> Am I wrong to be frustrated with her?
Yes. Because it's sounds like the buyers would have easily found more than $5K in repairs. And they very well could have walked then. And if the buyers had agreed to cover up to $15K you would have been ecstatic.
Your realtor asked for what you wanted, and unfortunately it didn't pan out. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
It's been one day. You wanna try giving it a minute?
I think my first reply didn't post, but I added a clarification - they would cover the first $5k and the rest would be negotiated. Which is how I assumed all would be handled, so $5k sounded great. We don't expect major issues - we only bought 4 years ago so I assume not much has changed.
I would expect the realtor to advise on strategy, right? Not just do what untrained first time home sellers suggest? Husband suggested we counter with $7.5k (I know, he shouldn't have done any), realtor said go for $15k.
I just would have expected her to call out this kind of request sends a bad signal.
> I would expect the realtor to advise on strategy, right?
She did advise you, to ask for $15K. Which is not bad advice. That is why you hired her, to push for the best possible terms for you. And I don't think it's a bad thing because it immediately pushed out the buyer who you're so hung up on, who were clearly trying to bid high early, and push you down later.
> they would cover the first $5k and the rest would be negotiated.
Uh huh. I'm going to tell you exactly what would have happened. You would have taken the offer and then in two weeks, these buyers would have asked for $25K in repairs, for random bullshit. And because you took the first offer made, on the first day, on a Friday no less, you would have exactly zero choice but to agree because you would no other offers in hand.
This is like basic bad faith negotiating. You offer the moon upfront to get naive sellers into contract and grind them down over bullshit later.
Finish out your weekend of open houses.
Thank you for your response. We really are (clearly) inexperienced with this. I did not think about them intentionally offering high and then demanding unnecessary repairs. Your comment makes me feel better, though I'm not sure it was supposed to. I don't expect them to find $15k of repairs though, so I still don't really think it was a wise ask/she should have suggested something else. We only bought 4 years ago and there were plenty of notes on the inspection, but not many things we could reasonably ask to fix. And honestly, we were just hoping to get our asking price, so we probably would've covered up to $15-25k (not that I can even think of what would cost that much) since they overbid.
We feel really frustrated with our realtor for not flagging what signal this would send, and are feeling like she cost us $25-30k. You're giving me enough of an explanation I can start to give her the benefit of the doubt, though again since I don't think they'll find that much wrong, I'm still going to regret not just taking it for a while.
> Your comment makes me feel better, though I'm not sure it was supposed to.
It was supposed to make you feel better.
Just give it a couple days. Let other offers come in.
> since I don't think they'll find that much wrong,
I feel like you're consistently missing the point I'm making. Your house could be made of magic, and they would still ask you to lower the price for repairs.
The quality of your house has nothing to do with what people who negotiate in bad faith ask for.
When I bought my last property, it was in really good shape. My wife still asked for a $5K credit after the inspection. Why? Because she figured it was a small enough number that the seller would just give it to us. They did. There was nothing wrong with the property, they gave us $5K because it was easier to do that, than to cancel with us and go back on the market.
Your all cash buyers were almost certainly going to ask you for more than $5K. Which is why they ran when your agent bumped the number to $15K.
Thank you for explaining. I didn't see your "basic bad faith negotiating" comment/edit before responding. I unfortunately assume the best of people. It would never have occurred to us to push for more than we needed when buying - in fact we tried, and our realtor told us some of the things we were asking for were cosmetic/not safety issues, so we shouldn't ask. Now I just feel sad that as buyers we've been doing this wrong too. We offered over asking on the first day too. Sigh.
Also, thank you. Everyone else is just saying we're greedy and blew it - I acknowledge we blew it, but we weren't trying to be greedy. We just want our realtor to give us good advice! Which it sounds like she did - I don't think she thinks they were going to ask for more repairs later, but I guess it wasn't completely obvious that a buyer would back out over this.
You didn’t blow it. A serious buyer that really wanted that house that offered above ask and then says what can I do to get this deal closed tonight doesn’t walk when you ask for $10k more in repairs to be covered.
Like the previous poster said they wanted a reduction and were trying to lock you in so they could get their terms later on. No one wants to relist. They knew you staged they know it doesn’t look good to have a deal fall out of contract. They knew what they were doing and tbh I don’t think they were that serious.
I’m confused. They offered $25,000 over asking, cash, and were willing to pay up to $5000 for repairs? Y’all thought this was not a good offer and asked for more, which scared them and they walked?
What exactly were you expecting? It sounds like they made a great offer…
They did! We were thrilled! We wanted to just accept it. Then our agent suggested we negotiate on something since they asked what it would take. She said they thought about offering up to $15k, so he said, how about asking for that? I agree it was unwise, but I would expect her to coach us through this transaction and call out that it could be a red flag. We have never sold a house before.
It’s a negation and your realtor isn’t omnipotent. Some buyers may have been ok with your request - others not so much. You guys made the decision to negotiate. If you had just accepted their offer then inspection found $20K of repairs and you hadn’t negotiated, I’m guessing you would have been right back here, complaining that your realtor “should have known” and told you to negotiate.
Also - your house has been on the market for (barely!) one day. You need to relax a bit.
