Being pushed into a double bidder situation and pulling your offer

[boomtown]

I am interested to hear how people would handle this situation I had over the weekend.

I found a property that I liked on Friday afternoon. I contacted the realtor who told me that there was a buyer flying up from Sydney on Saturday morning for an inspection at 11am.

The property was listed as "offers over $410k". The realtor said "405k will buy it." So I put in an offer for $405k on Friday at 6pm but told the realtor that I wanted a response that night (Friday) as I wasnt interested in getting involved in a bidding war with the person coming up from Sydney.

The realtor contacted the vendor and then stalled me until Saturday morning. On Saturday morning I told the realtor that I would pull my bid at 10am if the vendor did not accept by then. The realtor flipped out at me on the phone, said if I was going to be an ******* then he would pull the offer right then and there and then hung up on me.

Would you allow your bid to stand for the vendor to use as leverage against another buyer (if the vendor has had overnight to think about it). Or would you pull your offer like I did?

 

[BayView]

If it is an investment, you should (I would) pull the offer, but first contact the Vendor to tell them, and also tell them how the the r/e treated you.

 

[willfong]

If 405k was a reasonable price already, I think you did the right thing by pulling the offer. If 405k was a real bargain then I'll wait and see. Having said that, I wouldn't deal with a REA who would hang up on me, there are plenty of other opportunities around and life is too short to be dealing with this kind of people.

 

[gooroo]

seems very unreasonable of the agent to get unreasonable. You simply made an offer- let the principle of the agency know how you were treated!

 

[scamp]

principle of the agency... lol

Go to the home owner directly, offer them 370K, and you will have your house next week. Learn to do business without middle men.
If he doesn't sell, buy his neighbors house for 350K. If he won't sell, wait a month, then buy something else for 330K. If that won't sell, wait another month and you buy something for 300K...

It's all going down, why the hell are you worried about 1 single little flimsy IP somewhere ? Just buy somewhere else for 25K less.

 

[BV]

Would you allow your bid to stand for the vendor to use as leverage against another buyer (if the vendor has had overnight to think about it). Or would you pull your offer like I did?

Boomtown,
I would not deal with this guy because of the way he talked.
btw, maybe there is no other buyer and he was simply going to tell you that the other imaginary guy offered $410K so that you increase your offer.
Now that you've put a time limit to your bid you are spoiling his plan.
Cheers

 

[grossreal]

hi boomtown
interest post so far
what would I do
first go to the street that the property is in.
then talk to the neighbours.
and get the number of the owner and and also drop a note in the letter box of the other houses offering them 10k under your current offer.
next go to another real estate in the area and vent your spleen to them
and tell them how you were treated and get them to contact the owners with a directive that you.
feel so shocked at the treatment of the other real estate
that you want to buy the property but not from them and that you are paying over the maket price by 10k
ask there neighbours
tell your real estate to send them a letter saying you will only buy at this price.
and due to the fact that you have been abused by the other real estate that you are losing interest in the property and the offer is on the table to this date.
if you can find any faults with the property thats good also ( if not use your imagination)as you can tell the neighbour that you are buying for this price because you think its got white ants and thats why the real estate tried to shrug you off( whats the real estate going to say, ring you if they do hang up on them).
( goes down well with the incomming buyer as they will talk to the neighbours first and they will tell them( have they got rid of the white ants etc).
buy doing the above you are in the driving seat
and the vendors have to decide are they selling or not and the new real estate is working for you.
also add in your offer that do to the fact that you have had nothing but trouble with the real estate that was selling the property
and due to the fact that he has insulted your dignity
that under no way are you going to pay him a dollar
contract or no contract
but if your new real estate agrees that you have to split the commission thats fine but you don't want to talk to him/her again( puts your new real estate in the driving seat as they are now the good guys).
after sending the letter follow up with a phone call next day to the vendor stating as a rule that you don't send such a strong letter
but you thought it deserved it
and that you have no problem with the other real estate, yours
and that you have spent alot of time, money and costs to get to this stage and it seems a waste to not get the deal over the line.
and that a deal can be done but you don't want to be messed around any longer.
remember buying real estate is one of the only transactions that has two groups both with emotional attachment to the item they are selling.
I have no emotion to real estate so I use different techniques to gain the upper hand. and the easiest way to get a deal across the table is very simple.
if the vendor
likes you
admirers you
thinks you will assist them further down the track
or think your are business minded and can do the deal.
you are 60% accross the line
the first impression is the most important its the make or break a deal.
so you need to line up the ground work first
and go in as a professional person,play the game and use the cards you have.
and the other real estate thou they don't at this stage know it.
have given you an ace.
because one thing a vendor does not want to know is the a buyer has not been treated well.
so you go straight to the top of the class don't pass go.
hope you well
as you can see I like my work.
alot of real estate hate me.
remember after you ahve bought the property go back to the first real estate and tell them that this was the way you normally do business and iut was nothing to do with them and if they have another property to ring you.
this
a. rubs there nose in it.
but b they usually ring you as they now know the ground rules
hope you well

