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PockyClipsNow
@
2012 Feb 23, 2:47am
This is tempting. Its the WORST WAY to buy a house.
1. half of all sales are distressed (short,reo) so there 'is no owner' who would care. The loan owner in a short is mostly concerned with maximizing thier squat time, or getting a loan mod approved (meanwhile listing it for sale so the bank can tick off a check mark on a federal HAMP form that 'they tried 2 sell it'. If its REO you wont be able to find a phone # to call.
2. If its a legit equity sale you will only appear to be insane to the seller since the agent has them hypnotized like a vampire to believe everything they say. And if you 'did' 'get the agent in trouble' good luck on your next offer....there is a small circle of agents in any area and the more of this stuff you do, the more they will mention this at thier weekly meetings so you will have to outbid everybody.
Why not just use listing agent to slam the deal thru? What you need to understand is that once the seller signs a listing agreement the listing agent controls the entire transaction (almost like he owns the house) you cannot buy that house without him 'liking you' or your offer.
Rather than have a goody two shoes cop attitude, you need to adjust to the reality of modern business - get listing agent on YOUR side working FOR YOU against the seller to get thier price down (buy using them as buyers agent). Duh. I'm not saying to wave around 10k in cash at them to do this but thats common also probably.
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We have had a few recent threads where people indicate that realtors are either ignoring their offers, not presenting them to the sellers, or maybe telling the truth that there are multiple bids & they a buyer needs to offer more / all cash. If you suspect that the former two cases are what is occurring, can you go to the county records office and find out who the owners are and write to them (or just take your chances with the listed property's mailbox)? Something like,
"Dear So-and-So,
I am interested in 123 Smellysnatch Pl. and have been speaking with your realtor, Ms. Pendejo. Some of my recent dealings with other sellers' agents have left me with the feeling that reasonable offers may not be presented to sellers in all cases. I was informed that ## offers had been made on your property by Ms. Pendejo, and please forgive my suspicion, but I just wanted to make sure that you had been informed of my offer for $XXX,XXX.
My wife and I are pre-approved to finance this amount, with 30% down, and only need to get the bank an appraisal and have an inspection of the property. If your agent did inform you of my offer, then I apologize for taking up your time with this, and you can toss this letter in the trash. However, if you weren't made aware of my offer and it seems reasonable to you, please don't hesitate to contact me at (###)###-#### or via myemail@address.com. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mr. & Mrs. Buyer"
Obviously, there is nothing to stop you from just plopping a letter like this in the listed property's mailbox and hoping that the seller/owner gets it. However, the realtor could intercept it if the owner isn't living at that property (mmmmmm, could we get them nailed with felonies for tampering with mail???). Also, I imagine that realtors might have a way of "blacklisting" you with other realtors in the area if they found out that you were trying to make sure that there was some transparency in the process (or if they were being honest and your letter was just an insult to their integrity).
Thoughts?
#housing