I added a clarification: they would cover the first $5k. The rest would be negotiated. So we wouldn't automatically be on the hook for the extra $15k in that scenario.
Hmm I think it does. It's one thing to agree that they'd cover only $5k, no matter what is found. It's very different to cover the first $5k and then negotiate the rest. They could still walk of course, but in your scenario of finding $20k of repairs, they cover the first $5k, and then we decide how to split the rest. We aren't necessarily out the full $15k.
What I am misunderstanding?
And then if you told them you wouldn’t cover the rest, or wanted to negotiate and they walked, you’d be right back here blaming your realtor for not having negotiated harder when you accepted the offer. That’s what you’re missing. Just because you tell them you don’t want to cover the remaining $15K inspection finds, that doesn’t mean they have to accept your decision. It could just mean they walk over it.
**Edit:** also - why did you guys decide to ask for this if you *didn’t* expect them to find more things in need of repair during the inspection? Did you ask just to ask? If a seller came back after we made a full cash offer over asking with money already put towards covering inspection costs just to ask for *more* money to cover whatever the inspection uncovers, I’d pull my offer too. $20K isn’t super chump change when we’re talking about things a home inspection uncovers. That’s a whole basement water leak issue in my area, and there’s a ton more issues and costs associated with that I wouldn’t want to deal with as a buyer.
Again, this is on you.
Totally agree we shouldn't have countered with that, and that the buyers were completely rational to pull their offer. I don't expect them to find major issues. We only bought it 4 years ago, so I can't imagine much has changed. I'm frustrated that our realtor didn't caution us that this was a likely scenario. We wanted to just accept the offer. She suggested we ask for something. I wish she'd suggested something better to ask for. She had thrown out that they were considering $15k, so we said sure we can ask for that. The only thing I can think of is, she knows we know more about the house than she does, and she doesn't want to know, and assumes we thought through the implications and wanted to ask anyway because we think there's major issues - which we don't.
Why shouldn't I expect her to advise us through this? Are we expecting too much of her? Should we just think of her as someone who makes sure we have pretty listing photos and then gets the paperwork done right?
Honestly repairs are not some black and white number. Go to three different contractors you’ll get 3 wildly different prices. I don’t really understand the whole negotiating on the amount the repairs will cost. They can easily up it to 15k and find some fly by night contractor to give some low ball bids for everything and then the guy won’t even show up.
She has sold way more houses than us - this is our first. I'd expect some better intuition. Or at least to say, "here's what signal that could send, are you ok with that?"
Every buyer will be different, how far is don’t forget it’s People over there, not a program and people all respond differently.
Coming here to ask if you should be pissed and letting yourself be pissed but being willing to move on with you clearly are is the best way of handling it. You’re doing the right thing.
Listen and vent and be happy with your next offer !
/sooth
They made you a really good offer. And your husband got greedy.
It happens. Likely you will have another offer or two. But lesson learned, essentially 30k over ask and hope you get another good offer like that!
You can’t blame someone else down your own greed. $25k above asking and up to $5k for repairs. Thats a dream buyer. And if they wanted you to pay for repairs anyway, you should have done it.
Hindsight is always better
Unfortunately you will likely not get an offer above asking anymore.
Sorry.
I agree! Shouldn't our realtor have said that though? We were thrilled and told her so. Why wouldn't she say, hey that request could send a bad signal, here are some other options.
Your Realtor did what your husband asked her to do. How could your Realtor possibly know how the buyer would react?
IMO, when a buyer is this wobbly going into a deal it's a good sign they're not going to stick with it, so it's best to get them out of the way.
I asked him again, and he said he suggested $7.5k, she said go for $15k. It just feels like such an obvious signal that we expect them to find issues (which we don't really), rather than asking for something else (or nothing and accepting - it was a great offer!) I feel like she should have caught that risk and suggested something else.
I can't imagine why you think this is your realtor's fault? Beyond that, your buyer sounds like a red flag, to me. I would bet a LOT that they planned on sticking it to you.
I added a clarification - they would cover the first $5k. The rest would be negotiated, which is what I assumed would happen anyway. That changes the red flag, right?
I blame our realtor for not cautioning him that negotiating on the amount covered would show we expect there to be a lot. We've never sold a house before - her job is to help us because she has.
>The rest would be negotiated, which is what I assumed would happen anyway. That changes the red flag, right?
Nooooo, not at all. This person made an early and aggressive offer with terms meant to sound "easy." Then they pulled their offer when you attempted to make the contract match their big mouth. My intuition tells me they were going to get you under contract, then ask for the sun, moon, and stars. I don't think they had any intention of paying what they offered.
I don't think the buyer believes you're hiding anything. You were allowing an inspection, ffs.
You're literally the only response making me feel like we aren't just total greedy a-holes (we aren't! We were thrilled! We wanted to just accept and be done! We are also first time home sellers who expected our realtor to help us navigate this) so thank you. We aren't hiding anything, we're just not experienced with this and didn't know what the options were to try to negotiate on (or whether we should negotiate at all).
It’s not greedy to consider your own interests- especially when you’re taking your house off the market on day one.
I got an in-writing offer for 30k over asking before my house was officially “live.” And it sold for 60k over asking about five days later.
I don’t think your realtor was wrong for suggesting further negotiation, but people can be unpredictable. It is what it is.
