WatchI'm offering 463K on a short sale listed at 499K in Pleasant Hill (103 OakVue Road). My agent and the listing agent are both at the same agency. He said he spoke with the listing agent and he won't even consider my offer, so I should not bother writing it up.
Was this just professional courtesy or highly shady?
The agent said I shouldn't bother looking at houses over $480K if all I can afford is $467K.
How am I ever going to get a house at a fair price if I can't low ball? They are all overpriced!
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San Ramon, CA
woops! I offered 467K
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Los Angeles, CA
I would call the listing agent and advise him he has a legal fiduciary duty to present all offers to the owner (unless otherwise inctructed to do so by the owner). Basically its illegal (but done all the time) to not submit all offers.
If you 'get proof' they are not submitting a valid offer that is on paper and legit and you mailed via certified mail the CA DRE will investigate....maybe....
http://www.realtor.com/blogs/2011/07/11/can-a-listing-agent-refuse-to-submit-an-offer/
Since both agents are in same brokerage you should look up the names of the agents. Find the name/phone # of the ACTUAL BROKER who is legally responsible for these agents behavoir and complain to him what is happening and that its illegal to not submit all valid offers.
http://www.dre.ca.gov/cons_home.html
Lookup the agent names here:
http://www2.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/pplinfo.asp
BTW if you play hard ball they will find a legal way to flush your offer. cant really win IMO. And the next house you wanna buy might be with the same brokerage and they will blacklist you.
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You can always go over the listing agent and submit the offer to the loan holder, telling them the agent refused to submit the offer. I'd do it just to teach the agent a lesson and hopefully get them in trouble.
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San Antonio, TX
jvolstad's website
Maybe if you drop a turd on the Realtard's desk, he may add that to your offer and submit it to the seller.
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Thank you all! I just asked my agent if the owner asked their agent to refuse to look at offers under a specific amount. He came back and told me that we can go ahead and submit my offer.
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Monterey, CA
rufita11 says
That's not my idea of lowballing. It looks more like a generous starting point.
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47 male
Lafayette, CA
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You should demand that your offer be presented to the seller, but don't be surprised if you're not even close. There's a lot of activity in Pleasant Hill and Concord right now.
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Los Angeles, CA
Good luck OP.
Remember agents are lazy greedy liars mostly. Many are too dumb to work or even get a regular day job. part time 'comission only' work is what it is - a broker will hire literally any agent that walks in the door as long as they have a salesperson license they are 'ok'.
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
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Skip the agent! Send your offer directly to the address in question if the owner lives there, and tell them that their agent was NOT doing his duty, and so you were obliged to use direct contact.
If no one lives there, you can still often figure out the address of the owner from county tax records.
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San Ramon, CA
They live there. Turns out my parents went to school with the neighbor who gave us the low down on the property and the family:). Small world.
Thanks Patrick!
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Patrick says
I sent the owner on FB. Wasn't hard to find him, his avatar is a pic of him in front of the neighbor's house :). I just alerted him that I put in an offer and when.
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San Francisco, CA
Malkovich's website
I had this very same question for my realt-whore: There is a duplex in Oakland I am interested in.
According to Foreclosure Radar it is scheduled to go to auction end of June.
It is a short sale and has been on the market for a couple months.
My realt-whore said that whenever there is a short sale, that the bank approves the initial asking price (which is determined by a third-party realt-whore) and that there is zero chance of the price going down. He said the bank controls the price - not the seller.
If what my realt-whore is saying is true then it may not matter what your offer is.
Can anyone on here confirm if this is true or not?
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Not worth more than $300K..
$200K * 1.35% = $297K
take 1997 prices add in inflation and it gets you near bottom.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/103-Oakvue-Rd-Pleasant-Hill-CA-94523/18388696_zpid/
Price History
Date Description Price % Chg $/sqft Source
3/5/2012 Listed for sale $499,000 49.00% $264 Alain Pinel Realtors - Pleasanton
6/1/2001 Sold $335,000 52.30% $177 Public Record
7/21/1998 Sold $220,000 -- $116 Public Record
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Malkovich says
Complete BS. BUYER sets the price. :)
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Pleasanton, CA
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iwog says
Would you seriously say if there was little activity? You don't need to answer this.
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RentingForHalfTheCost says
What he meant was the only activity is his activity. :)
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Lafayette, CA
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RentingForHalfTheCost says
Of course I would. What possible reason could I have to say otherwise?
The market was totally dead in 2009 and I reported as much. That is when the best homes were up for grabs. What's left now isn't that great, and there is a lot more competition.
bubblesitter says
I haven't bought anything in Pleasant Hill, but I know plenty of clients who are involved in short sales there.
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iwog says
Now you are making me feel that 2006 was even better. There was competition,but hey,loans were available and houses were available too. :)
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Danville, CA
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rufita11 says
In this case, it probably was a professional courtesy. If there is zero chance of the sellers working with you, then why waste everyone's time?
However, your agent is a moron to suggest you can't look at or offer on homes over 480K. There are plenty of stale & overpriced listings out there that are ready for realistic offers.
Let me know if you need help.
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Danville, CA
gregpfielding's website
Malkovich says
This is not true at all.
99% of the time, the bank does not have anything to do with the list price or even know the home is for sale. Banks generally won't even talk with short-sellers or their agents until after they have an offer in hand.
And as far as price flexibility is concerned, the sale price simply has to be reasonable and defensible. After the bank sees your offer, they will order an appraisal. If your price is reasonably-close, they will accept it. The sellers generally don't care what the price is. They just want to work with a buyer who will pay the reasonable price and who will stay with them while they wait for a response.
If you want more details on how short sales actually work, read this: http://bayarearealestatetrends.com/how-short-sales-work/
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bubblesitter says
Right....because 2006 and 2009 were identical in all other respects.
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iwog says
Haha. Didn't you buy one property in 2006?
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jvolstad says
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47 male
Lafayette, CA
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bubblesitter says
Of course not. That would have been extraordinarily stupid.
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San Ramon, CA
thomas.wong1986 says
They doubled the living space. And my estimation from projects in the past is that it cost them circa 100K minimum for all the work that was done. So, I just added 100K to the pre-bubble price to come up with some sort of offer that I am willing to live with.
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PockyClipsNow says
They countered, so I countered back with my original offer. Waiting.
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Los Angeles, CA
Its a decent house.
Thomas Wong is doesnt appear to put 3% interest rates and 729k government loan limits into his equation. If we had the same 7% mortgages and 220k loan limit from year 2001 then I would say this house is worth 300k but that isnt our modern financial setup. I suppose you could argue 'rates will sky in the future when the (fill in the blank) happens' but you could die b4 then...
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It's a crime. Call the state AG and have the Realtor® indicted.
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The house is now pending, waiting for the bank to approve the offer. Someone else must have agreed to the seller's terms. They wanted 10K in escrow before the bank even approves the short sale. That a little too much for us to have tied up in a gamble.
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PockyClipsNow says
It would not be the first time interest rates have fallen or loan limits increased. SFBA has plenty of room for correction. And like in 89 -94 ... it will happen.
http://www.housingbubblebust.com/OFHEO/Major/NorCal.html