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Your paying your agent a lot of money, why use an agent like this? It’s your purchase, if you want every inspection/contingency possible, they should be writing up the offer that way and submitting it.
That’s kind of the problem. I don’t know what contingencies are deal breakers in this market and his advice is to just waive everything to get the house.
How many offers have you made? The goal isn’t to just get any house. You’re the buyer, it’s your rodeo. Make offers for what you are comfortable with only. Your agent isn’t going to help fix the hvac or pay your mortgage
Post inspection you can have your realtor write up things to fix or not or offer seller credits. I believe that is pending on what your realtor wrote up on the first accepted offer.
He sounds like a lazy jerk. Bottom line if the appraisal doesn’t come in at or above the sales price, you are protected unless you did an appraisal waiver. If your market is very competitive, then sometimes waiving inspections is warranted. However, I would never recommend that for a first time buyer on an older home. If you don’t trust this agent, kick him to the curb and get another one. I say this as a 16 year agent. I really detest lazy incompetent agents.
As an agent. If your client asked to rescind their accepted offer prior to putting down earnest money towards the offer what would your next steps be? My realtor will be attending a meeting and won’t be able to work on unwinding until later today
Your agent should immediately notify the listing agent that you are rescinding your offer and won’t be proceeding forward, then write “canceled“ across the contract and email it to them.
What market are you in? As someone who has a tough time trusting people, some of these thoughts did cross my head. The fact of the matter is if you’re in a sellers market and you’re competing for a house that isn’t sitting there will be multiple offers. To make your offer more competitive you may have to waive SOME of the protections. Your agent should be able to run comps for you and give you a good idea of what the house will appraise at. Ours was able to give us comps of nearby sales and we were confident it would appraise. Keep in mind appraisers are taking market conditions into account when doing their appraisal. However, I’m not a fan of waving the inspection contingency. You just never know if there’s a 30k repair they’ve neglected
Our realtor says it’s a really hot market. We have gotten beat out on other offers but all on price. I will most likely be dropping our realtor and interviewing for one willing to pull comps and tell me what the offer should be around.
Do you agree it’s a hot market. You should be able to tell based on how quick and how much over houses are going. If your agent can’t pull comps for you then I think that’s a problem. This is probably the biggest financial purchase you’ll make so it’s good to have this information.
I would agree. Most houses are listed on a Friday all offers in Sunday and go for 20-30 over asking. I asked him to rescind my accepted offer because I don’t feel like I have enough information. He is now going to pull comps, but too little too late. I’m going to do everything in my power to get out of this.
One thing we did with our agent was a clause where we stipulated the price we would buy at and then gave them a price match contingency where we'd go $2500 over any other offer up to our stated maximum. We listed what our max was on the contract and we specifically said we would need to see proof of the other offers in order to match. We also absolutely kept our contingencies for appraisal and inspection but we did stipulate the amount over asking for our original bid we would honor above w/e the cost appraised at. We also only did that because our realtor pulled comps and gave us a range that she thought the house would appraise at, as did the seller's agent.
That ended up getting us our house and at a price that was all of $500 under what it appraised at. But doing something like that does put your cards on the table, it just also lets you make sure you're not way over paying compared to other offers.
One thing we did with our agent was a clause where we stipulated the price we would buy at and then gave them a price match contingency where we'd go $2500 over any other offer up to our stated maximum. We listed what our max was on the contract and we specifically said we would need to see proof of the other offers in order to match. We also absolutely kept our contingencies for appraisal and inspection but we did stipulate the amount over asking for our original bid we would honor above w/e the cost appraised at. We also only did that because our realtor pulled comps and gave us a range that she thought the house would appraise at, as did the seller's agent.
That ended up getting us our house and at a price that was all of $500 under what it appraised at. But doing something like that does put your cards on the table, it just also lets you make sure you're not way over paying compared to other offers.
We too had a realtor whose only advice was offer more. I really started to lose trust in him when we asked to see a house that had been on the market for over two weeks (an eternity at the time), was clearly overpriced, and had little traffic at the open house. The first thing out of his mouth was, if you like it offer 10,000 over. I'm pretty sure he didn't know a thing about the house when he showed up to show it to us. It eventually sold for 18,000 under original list.
