything we've been looking for. The first time we lost a house, there were like 19 offers, so we offered $50k over. It's insane and I'm so glad we don't have to sell our current house to buy another... there's no way we'd risk selling our house until we have one under contract.

GunRangeGal said:

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After offering $125k over ask, 28 day close, and waiving appraisal, we got beat by an even higher cash offer. Make me feel better by telling me about houses you missed out on!

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Where are you looking?

before we bought our current house, we put an offer in on the first house we looked at. It was nearly perfect to us. We went in at 15K over asking, agreed to let the owner rent the house back to us over the course of the summer, and pay all closing costs (this was in 2018). It had a great backyard with a large pool, giant palm trees, excellent landscaping, etc. about 2400sqft house. house went on the market friday morning with an open house saturday afternoon. By saturday night they had 25 offers and 5 of those were sight unseen. We got beat out by an all cash offer that was 50K over asking.

Its sucked.


But, it allowed us to find our current place. Its right next to a park in a neighborhood we never thought we could get into. Homes here are just never for sale or way out of our price range. Our backyard has a great pool with a ton of outdoor living space, cabana with outdoor kitchen and half bath, mature trees, bigger house, more character, pretty much better in every category. We never would have ended up here if we got the first house.

It always feel like you missed out on the perfect house. Hell we made offers on about a dozen homes before this one. I feel like it will all work out in the end its just a really crappy feeling right now.

Ouch that does suck. I think you're right that we'll land on the right house, but getting constantly beat by cash offers is hard. I'm glad you guys ended up exactly in the right home!

We're in good position that we have a great house, but would prefer to move rather than later. A cash offer is just so hard to beat even when we have an amazing lender that can work miracles on deadlines.

Colorado... pretty much anywhere on the front range is going nuts right now.

Buying my first house out of college, found a good one listed in a rural area that had been listed 4 years and was down to $115k, we offered $112.5k. My agent called and said the listing agent laughed at the offer and said go **** yourself, we're raising the price to $130k. We immediately walked away and bought a better house elsewhere. That house stayed on the market another 4 years, owner went bankrupt and had all his business equipment repo'd, and the house finally sold for $90k.

Wow they told you that and you only went in 2.5k under asking? What jerks, guy obviously needed money and you did the right thing walking away

That's insanity, GRG. I'm getting beaten out with list + $30k offers with appraisal wavers here in Charlotte, and going that far is making me pretty uncomfortable. Seriously considering just renting for another year or two while the market hopefully stabilizes.

It certainly is a crazy market in Colorado. Have been beaten out on 4 contracts in the past 6 months. We have been flying up for first day on market, list price offers, close ASAP and seller can lease back for a nominal amount thru ski season. Most recent attempt just closed $400,000 over our full price offer. All others we attempted closed over list.

CS78 said:

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Selling agent "accepted" my offer through my buying agent. Then found a buyer to match my offer that she could double side the close on. Then never presented my offer that beat the new offer. Later when I met the other buyer by chance, his offer was worse than mine. Lost an easy 100k on that one.

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THis happened to neighbors a couple of doors down a few years ago.

We had someone ask to see our home during the "coming soon" phase and asked if we'd be willing to sell without going to market if the offer was fare.

They asked because they'd made an offer 2 doors down, the realtor said they'd hear back soon, then a week later the realtor for the seller told them "sorry, found a buyer".

Eventually figured out the seller's realtor was also the buyer's realtor (personal friends on FB) and double dipped. NEver told the sellers about the other offer.

She got reported but no idea what came of it.

Helped a family member buy a house south of Houston. It was hard as hell to get into. Turns out the house was a rental home and the renters hadn't paid rent in over 6 months.

The seller found out they were on vacation and listed home while they were gone. All was Good until the renters came back and actively refused to leave and not let anyone through door. Eventually left without trashing the place.

Paid 25k over for the renter circus and realtor being unreal hard to deal with.

I told the story a few years ago here, but we were buying our first house and had the seller walk away at the closing table. Turns out it was owned by a out of state mother and son. She knew it was being sold, but the son had forged her signature on all the documents leading up to closing. When she found out she was paying closing costs (normal for that market) she flipped a gasket and refused to close. Ended up walking away. Their realtor made us whole on costs we had paid out of his pocket. We could have sued for specific performance, but the son ended up staying at the house for a few more years so I don't think we would have been awarded it.

All in all, everything worked out in the end as we ended up with a better house/better deal.

Work friends with a person who made an introduction to a person who lived in a different city but still owned the house across the street. The owner had told the neighbor of the $/SF he would sell the house for. Keep in mind the house was not being listed at this point.

I toured 3 times in a matter of 3 days to be sure, and made an offer at his requested price, but removed 3% commission because I was repping myself and was not going to take commission. The guys broker forwarded me an email from the owner saying how offensive my offer was and that I was basically too poor or cheap to pay what the house was worth and not to waste his time with an offer like that.

My work friend sent me the texts from the home owner showing the price he said he would sell it for. Bizarre situation.

I'll tell my story, but I was the one doing the rejecting.

Built a semi-custom in south College Station in 2011. Company I worked for went bankrupt in 2012, and I found another job in The Woodlands. This was before the CS housing market went crazy, and I knew I was going to lose money, so I listed FSBO to try and control the hemorrhaging.

I bought the house for $240,500, so for fun, I listed it at $250k, which was actually cheaper than new builds by the same builder and with a similar floor plan.