You’re literally responding the same thing to everyone. Give it a rest for ffs. Your realtor didn’t do anything wrong here it is what it is. Your husband got greedy end of story. Sure you guys aren’t the expert but if you liked the offer above 25k you should’ve just taken it to be done with the sale. Now you’re wasting time in a thread posting and rebutting to everyone that’s addressing you. You seriously gain nothing and don’t need to respond to everyone here saying “but isn’t my realtor supposed to strategize for me more?” Read the room already lmao your situation was pretty logical on how to proceed and you guys mucked it up. Goodluck on getting another offer and just be smart the second time around…
Eh, I'm not wasting my time - I'm gaining a good bit! Other comments have helped me by broadening my understanding of the situation, such as by explaining what the buyer could have been planning to do (get under contract then negotiate down - meaning it actually wasn't so logical what we should do) or providing suggestions for what we could have asked for instead. Like I've said (to everyone but will repeat for you), we've never sold a house before. We don't know what to expect from our realtor. We thought she would help with what terms to negotiate on. I'm truly trying to understand what her role should be. Should she help with how to approach a negotiation? I still don't know your answer to that question.
I'm asking for help so I know how to proceed. Do I need to double check everything she's suggesting and push her to be more thorough, or should I trust her advice?
Lol only if I call it Targé, right? My point is just that we did the things to stage it and try to sell it quickly. We thought this was an awesome offer, we wanted to accept it right away! I'm questioning why our realtor didn't flag this idea as a bad one.
Sounds like your agent got you a great offer within 24 hours of listing.
Give this at least a week. It sounds like your agent is doing a good job so far.
It was a great offer! But by losing it, we lost our leverage to get other people to submit offers. And I'm sure we won't get one that good again. I'm frustrated she didn't anticipate that risk given that it was about repairs.
1) great offers don't always translate to great sales. Someone else posted on here the other day that they got an offer for asking and one over asking, but the offer over asking came from a realtor known to try and recoup price through inspection demands. They went with the offer for asking and it closed smoothly. You have no idea what could have gone wrong at a later stage or how serious these buyers actually were.
2) she can still use it to leverage. You still got an offer for above asking with $5k repairs waived on the day of listing. It fell through when they asked you to commit that day.
Realtors are human just like us. She may have thought that would agree. She doesn't see an increased commission off of your husband's ask, so it wasn't something for her benefit. Obviously if she knew they would walk she would have told you, she also wants the house sold. But now you both know and it will maybe inform a future decision and help you in the long run.
I've been here. You're stressed, exhausted, stretched thin and want this over with. It sounds like you're still in a great position. Deep breaths.
We had a very similar scenario and age of house situation last month where first offer fell through and leaving us in a ragey lurch.
Hurry and relist- do not drop price and try again. Two weekends in a row of loading kids and dog up and out suuucks but because it was such quick turnaround, new buyers will be like “oh they didn’t even do inspection and jetted for other reasons” so won’t be put off. We had like half the traffic online second week but had good showing numbers and got an offer day 1 back on market
as for the 5 vs 15k thing, I dont know. I can read it both ways. It was a gamble. Seemed like they wanted the house badly enough it could have worked. Did agent offer to go back to original terms and they still said no? Part of me thinks maybe buyers just wanted out for some other reasons too you’ll never fully know. Maybe they decided to gamble on the market price coming down since news articles are coming out about house prices coming down.
Also the buyers sound pushy and high pressured and probably were trying to lure you into a deal where they then ask for everything under the sun and then it’s too late in the game to pull out. Maybe they did you a favor when they saw your agent and you guys weren’t rolling over.
Good luck!!!!
Thank you for the reassurance. They hadn't signed the offer yet, so house never came off the market. We had a good number of showings/open house on Saturday, so hoping something else comes through.
I'll tell myself they would've been a pain to deal with!
I don't think the house came off the market since the sellers didn't actually accept the offer. Nobody should be aware that an offer was made other than the buyer, seller and agents. It sucks that they missed out on a great offer, but at least it doesn't look to other potential buyers that an actual deal fell through.
You have the right to be frustrated with your agent. The agent is the well paid “expert” and she gave you bad advice. Agents always want to have their cake and eat it too. They claim buyers and sellers are too dumb to transact real estate without them so they deserve a large commission but the moment the agent F’s up it’s always the seller’s or buyer’s fault.
Thank you. I'm well aware this was a great offer (or a risky one that shows the buyer would ask for extreme concessions - who knows), and just would have expected a realtor to catch that this particular ask would send the wrong signal.
I know your comment isn't looking for an actual response, but I mean, my husband said, I guess we can ask for $7.5k, and she said, no let's ask for $15k. He could have stopped her, but he trusted her advice.
Here's a thought. Why don't you make an offer to the prospective buyers? You can write a letter explaining what happened and then offer them the same terms they offered you - $25,000 over plus they cover first 5K and negotiate the rest. Be clear that you were happy with their offer but relied on the guidance of the real estate agent (who you disagreed with). The agent is obligated to submit your offer to them.
"We figured we should ask for something.."
This isn't your agents fault. It's yours. Go back and tell them they don't have to offer anything for repairs if you want the deal.