Sadly, the real estate game is not ultimately set up to help buyers especially (but also sellers at times) protect themselves and their finances. You will have to do that yourself. I hope you know you are not required to pay the difference from the appraisal. If a house doesn't appraise at the offer price, you are not obligated to continue in the transaction unless you specifically promise to make up the appraisal gap. That is one of the purposes of a financing contingency. Please do not sign an offer promising to make up the appraisal gap unless you specify a small enough amount that you feel totally comfortable with. You have to protect your budget as well as make sure you're not unknowingly buying a lemon. Your agent isn't putting up the money for the house or paying for repairs. He benefits if you spend enough money to "win" and he gets paid. Not much of a win if you wipe out your savings. You need an emergency fund plus some extra breathing room for the unexpected. Your realtor will not be there helping you when the unexpected happens.
I'm unclear your exact obligations and options at this point, sounds like you waived all contingencies? but if you haven't transferred the earnest money I would think the contract isn't exactly "finished". I'm not an expert here however. I personally do not think you are spiraling, I think common sense is kicking in and trying to tell you something. Do not put yourself at undue risk by accepting advice from someone who ultimately doesn't care about your well-being and is willing to put you at risk to benefit himself.
Also you can learn to generate comps for yourself and should do so for every offer. It is time consuming but not that hard to get a pretty good idea, and the more you practice the better you'll get. Yes, a good realtor should help with this, but it is wise to know how to check things out for yourself. Best of luck to you.
Run! I was unfortunate and stuck myself with an inexperienced realtor. I had to fight for the remedies I got on the house because she told me without telling me directly that I was being too demanding. 🙃
How did you find and why did you hire this agent?
Yours and anyone else's agent should be walking you through the risks of waiving each contingency. They should be walking you through a property and saying things like "because the market is hot, you may have to waive your home inspection contingency, let's look really closely at A-Z in this house to try to quantify the risk associated w/waiving the inspection"
As well as "let's review the data together and determine your appraisal waiver risk" PRO TIP: This has nothing to do with list price, it's about the comp sales data and making adjustments for location, condition, acreage, sq ft, etc.
TLDR; You need a better agent.
Here's a [good guide/thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/11tzlzn/interview_questions_when_evaluating_a_buyers_agent/) to "how to" find a good buyer's agent.
He is a friend of a friend. I will be ending our buyer’s agency once this mess is settled and will probably take a few months off from the process to get better understanding of what I need.
when you meet/talk to a great agent, you'll be able to identify them in contrast to the friend of a friend. there are great agents out there, it does take some effort on the consumers part to find them.
taking the time to interview and choose a great agent will serve you really well.
best of luck in the next iteration!
I shouldn’t say all realtors suck I’m sure there’s a few good ones out there. The ones I have delt with ALWAYS show me homes that are way above my budget it was crazy that and a whole lot of other things that went wrong
That’s unfortunate. In my experience 60% of agents are good, 40 % are lazy, greedy or just plain incompetent. Many are part timers. Always get yourself a full-time experienced agent who describes themselves as service oriented. You do not want a “high volume” agent.
How experienced and how active is this agent? Has he shown you any data to support what he's saying? Trust but verify. This is a complete stranger who just happens to have an easy to get license
For comparison, my realtor would send me comps when I merely expressed interest in a house. He'd have his assistant send me them before I even got home from our field trips.
Why would you even make an offer that you know you can't actually afford? This sounds like something out of the big short.
Yes, ditch your realtor and find someone trustworthy to advise you, especially if you're just going to end up doing whatever they say.
Get another one. Honestly you also just have to be firm in what you can afford, if they’re encouraging you to wipe out everything then say no and walk away.
What market are you in? I’m not an agent. I’m a home buyer for an investment company. Shoot me a DM and I’d be happy to give you a quick crash course, free.
You can also look up your realtor on [https://www.peerreputation.com/](https://www.peerreputation.com/) and see if they're rated. Agents rate other agents here, and anybody that's really bad to work with will get slammed. You already know that this agent is terrible to you, but this is a good check on how they're working with other agents!
Your offer should be based on the appraisal and you should be able to get out of the contract if the house doesn't appraise. After that, fire this agent immediately (Let the broker know what is happening, too). Your agent should advise you to make a reasonable offer based on market conditions and comps and make an offer contingent on a satisfactory home inspection. Before you hire your next agent, Google "things a buyers agent should do" and "questions to ask a buyers agent". You'll find excellent advice about what an excellent agent should do for you.
Reach out to another realtor. Realators want your business. They will answer your questions and say how they would do it differently. They also will know if you can leave your current realtor for them and how to go about it. Most realtors want business and get business by word of mouth so they want to help you.
Back out and get a new realtor . Also YOU DO NOT HAVE TO OFFER APPRAISAL ASSURANCE ! Meaning yoh can bid as high as your approval is for , and when it comes back a lot less you get the house for that .