 

[Bill.L]

Hi Boomtown,

We have pulled offers aftertime, in fact time of acceptance was part of the offer.

It backfires on occasion, and works/gets responses on others.

Take what the REA said to you with a grain of salt, ring on Tuesday or Wednesday and offer $400k. If the other looker bought already, bad luck move-on. If they didn't buy, the REA will take your new offer to them, and suddenly be more co-operative. Again however give a timeline, plus it would help to do the cheque and signed contract thing.

bye

 

[fernfurn]

Just had a similar situation this weekend Boomtown. Believe me, other buyer didnt exist. We had looked at this house 3 days before auction, when they said they had an investor interested who wouldnt be back in town till day of auction. Night before auction we had another look and lo there is the investor looking too. We spoke to tenants who said we were the only ones who had inspected the whole marketing time. Day of auction there are two other bidders, one constantly on phone. We registered, asked no questions, guy at open says are there any special conditions. Another guy (presumably the agent who had bought in the 'investor') read out the conditions, totally and only looking at us ???
Then when they started the bidding and we didnt bid, the investor looked at us and said, did we want to bid ????? Said we would leave it to him, so he opened, the other guy on the phone then shot it up $40K ???? (who does that??), then the agent came round to us and said we should bid, then the auctioneer actually said to us ' you are registered why arent you bidding ??? I said no I think you (thevinvestor) own it at this stage. They didnt like us at all. It was passed in on a vendor bid - surprise, surprise. We will sit and wait till they meet the market (there is no market here at this time!)

 

[GoAnna!]

I would take one of two approaches.

1. Submit offer and advise of deadline of 10am (or any other time of your choosing) at time of making offer because you are heading off at that time to attend an auction and so unless an acceptance in in by then you will be bidding at the auction (or some similar story regarding interest in another property which is setting your time deadline). I like to sound like I have limited time before I move onto the next property. I would never really talk about the other potential buyer or being concerned about bidding war etc. I would just try to ensure I wasn't in one.

2. Not submit an offer and ask them to call you after the other buyer has been though. If the other buyer was not interested or even if they put in an offer you then know what if anything you are competing against.

Whatever happens stick to your price and be prepared to walk away.

 

[boomtown]

Some excellent thoughts in this thread. I am going to have to take awhile to think it all through.

A couple of points:

* the REA in question was the principal of the agency (which is funny).
* I am kicking myself for throwing away the written offer which had the vendors phone number on it
* at 405k it was a pretty good deal but the yield started to deteriorate pretty quickly after that.

I think I am just going to have to get used to REAs hating me. I already have 3 that say they wont sell to me because I wont pay their prices...

 

[sash]

Great! Where do I get one of those.....if you can get me something for 50k under let me know.....I will offer you a $1000 finders fee for your troubles.

Having said that I have just bought something about 50k under market....but this has taken me 6 months of searching and the patience of a saint. And this property was passed in at auction for 155k....the market value is around 220k....it does need about 15k in renos though!

principle of the agency... lol

Go to the home owner directly, offer them 370K, and you will have your house next week. Learn to do business without middle men.
If he doesn't sell, buy his neighbors house for 350K. If he won't sell, wait a month, then buy something else for 330K. If that won't sell, wait another month and you buy something for 300K...

It's all going down, why the hell are you worried about 1 single little flimsy IP somewhere ? Just buy somewhere else for 25K less.