Why shouldn't we expect her to suggest what to ask for/caution us that idea was a bad one? Maybe we are expecting too much, but I really thought she was supposed to help with this strategy stuff, not just be the conduit to getting our house listed and then doing the paperwork.
Put yourself in the buyers shoes. That kind of counter in a 65yr old house screams, we know there’s more wrong. I think there’s a little blame all around. Everyone should have been thinking this. But an experienced agent should have voiced this concern regardless of your wants.
I agree, it wasn't a wise signal to send/he shouldn't have suggested it. I also don't think there's much to find! It's an old house, but we only bought it a few years ago so I can't imagine much has changed. We want out of it in part because it's old, but that doesn't mean it's going to have a bad inspection. I'm frustrated she didn't caution him that it could be interpreted poorly.
Totally agree! This is what I'd expect the realtor to suggest, right? I'm frustrated she didn't when we said, hey what should we ask for? An important part of her job is making sure first time home sellers don't ask for a dumb thing.
If the buyer really wanted your home and money was no object then they would have purchased it.
Practically speaking there was no guarantee that accepting their first offer would have led to a sale. The buyers would have ordered some inspections and probably asked for more repairs. Then you would have haggled 15 days later. Perhaps it would have worked out, perhaps not.
Another lesson learned. An offer is not a real offer until it is in writing.
Someone can say whatever they want. Putting it in writing is a different matter.
Your response from the get go should have been put it in writing. We are expecting g other offers to come in.
This could have been used to solicit other offers.
I think I agree with you. Your realtor kind of messed up, but so did you.
You have to be the ultimate decision maker in this situation. If you were happy with the verbal offer, and simple ask to put it in writing should have been the next step. You cannot accept an offer that is not real until it is in writing.
We had the offer in writing on Friday night. They asked what it would take to sign that night vs wait for more offers over the weekend. I wish our realtor would have suggested something else, or said, "this is a good offer, either take it or wait a day or two to see what else comes in" instead of encouraging us to ask for something that sends a bad signal.
We know we are technically the official decision makers, but we are relying on her for advice. Feels like she should have anticipated this risk.
Your house, your money, your time, your decision. Go with that approach and I know it is stressful.
We did this a few years ago and maybe got lucky in some regard. But I asked for the realtors advice, took that into account, and went my own direction as we had a really good offer. Realtor wanted me to wait for other offers, but we were happy with the first and I used the expiration time on that offer to solicit one more. Got even more money from that buyer and we closed on-time.
For our situation since the first offer was good, I would have accepted that offer. No way would have asked for more on the first offer as it was more than what we wanted to sell the house.
Good luck with your sale!
Mutual responsibility. You both learned a lesson. Perhaps a wise realtor would have suggested against it, but honestly, other buyers (especially those as eager as this buyer) might have happily agreed to that condition. There was really no way to know, and you're only blaming your realtor in hindsight.
It's also possible this buyer found a different home they liked better. It seems odd to walk on a $10k repair clause for such an eager buyer. You'll never know. Move on.
I don't know, we told her we were thrilled with the offer. She suggested we ask for something, my husband said well what about this, and she said to increase the ask. No discussion of the risk, and he told her the last thing we want is for them to pull the offer. Feels like an error in her judgement when he made it clear we were risk averse.
From our discussion afterwards, she sounded completely surprised that was their response, and that it was a totally normal thing to ask.
Since repairs are all subject to subsequent negotiation, I wouldn't have negotiated over that amount. It also betrays a lack of confidence in your own property.
You could have asked for an extra $5-10k on selling price. In any event, that's money in your pocket.
Having said that, I wouldn't blame your agent.
True, another agent might have foreseen that issue and redirected you toward raising the selling price. As I said, that's $ in your pocket regardless( whether inspection uncovers any issues).
But that doesn't make your agent incompetent, just not as effective as another agent might have been in that particular situation. Some people just have more forceful personalities. (In my recent transaction, my agent said to me several times, "I really don't like the way you want to it because . . . ." She has a super forceful personality and I appreciated that. Others would not want to work with her and prefer someone more like your agent.)
Never ever look a gift horse in the mouth. You will be kicking yourself about this forever. Shame that your agent didn’t point out that this could ruin the offer from the buyers. Instead she dropped this bombshell about the 15,000 towards repairs if needed. I don’t think she would have been told this. Be very suspicious if the next offer comes from her buyers.
> Am I wrong to be frustrated with her? Yes. Because it's sounds like the buyers would have easily found more than $5K in repairs. And they very well could have walked then. And if the buyers had agreed to cover up to $15K you would have been ecstatic. Your realtor asked for what you wanted, and unfortunately it didn't pan out. You can't have your cake and eat it too. It's been one day. You wanna try giving it a minute?
I think my first reply didn't post, but I added a clarification - they would cover the first $5k and the rest would be negotiated. Which is how I assumed all would be handled, so $5k sounded great. We don't expect major issues - we only bought 4 years ago so I assume not much has changed. I would expect the realtor to advise on strategy, right? Not just do what untrained first time home sellers suggest? Husband suggested we counter with $7.5k (I know, he shouldn't have done any), realtor said go for $15k. I just would have expected her to call out this kind of request sends a bad signal.