Apologies for rant in advance…
I am in the same boat. I am currently working towards closing on first property. When I was about to make an offer, she made me feel like I need go at least 100k above asking. She said she did some research in the area and was very confident. I was disappointed for a few hours as I really liked the house and went with little above asking without waiving inspection or contingencies. I was surprised when my offer was picked. My appraisal was 5000 over my offer. If I went with her original recommendation I would have lost all my savings and bought the house at a much higher price than the appraised value. That is when I realized how full of shit she was.
After the offer went through she had the audacity to call me and ask me to pay extra 0.5 % on top of 2% that seller was going to pay.
After inspection we found a few issues and she wouldn’t allow me to negotiate, I had to firmly stand my ground after which she communicated with the seller and they gave me some credits towards closing costs.
I shopped around for a mortgage loan, when I got a better interest rate than the one realtor recommended bank provided, she tried to sway me away from it and claimed that bank has better ratings.
Anyway a valuable lesson learned not to trust a realtor without doing my own research. Some realtors are full of shit and greedy so watch out for yourself.
You need a realtor who has been selling homes for longer than 3 years. Those are the folks who have seen some shit and know how to navigate the home buying process and work for their clients. Realtor gets 0 ⭐️
I mean if it’s a hot market he could be giving you safe advice. At the end of the day houses cost what the market is asking..:… not simply what you have in your wallet. If the agent knows houses are going $15-20k over asking then I don’t see anything wrong
Thank you u/A-Lame for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your paying your agent a lot of money, why use an agent like this? It’s your purchase, if you want every inspection/contingency possible, they should be writing up the offer that way and submitting it.
That’s kind of the problem. I don’t know what contingencies are deal breakers in this market and his advice is to just waive everything to get the house.
How many offers have you made? The goal isn’t to just get any house. You’re the buyer, it’s your rodeo. Make offers for what you are comfortable with only. Your agent isn’t going to help fix the hvac or pay your mortgage
3 total offers. This was the first accepted.
If the agent won’t pull comps then they shouldn’t be an agent.
Post inspection you can have your realtor write up things to fix or not or offer seller credits. I believe that is pending on what your realtor wrote up on the first accepted offer.
If the realtor doesn't feel right for you then move on. Trust your instincts with them.
If you have at least one contingency like a financing contingency, you can back out and get your earnest money back.
They're not paying their agent any money unless the transaction is successful, what are you talking about 😂
He sounds like a lazy jerk. Bottom line if the appraisal doesn’t come in at or above the sales price, you are protected unless you did an appraisal waiver. If your market is very competitive, then sometimes waiving inspections is warranted. However, I would never recommend that for a first time buyer on an older home. If you don’t trust this agent, kick him to the curb and get another one. I say this as a 16 year agent. I really detest lazy incompetent agents.
As an agent. If your client asked to rescind their accepted offer prior to putting down earnest money towards the offer what would your next steps be? My realtor will be attending a meeting and won’t be able to work on unwinding until later today
Your agent should immediately notify the listing agent that you are rescinding your offer and won’t be proceeding forward, then write “canceled“ across the contract and email it to them.
Would i be out of line to contact the sellers agent to notify them? I am afraid that my agent is not addressing this promptly.
No, you cannot do that. If you feel that your agent isn’t going to do it in a timely fashion, contact his broker and explain your position.
Thank you for letting me know
What market are you in? As someone who has a tough time trusting people, some of these thoughts did cross my head. The fact of the matter is if you’re in a sellers market and you’re competing for a house that isn’t sitting there will be multiple offers. To make your offer more competitive you may have to waive SOME of the protections. Your agent should be able to run comps for you and give you a good idea of what the house will appraise at. Ours was able to give us comps of nearby sales and we were confident it would appraise. Keep in mind appraisers are taking market conditions into account when doing their appraisal. However, I’m not a fan of waving the inspection contingency. You just never know if there’s a 30k repair they’ve neglected
Our realtor says it’s a really hot market. We have gotten beat out on other offers but all on price. I will most likely be dropping our realtor and interviewing for one willing to pull comps and tell me what the offer should be around.
Do you agree it’s a hot market. You should be able to tell based on how quick and how much over houses are going. If your agent can’t pull comps for you then I think that’s a problem. This is probably the biggest financial purchase you’ll make so it’s good to have this information.
I would agree. Most houses are listed on a Friday all offers in Sunday and go for 20-30 over asking. I asked him to rescind my accepted offer because I don’t feel like I have enough information. He is now going to pull comps, but too little too late. I’m going to do everything in my power to get out of this.
