Realtors:

[Lean L]

Yeah, so I didn't read all the replies but just some things that seem fishey at both ends.

1) Craigslist? really?
2) Realtors nowadays get 5% commission combined, split evenly by the buyer and seller realtor, depending on the company they contract with, it comes out to around 1.7% once they get it from the company. Chances are, any realtor that offers that cash back is either working for free or not a good realtor (signs name so they get paid and you never see them again). You can probably find realtors that will charge only commission, so you are not paying them directly, the seller is. This route is a lot better than cash back as one of the responsibilities of a good realtor is to protect the buyer from certain legal aspects. As simple as buying a house sounds, there are many aspects that will screw you over if you are not in reality. For instance, home inspections, a good realtor could save you thousands given the right report. Doing that yourself, you may have to pay for many repairs out of your own pockets.

Find yourself a real realtor

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: arkcom

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Aimster
Kranky

We will see if you are right. Let's see if he agrees to submit the offer without a check in his hand.
We are supposed to submit an offer tonight. That is the deal.

This guy has attracted a ton of business. He had appointments all day today. All this business lately.. but nothing could be found about this company by searching the web.
Hoping you are right Kranky and I'm just being paranoid.

I agree with Kranky. I just sent earnest money to the Realtor representing my builder.

Although, my mom had to sue to get her earnest money back, after she bailed on a deal for a house.

Who did you write the check to?

Well, my builder has a Century 21 representing him, so I made it out to them. That don't mean much though, because my mom's was made out to a Remax. She had to sue them & the seller, and it took about a year before the case came up. On the day of the case, they settled out, for her money plus another 1k.

I told her she should have told them to go to hell, but she didn't listen. I called the state, and found out that they pulled the same crap on 10 other people. If you are that worried, you should do the same.

She bailed on the deal and sued them? I guess she must have had a very good reason?

She bailed on the deal because the home inspection showed the foundation needed major work. The Realtor was supposed to return her money, but never did. When I called the state, I found out the Realtor was under investigation for the same thing.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster
Kranky

We will see if you are right. Let's see if he agrees to submit the offer without a check in his hand.
We are supposed to submit an offer tonight. That is the deal.

This guy has attracted a ton of business. He had appointments all day today. All this business lately.. but nothing could be found about this company by searching the web.
Hoping you are right Kranky and I'm just being paranoid.

Submitting an offer without earnest money will more than likely be rejected. If you're not willing to learn the process, rent.

Learn the process?
A Realtor is required to submit all offers the buyer wants
If this guy doesn't submit an offer then he is committing a scam. He is not going to email me back.. I will be very surprised if he does.

Anyone who writes a $5,000 check to an individual they barely know is an idiot.
Writing a $5,000 check to Remax (or any of those big companies) to hold in an escrow account is Ok.

you and your "you should rent" non-sense.

Then why even deal with this realtor then? Why not deal with the seller's realtor directly then? You just want to play a game.

You plan to sell and move to Texas in 5 years. Your buying/selling/timing costs will cause you to lose more money owning then renting.

Because I see no reason why an individual needs to hold my money in an escrow account meant for the seller. Why don't you give me your money and I'll hold it for you in my bank account.

I live in Fairfax, VA. You don't know anything about this area for you to be talking about me losing value on my property or not. Your area might be a complete waste because jobs are not guaranteed there.

The reason why you DON'T want the seller to hold your earnest money is because if something comes up to quash the deal, you don't have to fight to get your money back.

Look at it this way:

Let's turn that logic around: What you're proposing is to give $5,000 to someone you don't know and you trust them to give it back to you if the home inspection finds trouble, or if they don't want to close for 6 months, or any number of other reasons that would kill the deal. What makes the seller automatically more trustworthy than your agent?

 

[Aimster]

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: arkcom

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Aimster
Kranky

We will see if you are right. Let's see if he agrees to submit the offer without a check in his hand.
We are supposed to submit an offer tonight. That is the deal.

This guy has attracted a ton of business. He had appointments all day today. All this business lately.. but nothing could be found about this company by searching the web.
Hoping you are right Kranky and I'm just being paranoid.

I agree with Kranky. I just sent earnest money to the Realtor representing my builder.

Although, my mom had to sue to get her earnest money back, after she bailed on a deal for a house.

Who did you write the check to?

Well, my builder has a Century 21 representing him, so I made it out to them. That don't mean much though, because my mom's was made out to a Remax. She had to sue them & the seller, and it took about a year before the case came up. On the day of the case, they settled out, for her money plus another 1k.

I told her she should have told them to go to hell, but she didn't listen. I called the state, and found out that they pulled the same crap on 10 other people. If you are that worried, you should do the same.

She bailed on the deal and sued them? I guess she must have had a very good reason?