Didn't get much traction at first, but I listed it in December, just before the holidays. A few weeks - maybe a month - went by, and I got a call from a guy and his wife who wanted to see it in person. We arranged a viewing, and he said "Oh, by the way, we have a realtor. Are you willing to pay her commission?" The FSBO listing already said that commission would be paid, but I confirmed.

Couple and their realtor come look at the house, and the realtor calls me back a few days later. Starts her pitch with a spiel about how the offer is "a little low" but I would be "saving so much money by not paying a seller's agent".

Then she offers me somewhere in the low $230s. Can't remember the exact number because I literally started laughing. I told her that was significantly less than what I'd paid for the house two years prior and comparable new builds were going for $250k+.

Not wanting to waste anyone's time, I point blank told her I'd take $245k. That was my best and final. She says she'll take that back to her clients.

A few days later, she calls me back. I was at work, and since my office wasn't ready, I was in a cubicle. She offers me something like $242k, and tries to justify it by saying she "knows I need to be out of the house." Which wasn't true at all - I was commuting to The Woodlands, and now that I was back on a payroll, there was no financial hardship to keeping the house.

I very firmly told her again that I would not accept anything less than $245k, and that if her clients wanted to pay less than that, then she should reduce her commission. Of course, her response to that was "Oh, no, I can't do that!" I honestly didn't expect to hear from them again. My new coworkers heard the whole conversation. I'm not sure if they were impressed or horrified.

She called back a few days later with an offer at $245k. While we were under contract, I had several other serious inquiries that probably would have paid $250k.

Maybe 9 months after I sold was when the market really took off, and similar houses on my street started going for over $300k. Those people got my house for a steal!

made an offer 3 years ago and went 110% of list. I made it finance contingent and got beat by a cash offer. I had the cash. Dumm du dumm du dumm dumm dumb.

We put multiple offers on houses here in BCS over asking a few years ago. Newly married, first home, something around 160-180k we could fix up and make our own. We'd get beat out on houses listed for a couple hours for cash offers over asking. We wrote letters at the suggestion of our realtor, nothing. I think the most we offered was $142/sqft on a house that was a little over 1200 sqft in a neighborhood we weren't even really thrilled with. It was move in ready. Another house we went 15k over asking. Nothing.

Luckily, we "missed" on those and found a house in The Oaks and offered 10k UNDER asking. Right at $100 sqft on a 1500ish sqft house. It needed work, but I love doing that kind of stuff. They accepted. Older couple that was just ready to sell.

About 10k, mostly done by myself, and a hail storm later for a new roof and we're in a great spot. Took us about a month to fix it up and move in. I'll remember the days/nights I spent in this empty house painting, changing ceiling fans, cleaning, etc forever. Looking back, there was 1 house I would have been happy getting over this one, and it was the most expensive one we put an offer on.

I just figured this one out yesterday.

I was repping a buyer who was looking for a property in Crystal Beach near Galveston. Listing agent says there is another offer as well so give her the best offer. Price is listed at 258k. We offered $265k. A day goes by and haven't heard anything. My buyer is really wanting the property so he tells me to ask listing agent about $270k. I text the listing agent that I can get my buyer up to $270k and if seller wants that, I can get a written offer to her soon.

Listing agent texts back saying she is waiting for seller to get off work and she will get with seller about it. Following morning, listing agent emails me and thanks me for our offers but seller went with somebody else.

Property closed early March (just remembered to check yesterday) with sold price of $265k. Even though I stated my client could do $270k. Looking into it, the listing agent brokered the whole deal as selling agent too. So the seller just lost $5000.

I assume our $270k (even though verbal, texted) was not shared with seller at all so she could make commission on both sides. I also think our original $265k written offer may not have been shared with seller too so she could double her commission.

Hmmmm.

We just had our offer accepted in broadmoor sunday. We offered before it was listed and got them to see the benefit of not having to deal with listing and strangers in the house. People in that area really value privacy though.

We got it for their planned listing price. Fair for everyone, no hassles.

My advice is to find them before they list. In other words, contact the alpha listing realtor for the area you want.

We just had our offer accepted in broadmoor sunday. We offered before it was listed and got them to see the benefit of not having to deal with listing and strangers in the house. People in that area really value privacy though.

We got it for their planned listing price. Fair for everyone, no hassles.

My advice is to find them before they list. In other words, contact the alpha listing realtor for the area you want.

You can say that again!

We put in an offer on a house we loved in Houston in early 2017. We had plans to nearly gut the entire house and reconfigure / remodel the place. The location was perfect and the redesign would have made it just right for us. We probably would have put ~150k into the house to get it where we wanted it.

Offered full asking price but lost out to a cash offer. About 5 months later which is about when we would have been finishing up the work and getting ready to move in, Harvey comes along. I drove by the house a while after everything settled and saw the water line about 9' up.

Thankfully we found a different house that has been great for us not long after we lost out on that one. Definitely dodged a bullet.

entirely possible. There's an agent in my area that is famous for that kind of crap.

It's like I always say in real estate, the 90% of agents that are incompetent and/or unethical give the rest of us a bad name. That might only be a slight exaggeration sadly.

similar thing happened to me before I bought my current house.

Had a "fixer upper" in Meyerland that we were in love with. Listing agent was a PITA and was jerking me around so I moved on.

That place has flooded 3 times since then.

I've said something similar about mortgage. Back in the easy money wild loan days 5% of the LOs caused 90% of the problems.

Most of those have moved on with much stricter licensing now