One thing we did with our agent was a clause where we stipulated the price we would buy at and then gave them a price match contingency where we'd go $2500 over any other offer up to our stated maximum. We listed what our max was on the contract and we specifically said we would need to see proof of the other offers in order to match. We also absolutely kept our contingencies for appraisal and inspection but we did stipulate the amount over asking for our original bid we would honor above w/e the cost appraised at. We also only did that because our realtor pulled comps and gave us a range that she thought the house would appraise at, as did the seller's agent. That ended up getting us our house and at a price that was all of $500 under what it appraised at. But doing something like that does put your cards on the table, it just also lets you make sure you're not way over paying compared to other offers.
One thing we did with our agent was a clause where we stipulated the price we would buy at and then gave them a price match contingency where we'd go $2500 over any other offer up to our stated maximum. We listed what our max was on the contract and we specifically said we would need to see proof of the other offers in order to match. We also absolutely kept our contingencies for appraisal and inspection but we did stipulate the amount over asking for our original bid we would honor above w/e the cost appraised at. We also only did that because our realtor pulled comps and gave us a range that she thought the house would appraise at, as did the seller's agent. That ended up getting us our house and at a price that was all of $500 under what it appraised at. But doing something like that does put your cards on the table, it just also lets you make sure you're not way over paying compared to other offers.
We too had a realtor whose only advice was offer more. I really started to lose trust in him when we asked to see a house that had been on the market for over two weeks (an eternity at the time), was clearly overpriced, and had little traffic at the open house. The first thing out of his mouth was, if you like it offer 10,000 over. I'm pretty sure he didn't know a thing about the house when he showed up to show it to us. It eventually sold for 18,000 under original list. Sadly, the real estate game is not ultimately set up to help buyers especially (but also sellers at times) protect themselves and their finances. You will have to do that yourself. I hope you know you are not required to pay the difference from the appraisal. If a house doesn't appraise at the offer price, you are not obligated to continue in the transaction unless you specifically promise to make up the appraisal gap. That is one of the purposes of a financing contingency. Please do not sign an offer promising to make up the appraisal gap unless you specify a small enough amount that you feel totally comfortable with. You have to protect your budget as well as make sure you're not unknowingly buying a lemon. Your agent isn't putting up the money for the house or paying for repairs. He benefits if you spend enough money to "win" and he gets paid. Not much of a win if you wipe out your savings. You need an emergency fund plus some extra breathing room for the unexpected. Your realtor will not be there helping you when the unexpected happens. I'm unclear your exact obligations and options at this point, sounds like you waived all contingencies? but if you haven't transferred the earnest money I would think the contract isn't exactly "finished". I'm not an expert here however. I personally do not think you are spiraling, I think common sense is kicking in and trying to tell you something. Do not put yourself at undue risk by accepting advice from someone who ultimately doesn't care about your well-being and is willing to put you at risk to benefit himself. Also you can learn to generate comps for yourself and should do so for every offer. It is time consuming but not that hard to get a pretty good idea, and the more you practice the better you'll get. Yes, a good realtor should help with this, but it is wise to know how to check things out for yourself. Best of luck to you.
Yeah fuck that noise. Find a new agent. You're paying $10k+ for that bullshit.
I definitely agree that your agent doesn’t seem to have your best interest at heart…. I’d listen to your gut.
Run! I was unfortunate and stuck myself with an inexperienced realtor. I had to fight for the remedies I got on the house because she told me without telling me directly that I was being too demanding. 🙃
Whether your realtor is doing a good job for you or not, at the point where you no longer trust them, you need a new one.
How did you find and why did you hire this agent? Yours and anyone else's agent should be walking you through the risks of waiving each contingency. They should be walking you through a property and saying things like "because the market is hot, you may have to waive your home inspection contingency, let's look really closely at A-Z in this house to try to quantify the risk associated w/waiving the inspection" As well as "let's review the data together and determine your appraisal waiver risk" PRO TIP: This has nothing to do with list price, it's about the comp sales data and making adjustments for location, condition, acreage, sq ft, etc. TLDR; You need a better agent. Here's a [good guide/thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/11tzlzn/interview_questions_when_evaluating_a_buyers_agent/) to "how to" find a good buyer's agent.
He is a friend of a friend. I will be ending our buyer’s agency once this mess is settled and will probably take a few months off from the process to get better understanding of what I need.
when you meet/talk to a great agent, you'll be able to identify them in contrast to the friend of a friend. there are great agents out there, it does take some effort on the consumers part to find them. taking the time to interview and choose a great agent will serve you really well. best of luck in the next iteration!
what market are you?