She bailed on the deal because the home inspection showed the foundation needed major work. The Realtor was supposed to return her money, but never did. When I called the state, I found out the Realtor was under investigation for the same thing.

Was this part of the contract? That it must pass home inspection

 

[Aimster]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster
Kranky

We will see if you are right. Let's see if he agrees to submit the offer without a check in his hand.
We are supposed to submit an offer tonight. That is the deal.

This guy has attracted a ton of business. He had appointments all day today. All this business lately.. but nothing could be found about this company by searching the web.
Hoping you are right Kranky and I'm just being paranoid.

Submitting an offer without earnest money will more than likely be rejected. If you're not willing to learn the process, rent.

Learn the process?
A Realtor is required to submit all offers the buyer wants
If this guy doesn't submit an offer then he is committing a scam. He is not going to email me back.. I will be very surprised if he does.

Anyone who writes a $5,000 check to an individual they barely know is an idiot.
Writing a $5,000 check to Remax (or any of those big companies) to hold in an escrow account is Ok.

you and your "you should rent" non-sense.

Then why even deal with this realtor then? Why not deal with the seller's realtor directly then? You just want to play a game.

You plan to sell and move to Texas in 5 years. Your buying/selling/timing costs will cause you to lose more money owning then renting.

Because I see no reason why an individual needs to hold my money in an escrow account meant for the seller. Why don't you give me your money and I'll hold it for you in my bank account.

I live in Fairfax, VA. You don't know anything about this area for you to be talking about me losing value on my property or not. Your area might be a complete waste because jobs are not guaranteed there.

The reason why you DON'T want the seller to hold your earnest money is because if something comes up to quash the deal, you don't have to fight to get your money back.

Look at it this way:

Let's turn that logic around: What you're proposing is to give $5,000 to someone you don't know and you trust them to give it back to you if the home inspection finds trouble, or if they don't want to close for 6 months, or any number of other reasons that would kill the deal. What makes the seller automatically more trustworthy than your agent?

Ok let me ask you this.
I write my Realtor company a check. I don't give my Realtor a check. I give him a copy of a check I wrote.
He attaches the copy of that check to the offer and submits it to the seller.

Both ways the seller sees that I have wrote someone a check that they will never get in their hands anyways.

Do you see a problem doing that?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster
Kranky

We will see if you are right. Let's see if he agrees to submit the offer without a check in his hand.
We are supposed to submit an offer tonight. That is the deal.

This guy has attracted a ton of business. He had appointments all day today. All this business lately.. but nothing could be found about this company by searching the web.
Hoping you are right Kranky and I'm just being paranoid.

Submitting an offer without earnest money will more than likely be rejected. If you're not willing to learn the process, rent.

Learn the process?
A Realtor is required to submit all offers the buyer wants
If this guy doesn't submit an offer then he is committing a scam. He is not going to email me back.. I will be very surprised if he does.

Anyone who writes a $5,000 check to an individual they barely know is an idiot.
Writing a $5,000 check to Remax (or any of those big companies) to hold in an escrow account is Ok.

you and your "you should rent" non-sense.

Then why even deal with this realtor then? Why not deal with the seller's realtor directly then? You just want to play a game.

You plan to sell and move to Texas in 5 years. Your buying/selling/timing costs will cause you to lose more money owning then renting.

Because I see no reason why an individual needs to hold my money in an escrow account meant for the seller. Why don't you give me your money and I'll hold it for you in my bank account.

I live in Fairfax, VA. You don't know anything about this area for you to be talking about me losing value on my property or not. Your area might be a complete waste because jobs are not guaranteed there.

Again,

Then why even continue dealing with this realtor then? Why not deal with the seller's realtor directly then? Or get a reputable realtor? I've already recommended using ZipReality.com where they'll write you a check for 20% of the commission 30 days after closing. You just want to play a game

And I live in Cambridge, MA where property prices went up 16% last year. Fairfax, VA dropped 2.5% last year. Unless, you assume your property is going to increase by 20-25% over the next five years, you're going to lose money when you sell.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster
Kranky

We will see if you are right. Let's see if he agrees to submit the offer without a check in his hand.
We are supposed to submit an offer tonight. That is the deal.

This guy has attracted a ton of business. He had appointments all day today. All this business lately.. but nothing could be found about this company by searching the web.
Hoping you are right Kranky and I'm just being paranoid.

Submitting an offer without earnest money will more than likely be rejected. If you're not willing to learn the process, rent.

Learn the process?
A Realtor is required to submit all offers the buyer wants
If this guy doesn't submit an offer then he is committing a scam. He is not going to email me back.. I will be very surprised if he does.

Anyone who writes a $5,000 check to an individual they barely know is an idiot.
Writing a $5,000 check to Remax (or any of those big companies) to hold in an escrow account is Ok.

you and your "you should rent" non-sense.