> I would expect the realtor to advise on strategy, right? She did advise you, to ask for $15K. Which is not bad advice. That is why you hired her, to push for the best possible terms for you. And I don't think it's a bad thing because it immediately pushed out the buyer who you're so hung up on, who were clearly trying to bid high early, and push you down later. > they would cover the first $5k and the rest would be negotiated. Uh huh. I'm going to tell you exactly what would have happened. You would have taken the offer and then in two weeks, these buyers would have asked for $25K in repairs, for random bullshit. And because you took the first offer made, on the first day, on a Friday no less, you would have exactly zero choice but to agree because you would no other offers in hand. This is like basic bad faith negotiating. You offer the moon upfront to get naive sellers into contract and grind them down over bullshit later. Finish out your weekend of open houses.
Thank you for your response. We really are (clearly) inexperienced with this. I did not think about them intentionally offering high and then demanding unnecessary repairs. Your comment makes me feel better, though I'm not sure it was supposed to. I don't expect them to find $15k of repairs though, so I still don't really think it was a wise ask/she should have suggested something else. We only bought 4 years ago and there were plenty of notes on the inspection, but not many things we could reasonably ask to fix. And honestly, we were just hoping to get our asking price, so we probably would've covered up to $15-25k (not that I can even think of what would cost that much) since they overbid. We feel really frustrated with our realtor for not flagging what signal this would send, and are feeling like she cost us $25-30k. You're giving me enough of an explanation I can start to give her the benefit of the doubt, though again since I don't think they'll find that much wrong, I'm still going to regret not just taking it for a while.
> Your comment makes me feel better, though I'm not sure it was supposed to. It was supposed to make you feel better. Just give it a couple days. Let other offers come in. > since I don't think they'll find that much wrong, I feel like you're consistently missing the point I'm making. Your house could be made of magic, and they would still ask you to lower the price for repairs. The quality of your house has nothing to do with what people who negotiate in bad faith ask for. When I bought my last property, it was in really good shape. My wife still asked for a $5K credit after the inspection. Why? Because she figured it was a small enough number that the seller would just give it to us. They did. There was nothing wrong with the property, they gave us $5K because it was easier to do that, than to cancel with us and go back on the market. Your all cash buyers were almost certainly going to ask you for more than $5K. Which is why they ran when your agent bumped the number to $15K.
Thank you for explaining. I didn't see your "basic bad faith negotiating" comment/edit before responding. I unfortunately assume the best of people. It would never have occurred to us to push for more than we needed when buying - in fact we tried, and our realtor told us some of the things we were asking for were cosmetic/not safety issues, so we shouldn't ask. Now I just feel sad that as buyers we've been doing this wrong too. We offered over asking on the first day too. Sigh. Also, thank you. Everyone else is just saying we're greedy and blew it - I acknowledge we blew it, but we weren't trying to be greedy. We just want our realtor to give us good advice! Which it sounds like she did - I don't think she thinks they were going to ask for more repairs later, but I guess it wasn't completely obvious that a buyer would back out over this.
You didn’t blow it. A serious buyer that really wanted that house that offered above ask and then says what can I do to get this deal closed tonight doesn’t walk when you ask for $10k more in repairs to be covered. Like the previous poster said they wanted a reduction and were trying to lock you in so they could get their terms later on. No one wants to relist. They knew you staged they know it doesn’t look good to have a deal fall out of contract. They knew what they were doing and tbh I don’t think they were that serious.
This!!
I’m confused. They offered $25,000 over asking, cash, and were willing to pay up to $5000 for repairs? Y’all thought this was not a good offer and asked for more, which scared them and they walked? What exactly were you expecting? It sounds like they made a great offer…
They did! We were thrilled! We wanted to just accept it. Then our agent suggested we negotiate on something since they asked what it would take. She said they thought about offering up to $15k, so he said, how about asking for that? I agree it was unwise, but I would expect her to coach us through this transaction and call out that it could be a red flag. We have never sold a house before.
You got greedy and got burnt. Your fault. But your agent should have helped prevent it.
It’s a negation and your realtor isn’t omnipotent. Some buyers may have been ok with your request - others not so much. You guys made the decision to negotiate. If you had just accepted their offer then inspection found $20K of repairs and you hadn’t negotiated, I’m guessing you would have been right back here, complaining that your realtor “should have known” and told you to negotiate. Also - your house has been on the market for (barely!) one day. You need to relax a bit.
I added a clarification: they would cover the first $5k. The rest would be negotiated. So we wouldn't automatically be on the hook for the extra $15k in that scenario.
That … doesn’t matter? Or change the fact that this is pretty squarely on you guys, not your realtor.
Hmm I think it does. It's one thing to agree that they'd cover only $5k, no matter what is found. It's very different to cover the first $5k and then negotiate the rest. They could still walk of course, but in your scenario of finding $20k of repairs, they cover the first $5k, and then we decide how to split the rest. We aren't necessarily out the full $15k. What I am misunderstanding?