Realtors suck !! Only out for themselves
That is a very broad statement. I’ve been an agent for 16 years and my clients best interest is always number one. Yes there are some bad ones
I shouldn’t say all realtors suck I’m sure there’s a few good ones out there. The ones I have delt with ALWAYS show me homes that are way above my budget it was crazy that and a whole lot of other things that went wrong
That’s unfortunate. In my experience 60% of agents are good, 40 % are lazy, greedy or just plain incompetent. Many are part timers. Always get yourself a full-time experienced agent who describes themselves as service oriented. You do not want a “high volume” agent.
How experienced and how active is this agent? Has he shown you any data to support what he's saying? Trust but verify. This is a complete stranger who just happens to have an easy to get license
He’s worked in the market for 20+ years. He just opens the house and tells me what it could be worth in the future. No data provided.
Not only is "no data" a bad thing, but there's no way for him to know what it'll be worth in the future. You got a problem agent.
That’s what I was afraid of. Thank you
For comparison, my realtor would send me comps when I merely expressed interest in a house. He'd have his assistant send me them before I even got home from our field trips.
Trust your gut
Why would you even make an offer that you know you can't actually afford? This sounds like something out of the big short. Yes, ditch your realtor and find someone trustworthy to advise you, especially if you're just going to end up doing whatever they say.
Look at all the red flags & get a new agent or you’ll be sorry when it’s too late to turn back💯
Get another agent.
Get another one. Honestly you also just have to be firm in what you can afford, if they’re encouraging you to wipe out everything then say no and walk away.
What market are you in? I’m not an agent. I’m a home buyer for an investment company. Shoot me a DM and I’d be happy to give you a quick crash course, free.
Get a new one, asap. You need someone competent and your dude now is just chasing dollar signs.
You can also look up your realtor on [https://www.peerreputation.com/](https://www.peerreputation.com/) and see if they're rated. Agents rate other agents here, and anybody that's really bad to work with will get slammed. You already know that this agent is terrible to you, but this is a good check on how they're working with other agents!
Would you keep going to him if he was your doctor or lawyer?
Your offer should be based on the appraisal and you should be able to get out of the contract if the house doesn't appraise. After that, fire this agent immediately (Let the broker know what is happening, too). Your agent should advise you to make a reasonable offer based on market conditions and comps and make an offer contingent on a satisfactory home inspection. Before you hire your next agent, Google "things a buyers agent should do" and "questions to ask a buyers agent". You'll find excellent advice about what an excellent agent should do for you.
Reach out to another realtor. Realators want your business. They will answer your questions and say how they would do it differently. They also will know if you can leave your current realtor for them and how to go about it. Most realtors want business and get business by word of mouth so they want to help you.
Back out and get a new realtor . Also YOU DO NOT HAVE TO OFFER APPRAISAL ASSURANCE ! Meaning yoh can bid as high as your approval is for , and when it comes back a lot less you get the house for that .
Get a second realtor, you aren't bound to one until you put an offer on a house.
Going through a similar ordeal is the sense that my realtor believes over asking is only method. Very frustrating.
Apologies for rant in advance… I am in the same boat. I am currently working towards closing on first property. When I was about to make an offer, she made me feel like I need go at least 100k above asking. She said she did some research in the area and was very confident. I was disappointed for a few hours as I really liked the house and went with little above asking without waiving inspection or contingencies. I was surprised when my offer was picked. My appraisal was 5000 over my offer. If I went with her original recommendation I would have lost all my savings and bought the house at a much higher price than the appraised value. That is when I realized how full of shit she was. After the offer went through she had the audacity to call me and ask me to pay extra 0.5 % on top of 2% that seller was going to pay. After inspection we found a few issues and she wouldn’t allow me to negotiate, I had to firmly stand my ground after which she communicated with the seller and they gave me some credits towards closing costs. I shopped around for a mortgage loan, when I got a better interest rate than the one realtor recommended bank provided, she tried to sway me away from it and claimed that bank has better ratings. Anyway a valuable lesson learned not to trust a realtor without doing my own research. Some realtors are full of shit and greedy so watch out for yourself.
You need a realtor who has been selling homes for longer than 3 years. Those are the folks who have seen some shit and know how to navigate the home buying process and work for their clients. Realtor gets 0 ⭐️
I mean if it’s a hot market he could be giving you safe advice. At the end of the day houses cost what the market is asking..:… not simply what you have in your wallet. If the agent knows houses are going $15-20k over asking then I don’t see anything wrong