Then why even deal with this realtor then? Why not deal with the seller's realtor directly then? You just want to play a game.

You plan to sell and move to Texas in 5 years. Your buying/selling/timing costs will cause you to lose more money owning then renting.

Because I see no reason why an individual needs to hold my money in an escrow account meant for the seller. Why don't you give me your money and I'll hold it for you in my bank account.

I live in Fairfax, VA. You don't know anything about this area for you to be talking about me losing value on my property or not. Your area might be a complete waste because jobs are not guaranteed there.

The reason why you DON'T want the seller to hold your earnest money is because if something comes up to quash the deal, you don't have to fight to get your money back.

Look at it this way:

Let's turn that logic around: What you're proposing is to give $5,000 to someone you don't know and you trust them to give it back to you if the home inspection finds trouble, or if they don't want to close for 6 months, or any number of other reasons that would kill the deal. What makes the seller automatically more trustworthy than your agent?

Ok let me ask you this.
I write my Realtor company a check. I don't give my Realtor a check. I give him a copy of a check I wrote.
He attaches the copy of that check to the offer and submits it to the seller.

Both ways the seller sees that I have wrote someone a check that they will never get in their hands anyways.

Do you see a problem doing that?

You have no idea what the earnest money is used for do you?

 

[Aimster]

If the seller is never going to cash in this check then they should have no problem with a scanned copy of a check.
Right?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Aimster
If the seller is never going to cash in this check then they should have no problem with a scanned copy of a check.
Right?

No. If they accept your offer, the earnest money is placed into escrow. If you decide to default on the contract, they are entitled to the earnest money.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: kranky
Let's turn that logic around: What you're proposing is to give $5,000 to someone you don't know and you trust them to give it back to you if the home inspection finds trouble, or if they don't want to close for 6 months, or any number of other reasons that would kill the deal. What makes the seller automatically more trustworthy than your agent?

Ok let me ask you this.
I write my Realtor company a check. I don't give my Realtor a check. I give him a copy of a check I wrote.
He attaches the copy of that check to the offer and submits it to the seller.

Both ways the seller sees that I have wrote someone a check that they will never get in their hands anyways.

Do you see a problem doing that?

In all honestly, I think your agent will politely tell you that it doesn't work that way. At this point I would suggest you find another agent you are comfortable with. I don't see anything productive coming from the current relationship due to the lack of trust.

 

[wiredspider]

What's the MLS say for the house? $5k does seem high, typically we do $1k around here. However, some houses say 10% if cash or sometimes 3% or $1k, whichever is higher..

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: wiredspider
What's the MLS say for the house? $5k does seem high, typically we do $1k around here. However, some houses say 10% if cash or sometimes 3% or $1k, whichever is higher..

My builder wanted 3%.

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Aimster
If the seller is never going to cash in this check then they should have no problem with a scanned copy of a check.
Right?

No. If they accept your offer, the earnest money is placed into escrow. If you decide to default on the contract, they are entitled to the earnest money.

Yes, Capt is correct. This is what it's for, in case you try to bail for no reason.

 

[Aimster]

Give me one reason why a seller would reject earnest money being deposited into their account
It is in their benefit, correct?

My agent told me they don't want it.. that is the main fishy part.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Aimster
Give me one reason why a seller would reject earnest money being deposited into their account
It is in their benefit, correct?

My agent told me they don't want it.. that is the main fishy part.

Read this. It explains it pretty well.

 

[Capt Caveman]

fwiw - as a seller, I wouldn't even look at your offer without earnest money. Twice when I've sold houses, I've had buyers default and I kept a portion of the earnest money(settlement instead of having to go to court to take the whole amount). When you go under contract with a buyer, you are taking your house off the market and losing potential buyers, if the house has to go back on the market.

 

[Aimster]

He didn't email me a contract to sign...

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Aimster
He didn't email me a contract to sign...

So, what's your next move?

 

[Aimster]

Nothing.. I didn't get the property anyways. So this didn't really matter.

Asking price was $328,000
I was going to submit an offer for $330,000.
2009 Property Assessment was $325,000
The seller is no longer accepting offers. Someone must have bid $350+

My last property I wanted...
2009 Assessment value; $249,000
Asking price: $299,000
I offered $300,000 .. nope.. someone bid $330,000

People buying homes for a LOT more than county assessment...
I mean I want a place to live, but I am not desperate to just throw my money away on a property just so I could have my OWN place. Hell I'll just continue living with my parents and just build my savings more and more.
6 months ago when this area was FLOODED with bank owned homes they sold for LESS than the asking price. Now that there is nothing on the market people are over-paying. Excellent. I refuse to be one of those people.

Sorry my little rant.

 

[sash1]

Text

i take it you decided on a house instead of that condo?

