Quote:
Originally Posted by Shades
Can you elaborate on the quoted part, because I don't understand the criticism. Where you low-balling the seller each time? It seems unlikely you could put 8 different offers in and not purchase a house unless you had unrealistic expectations.
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We were going in an average of $5,000 to $10,000 under asking price, as per the Realtor's direction. I was pre-approved for a mortgage, was bidding on houses within this range and on the advice of the realtor putting in offers $5-10K under the asking price. It was in mid 2009 and people were still purchasing for over a price. My realtor kept insisting this method would be perfectly fine and how everyone did it so we would write the offer and then she'd tell me a couple of days later that it was rejected and the house was already sold so we couldn't bid again. I have no idea if any of those offers were even countered or not. One even went so far as while I was touring a house for the second time with my parents (that we wrote an offer for and thought she had put my offer in the night before and we were waiting to hear back) we were told we had to leave as the house was sold to someone else.
Quite frankly, I put 100% of the blame for the 8 offers solely on the Realtor in this case. It was my first attempt to buy a house and I took all necessary steps to give her my budget for a house, got pre-approved and had cash in hand for the downpayment and when she told me to look at things above my price I refused stating I had a budget. I think the fact that I was only looking to spend $250K and not the $800K plus her other clients and listings were I didn't get anywhere near the same service. After the 8th offer and her flat out telling me "I didn't follow up because I didn't think it was necessary" I decided that I was no longer interested in purchasing a house and continued to rent.
Note: I just want to clarify that I blame THIS particular Realtor I worked with, not all Realtors. I realize this is not normal Realtor behaviour as I currently work with 3 others and when I told them about this and showed them the offer sheets written up as they did not believe me either they were appalled and said they have never seen anything like this before either. I would use a Realtor again when I decide to try to purchase my first house again, but I think I would do far more research or interviewing of one to ensure its the right fit.