 

[PrimeCommercial]

Fair dinkum there are some vindictive people here.
It's business, dont take it personally, you made an offer (price and time limit), you even extended the time limit and then when you hadn't heard back you pulled the offer.
Move on......maybe they'll come back, maybe they wont, but your original offer is now void so your free to offer less.
Who gives a rats what reaction the RE had, next time he'll take you seriously.
By the sounds of it the RE didnt even give you a chance to pull your bid.

As if you'd be bothered wasting your time speaking to neighbours or other agents in the area


If you have RE that dont like you, at least you know your negotiating hard, its all part of the game.

 

[Mishca]

I think if you didn't want to get into a bidding war you should have taken the option 2 approach as suggested by Go-anna.
I agree with Shady - it's business, don't get emotional.

 

[Alabex]

Some excellent thoughts in this thread. I am going to have to take awhile to think it all through.

A couple of points:

* the REA in question was the principal of the agency (which is funny).
* I am kicking myself for throwing away the written offer which had the vendors phone number on it
* at 405k it was a pretty good deal but the yield started to deteriorate pretty quickly after that.

I think I am just going to have to get used to REAs hating me. I already have 3 that say they wont sell to me because I wont pay their prices...

Three agents wont deal with you because you wont pay their prices? Do you mean you always offer under the list price? well that is pretty normal...

i am still always shocked at the way some agents carry on - makes me want to scream, or cry... or maybe both. Luckily i choose to laugh! What ever happened to people being civil to their customers. My vendors may pay my commission, but i wouldn't have a commission without the buyer!

 

[boomtown]

Im having a bit of a whinge but I do wish REAs didnt have such a thin skin. Its strictly business. They need to realise they arent selling dreams they are selling commodities.

 

[Perp]

Im having a bit of a whinge but I do wish REAs didnt have such a thin skin.

Yeah, I'm a pretty easygoing person and deal honestly and as pleasantly as possible with everybody. Last year I put in an offer on a property and made the offer subject to finance within 42 days. I knew I'd need that long because it would involve refinancing multiple properties etc. I was quite prepared for the vendor to say that they didn't accept the offer - that's fine, I can only ask - but I wasn't prepared for the agent to ring me up and give me an earful!

"What do you think you're playing at, asking for 6 weeks for finance?" I replied that I would attempt to go unconditional sooner, but that my experience was that it simply wouldn't be possible to get finance approved in the 14 or 21 days that he wanted. "But nobody takes that long for finance." Well, I wish I could get approval that quickly, but I seem to always be having to ask for extensions on finance, and I thought that instead of playing silly games, I'd ask for a realistic timeframe up-front. "Nobody takes 6 weeks to get finance approval, what's this ridiculousness all about?" and so on.

I just couldn't seem to make him understand that I would be delighted to have my approval sooner, but that past experience led me to believe that whipping my financiers was pointless, they simply seem incapable of moving things more quickly. Eventually he said "well, I suppose I can put it to the vendors, but it's a waste of time". Yes, it would have been a waste of time, as I immediately faxed a revocation of the offer.

One thing's for sure, if that agent ever has a property for sale again that I'm interested in, I'll be adopting a strategy along the lines that Lawrence (grossreal) advocates. It's not about being petty or vindictive; it's about refusing to reward bad behaviour (in my own, admittedly very small, way). Sometimes karma needs a helping hand.

 

[jaycee]

Some excellent thoughts in this thread. I am going to have to take awhile to think it all through.

A couple of points:

* the REA in question was the principal of the agency (which is funny).
* I am kicking myself for throwing away the written offer which had the vendors phone number on it
* at 405k it was a pretty good deal but the yield started to deteriorate pretty quickly after that.

I think I am just going to have to get used to REAs hating me. I already have 3 that say they wont sell to me because I wont pay their prices...

Who are these people that are employed to sell houses ? Your last sentence cracked me up.... How dare you negotiate...?! It's hard to soar with eagles when you have deal with turkeys.

There is a difference between being a hardnosed negotiating sales man (real estate or other) and an idiot

 

[boomtown]

Grossreal

Thank you for your post. I think I will use some of your suggestions to take another crack at the property - pretty sure it hasnt sold yet.

 

[tubs]

Sounds very much like the agent is having a difficult time selling it. Maybe you might offer a bit less this time...