 

[waggy]

after this thread i suggest you get someone to help you.

you seem to be confused and have no clue what you are doing. I would really have someone help you. You really don't seem to have a clue about how real life works.

 

[kranky]

OK, now that there's a break in the action...

Ask some people you know and respect for a referral to a real estate agent. Based on what I've read in your threads, you would greatly benefit from working with someone who you can rely on to give you straight answers and someone you can trust. Someone who might have the connections to tip you off when a new listing fits what you're looking for. This is very helpful as you might be able to jump on a listing and get an acceptance before the word gets out.

Why do you think county assessments are representative of market value? Did your agent tell you that?

This is no reflection on you, OP, because everyone who went through it the first time had a lot to learn.

That having been said, never forget that no matter who you work with, they don't make money unless and until you buy, so do not blindly accept everything you are told. It's your money and nobody is going to be as careful with it as you will.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Aimster
Nothing.. I didn't get the property anyways. So this didn't really matter.

Asking price was $328,000
I was going to submit an offer for $330,000.
2009 Property Assessment was $325,000
The seller is no longer accepting offers. Someone must have bid $350+

My last property I wanted...
2009 Assessment value; $249,000
Asking price: $299,000
I offered $300,000 .. nope.. someone bid $330,000

People buying homes for a LOT more than county assessment...
I mean I want a place to live, but I am not desperate to just throw my money away on a property just so I could have my OWN place. Hell I'll just continue living with my parents and just build my savings more and more.
6 months ago when this area was FLOODED with bank owned homes they sold for LESS than the asking price. Now that there is nothing on the market people are over-paying. Excellent. I refuse to be one of those people.

Sorry my little rant.

Don't assume people are overpaying because they're paying above the asking price. A trick realtors use is pricing a house below what it's worth to generate a lot of interest and start a bidding war. The house could very easily be worth more than the asking price.

 

[Aimster]

All,
yes I don't know much about buying a house and buying my first house is stressful as hell (I am sure that is obvious). I don't want to make mistakes along the way. That's why I post on here to better understand things. There are 100,000+ people here. I post on here to get opinions and see what other people say and I take it in.
I don't want to be conned. A lot of people are easily fooled because they are so naive. I am very careful. Even if I am wrong I will question everything when it comes to my money. That's just the way I am.

I think the market assessment is right on because I have been searching the market for a long time. I printed out all the bank owned homes from 6 months ago. Today when I check out how much they sold for I see that all of them sold for the amount the bank was asking or less. The market used to be flooded with these homes. Same neighborhood 6 months ago same size SQ condo townhouse sold for 315,000 foreclosure. Today it is sold for $350,000+ (estimate). ...

What happened?
Obama made some agreement with the banks and the banks held off on foreclosures. Then the stimulus package included free money, $8,000.
Now the amount of foreclosures is low.. but slowly starting to pop back up (we have no regular sales here. Everything is Subject to 3rd party approval which is basically a short sale). Everyone wants a piece of that $8,000.
The homes are still there but they are just not on the market. When I go see townhouse condos you see those Realtor locks on the doors but they are nowhere on the MLS pages. Banks are just sitting on them.

The home I was going to put an offer for came out Wednesday. It hasn't even been a week and it is gone. The seller got a really good offer and isn't even going to take any more contracts.
When you look at homes over $400,000 that are bank owned they are sitting there for weeks. People who are after $400,000+ homes don't care for the $8,000 because they won't qualify for it.

I need a wife. Dual income would be sweet.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Aimster
Nothing.. I didn't get the property anyways. So this didn't really matter.

Asking price was $328,000
I was going to submit an offer for $330,000.
2009 Property Assessment was $325,000
The seller is no longer accepting offers. Someone must have bid $350+

My last property I wanted...
2009 Assessment value; $249,000
Asking price: $299,000
I offered $300,000 .. nope.. someone bid $330,000

People buying homes for a LOT more than county assessment...
I mean I want a place to live, but I am not desperate to just throw my money away on a property just so I could have my OWN place. Hell I'll just continue living with my parents and just build my savings more and more.
6 months ago when this area was FLOODED with bank owned homes they sold for LESS than the asking price. Now that there is nothing on the market people are over-paying. Excellent. I refuse to be one of those people.

Sorry my little rant.

Don't assume people are overpaying because they're paying above the asking price. A trick realtors use is pricing a house below what it's worth to generate a lot of interest and start a bidding war. The house could very easily be worth more than the asking price.

Correct. And as already mentioned, county assessments have nothing to do with market prices. Also, if you were so careful, why didn't you get references and check out your realtor beforehand?

 

[BoomerD]

Find yourself a REAL realtor. Someone from one of the big companies. Sure, you probably won't get the kickback you're hoping for...but odds are, you WILL get your house...and you won't get scammed.