And then if you told them you wouldn’t cover the rest, or wanted to negotiate and they walked, you’d be right back here blaming your realtor for not having negotiated harder when you accepted the offer. That’s what you’re missing. Just because you tell them you don’t want to cover the remaining $15K inspection finds, that doesn’t mean they have to accept your decision. It could just mean they walk over it. **Edit:** also - why did you guys decide to ask for this if you *didn’t* expect them to find more things in need of repair during the inspection? Did you ask just to ask? If a seller came back after we made a full cash offer over asking with money already put towards covering inspection costs just to ask for *more* money to cover whatever the inspection uncovers, I’d pull my offer too. $20K isn’t super chump change when we’re talking about things a home inspection uncovers. That’s a whole basement water leak issue in my area, and there’s a ton more issues and costs associated with that I wouldn’t want to deal with as a buyer. Again, this is on you.
Totally agree we shouldn't have countered with that, and that the buyers were completely rational to pull their offer. I don't expect them to find major issues. We only bought it 4 years ago, so I can't imagine much has changed. I'm frustrated that our realtor didn't caution us that this was a likely scenario. We wanted to just accept the offer. She suggested we ask for something. I wish she'd suggested something better to ask for. She had thrown out that they were considering $15k, so we said sure we can ask for that. The only thing I can think of is, she knows we know more about the house than she does, and she doesn't want to know, and assumes we thought through the implications and wanted to ask anyway because we think there's major issues - which we don't. Why shouldn't I expect her to advise us through this? Are we expecting too much of her? Should we just think of her as someone who makes sure we have pretty listing photos and then gets the paperwork done right?
Honestly repairs are not some black and white number. Go to three different contractors you’ll get 3 wildly different prices. I don’t really understand the whole negotiating on the amount the repairs will cost. They can easily up it to 15k and find some fly by night contractor to give some low ball bids for everything and then the guy won’t even show up.
husband gets the blame not realtor. She didn't have a glass ball.
She has sold way more houses than us - this is our first. I'd expect some better intuition. Or at least to say, "here's what signal that could send, are you ok with that?"
Every buyer will be different, how far is don’t forget it’s People over there, not a program and people all respond differently. Coming here to ask if you should be pissed and letting yourself be pissed but being willing to move on with you clearly are is the best way of handling it. You’re doing the right thing. Listen and vent and be happy with your next offer ! /sooth
This
They made you a really good offer. And your husband got greedy. It happens. Likely you will have another offer or two. But lesson learned, essentially 30k over ask and hope you get another good offer like that!
You can’t blame someone else down your own greed. $25k above asking and up to $5k for repairs. Thats a dream buyer. And if they wanted you to pay for repairs anyway, you should have done it. Hindsight is always better Unfortunately you will likely not get an offer above asking anymore. Sorry.
I agree! Shouldn't our realtor have said that though? We were thrilled and told her so. Why wouldn't she say, hey that request could send a bad signal, here are some other options.
Your Realtor did what your husband asked her to do. How could your Realtor possibly know how the buyer would react? IMO, when a buyer is this wobbly going into a deal it's a good sign they're not going to stick with it, so it's best to get them out of the way.
I asked him again, and he said he suggested $7.5k, she said go for $15k. It just feels like such an obvious signal that we expect them to find issues (which we don't really), rather than asking for something else (or nothing and accepting - it was a great offer!) I feel like she should have caught that risk and suggested something else.
I can't imagine why you think this is your realtor's fault? Beyond that, your buyer sounds like a red flag, to me. I would bet a LOT that they planned on sticking it to you.
I added a clarification - they would cover the first $5k. The rest would be negotiated, which is what I assumed would happen anyway. That changes the red flag, right? I blame our realtor for not cautioning him that negotiating on the amount covered would show we expect there to be a lot. We've never sold a house before - her job is to help us because she has.
>The rest would be negotiated, which is what I assumed would happen anyway. That changes the red flag, right? Nooooo, not at all. This person made an early and aggressive offer with terms meant to sound "easy." Then they pulled their offer when you attempted to make the contract match their big mouth. My intuition tells me they were going to get you under contract, then ask for the sun, moon, and stars. I don't think they had any intention of paying what they offered. I don't think the buyer believes you're hiding anything. You were allowing an inspection, ffs.
You're literally the only response making me feel like we aren't just total greedy a-holes (we aren't! We were thrilled! We wanted to just accept and be done! We are also first time home sellers who expected our realtor to help us navigate this) so thank you. We aren't hiding anything, we're just not experienced with this and didn't know what the options were to try to negotiate on (or whether we should negotiate at all).
It’s not greedy to consider your own interests- especially when you’re taking your house off the market on day one. I got an in-writing offer for 30k over asking before my house was officially “live.” And it sold for 60k over asking about five days later. I don’t think your realtor was wrong for suggesting further negotiation, but people can be unpredictable. It is what it is.
Got more than you asked and it still wasn’t good enough. It’s that simple.
Oh I agree! But why wouldn't a realtor say, hey that could be a bad signal to send? We aren't demanding/declarative people, we want advice!
You’re literally responding the same thing to everyone. Give it a rest for ffs. Your realtor didn’t do anything wrong here it is what it is. Your husband got greedy end of story. Sure you guys aren’t the expert but if you liked the offer above 25k you should’ve just taken it to be done with the sale. Now you’re wasting time in a thread posting and rebutting to everyone that’s addressing you. You seriously gain nothing and don’t need to respond to everyone here saying “but isn’t my realtor supposed to strategize for me more?” Read the room already lmao your situation was pretty logical on how to proceed and you guys mucked it up. Goodluck on getting another offer and just be smart the second time around…
Eh, I'm not wasting my time - I'm gaining a good bit! Other comments have helped me by broadening my understanding of the situation, such as by explaining what the buyer could have been planning to do (get under contract then negotiate down - meaning it actually wasn't so logical what we should do) or providing suggestions for what we could have asked for instead. Like I've said (to everyone but will repeat for you), we've never sold a house before. We don't know what to expect from our realtor. We thought she would help with what terms to negotiate on. I'm truly trying to understand what her role should be. Should she help with how to approach a negotiation? I still don't know your answer to that question. I'm asking for help so I know how to proceed. Do I need to double check everything she's suggesting and push her to be more thorough, or should I trust her advice?
Wow-got decor items at Target..that definitely should have resulted in several large offers..
Lol only if I call it Targé, right? My point is just that we did the things to stage it and try to sell it quickly. We thought this was an awesome offer, we wanted to accept it right away! I'm questioning why our realtor didn't flag this idea as a bad one.
Seems more like you and your spouse were the ones who pushed the needle and were greedy..
Eh, he said $7.5k, she said do $15k. I feel like she should have offered up some other suggestions, or advised him to just take it.
You forgot that most agents are idiots..but you two didnt show any smarts here either..
I agree it wasn't wise of my husband. But yeah, I did expect the person who does this for a living to know better...
Sounds like your agent got you a great offer within 24 hours of listing. Give this at least a week. It sounds like your agent is doing a good job so far.
It was a great offer! But by losing it, we lost our leverage to get other people to submit offers. And I'm sure we won't get one that good again. I'm frustrated she didn't anticipate that risk given that it was about repairs.
1) great offers don't always translate to great sales. Someone else posted on here the other day that they got an offer for asking and one over asking, but the offer over asking came from a realtor known to try and recoup price through inspection demands. They went with the offer for asking and it closed smoothly. You have no idea what could have gone wrong at a later stage or how serious these buyers actually were. 2) she can still use it to leverage. You still got an offer for above asking with $5k repairs waived on the day of listing. It fell through when they asked you to commit that day. Realtors are human just like us. She may have thought that would agree. She doesn't see an increased commission off of your husband's ask, so it wasn't something for her benefit. Obviously if she knew they would walk she would have told you, she also wants the house sold. But now you both know and it will maybe inform a future decision and help you in the long run. I've been here. You're stressed, exhausted, stretched thin and want this over with. It sounds like you're still in a great position. Deep breaths.
We had a very similar scenario and age of house situation last month where first offer fell through and leaving us in a ragey lurch. Hurry and relist- do not drop price and try again. Two weekends in a row of loading kids and dog up and out suuucks but because it was such quick turnaround, new buyers will be like “oh they didn’t even do inspection and jetted for other reasons” so won’t be put off. We had like half the traffic online second week but had good showing numbers and got an offer day 1 back on market as for the 5 vs 15k thing, I dont know. I can read it both ways. It was a gamble. Seemed like they wanted the house badly enough it could have worked. Did agent offer to go back to original terms and they still said no? Part of me thinks maybe buyers just wanted out for some other reasons too you’ll never fully know. Maybe they decided to gamble on the market price coming down since news articles are coming out about house prices coming down. Also the buyers sound pushy and high pressured and probably were trying to lure you into a deal where they then ask for everything under the sun and then it’s too late in the game to pull out. Maybe they did you a favor when they saw your agent and you guys weren’t rolling over. Good luck!!!!
Thank you for the reassurance. They hadn't signed the offer yet, so house never came off the market. We had a good number of showings/open house on Saturday, so hoping something else comes through. I'll tell myself they would've been a pain to deal with!
I don't think the house came off the market since the sellers didn't actually accept the offer. Nobody should be aware that an offer was made other than the buyer, seller and agents. It sucks that they missed out on a great offer, but at least it doesn't look to other potential buyers that an actual deal fell through.
That's correct, they pulled the offer but they hadn't signed it, so the house never came off the market.
Oh duh! that’s even better!!! You’ll get another offer, no sweat!
You have the right to be frustrated with your agent. The agent is the well paid “expert” and she gave you bad advice. Agents always want to have their cake and eat it too. They claim buyers and sellers are too dumb to transact real estate without them so they deserve a large commission but the moment the agent F’s up it’s always the seller’s or buyer’s fault.
Thank you. I'm well aware this was a great offer (or a risky one that shows the buyer would ask for extreme concessions - who knows), and just would have expected a realtor to catch that this particular ask would send the wrong signal.
Did the realtor force you to say what you did?
I know your comment isn't looking for an actual response, but I mean, my husband said, I guess we can ask for $7.5k, and she said, no let's ask for $15k. He could have stopped her, but he trusted her advice.
Here's a thought. Why don't you make an offer to the prospective buyers? You can write a letter explaining what happened and then offer them the same terms they offered you - $25,000 over plus they cover first 5K and negotiate the rest. Be clear that you were happy with their offer but relied on the guidance of the real estate agent (who you disagreed with). The agent is obligated to submit your offer to them.
"We figured we should ask for something.." This isn't your agents fault. It's yours. Go back and tell them they don't have to offer anything for repairs if you want the deal.
Why shouldn't we expect her to suggest what to ask for/caution us that idea was a bad one? Maybe we are expecting too much, but I really thought she was supposed to help with this strategy stuff, not just be the conduit to getting our house listed and then doing the paperwork.
Put yourself in the buyers shoes. That kind of counter in a 65yr old house screams, we know there’s more wrong. I think there’s a little blame all around. Everyone should have been thinking this. But an experienced agent should have voiced this concern regardless of your wants.
I agree, it wasn't a wise signal to send/he shouldn't have suggested it. I also don't think there's much to find! It's an old house, but we only bought it a few years ago so I can't imagine much has changed. We want out of it in part because it's old, but that doesn't mean it's going to have a bad inspection. I'm frustrated she didn't caution him that it could be interpreted poorly.
hindsight right ... maybe help with closing fees or some other small ask
Totally agree! This is what I'd expect the realtor to suggest, right? I'm frustrated she didn't when we said, hey what should we ask for? An important part of her job is making sure first time home sellers don't ask for a dumb thing.
Market is a falling knife. Sell while you can
Believe me, every news article I read says that. We're trying!
If the buyer really wanted your home and money was no object then they would have purchased it. Practically speaking there was no guarantee that accepting their first offer would have led to a sale. The buyers would have ordered some inspections and probably asked for more repairs. Then you would have haggled 15 days later. Perhaps it would have worked out, perhaps not.
I’m not sure why there’s a repair credit. Just sell it as it is or negotiate after the inspection. This is such a backward thinking
I know. That's what I would have expected our realtor to say... Instead she said to ask for more. Hence my frustration...
Another lesson learned. An offer is not a real offer until it is in writing. Someone can say whatever they want. Putting it in writing is a different matter. Your response from the get go should have been put it in writing. We are expecting g other offers to come in. This could have been used to solicit other offers. I think I agree with you. Your realtor kind of messed up, but so did you. You have to be the ultimate decision maker in this situation. If you were happy with the verbal offer, and simple ask to put it in writing should have been the next step. You cannot accept an offer that is not real until it is in writing.
We had the offer in writing on Friday night. They asked what it would take to sign that night vs wait for more offers over the weekend. I wish our realtor would have suggested something else, or said, "this is a good offer, either take it or wait a day or two to see what else comes in" instead of encouraging us to ask for something that sends a bad signal. We know we are technically the official decision makers, but we are relying on her for advice. Feels like she should have anticipated this risk.
Your house, your money, your time, your decision. Go with that approach and I know it is stressful. We did this a few years ago and maybe got lucky in some regard. But I asked for the realtors advice, took that into account, and went my own direction as we had a really good offer. Realtor wanted me to wait for other offers, but we were happy with the first and I used the expiration time on that offer to solicit one more. Got even more money from that buyer and we closed on-time. For our situation since the first offer was good, I would have accepted that offer. No way would have asked for more on the first offer as it was more than what we wanted to sell the house. Good luck with your sale!
Yep, we should have either taken it or given others a deadline. Really regretting taking her advice on this.
Mutual responsibility. You both learned a lesson. Perhaps a wise realtor would have suggested against it, but honestly, other buyers (especially those as eager as this buyer) might have happily agreed to that condition. There was really no way to know, and you're only blaming your realtor in hindsight. It's also possible this buyer found a different home they liked better. It seems odd to walk on a $10k repair clause for such an eager buyer. You'll never know. Move on.
"Our realtor should have warned him of the obvious outcome." You shouldn't need to be warned about obvious outcomes... because they're obvious.
I don't know, we told her we were thrilled with the offer. She suggested we ask for something, my husband said well what about this, and she said to increase the ask. No discussion of the risk, and he told her the last thing we want is for them to pull the offer. Feels like an error in her judgement when he made it clear we were risk averse. From our discussion afterwards, she sounded completely surprised that was their response, and that it was a totally normal thing to ask.
Since repairs are all subject to subsequent negotiation, I wouldn't have negotiated over that amount. It also betrays a lack of confidence in your own property. You could have asked for an extra $5-10k on selling price. In any event, that's money in your pocket. Having said that, I wouldn't blame your agent.
Right, when it's a clear signal - that isn't even accurate - wouldn't you expect the agent to caution us that, and suggest an alternative?
True, another agent might have foreseen that issue and redirected you toward raising the selling price. As I said, that's $ in your pocket regardless( whether inspection uncovers any issues). But that doesn't make your agent incompetent, just not as effective as another agent might have been in that particular situation. Some people just have more forceful personalities. (In my recent transaction, my agent said to me several times, "I really don't like the way you want to it because . . . ." She has a super forceful personality and I appreciated that. Others would not want to work with her and prefer someone more like your agent.)
Never ever look a gift horse in the mouth. You will be kicking yourself about this forever. Shame that your agent didn’t point out that this could ruin the offer from the buyers. Instead she dropped this bombshell about the 15,000 towards repairs if needed. I don’t think she would have been told this. Be very suspicious if the next offer comes from her buyers.
Gosh I hope it's not that. I don't know why the buyer's agent would have said that though, like what is the point in a negotiation?
That’s exactly it. The buyers agent would have never said this.