this is really frustrating me...advice needed on buying a house

[jessica31876]

I mentioned last week or the week before we were looking at moving so we could be closer to our daughter. We have found a place we really like. We own the place we live in now outright so that is not a concern for us. We dont have to sell this place in order to get the other place.

The problem is the other place is on a short sale and we have contacted the realtor who was helping us several times about putting in an offer. She keeps trying to tell us oh I have this listing here and this listing here but we told her we are not interested in them.

We want to put an offer on the one we looked at. It is the perfect location. It is almost exactly halfway between the house we live in now and the place our daughter lives. So we would still be close enough to not have to change doctors and keep our son in the same school and be able to make it to friends and all that but we would be way closer to our daughter. So that way when the baby comes it will be easier for us to help her with caring for the baby when she needs us to.

That is the major factor in us wanting to move. So my question is what the heck are we supposed to do if this agent does not want to help us put the offer on the place we are interested in? We have told her several times now and she offers to show us the other places then says well Ill get back with you about putting in an offer but she never does.
We have to keep calling her back. She is the listing agent for the house so I dont know if there is someone else who we can contact on it.

Ugghhh it is just frustrating me to no end because I do not understand why she does not want to do her job. Could it maybe be because it is a short sale? Is she not making a commission on it or something? Or maybe the other places have been on the market longer so she is trying to push us towards those places?

I dont know what to think because this is the only place my husband and I have lived and it is paid off. He bought it a couple years before we met and we paid it off a few years ago. We never figured we would be moving at this point in our lives. We were just going to build onto the place we are in now to add a little more room. But that was when our son was still alive and he was going to do a lot of the work involved in adding onto our current place. My husband just cannot do the work alone.

But in addition to wanting to be closer to our daughter we also kinda want to have a fresh start somewhere new as well to try to help us all cope with losing Matthew a little better. I know we will never forget and it will always be something we have to live with but kinda think that a new place will make it a little easier because we wont have all the reminders of things like thats where he slept, that is where he played, that is where he learned to ride his bike, that is where we used to have our campfires in the winter and roast marshmallows, thats the bus he used to ride everyday....and the list goes on and on.

So yea any advice on what to do with this realtor and how to get an offer placed on the place we are looking at would be awesome!!

[jacinda]

Is the realtor an independent, or part of a bigger organisation? If it's the latter, I'd call the parent organisation and talk to another realtor or the boss. It's unacceptable that she is with-holding an offer from the client.

I have no idea how realtors in America work, but here, you can contact ANY realtor and they will help you place an offer (because they get a percentage of the commission).

[KateD]

Jessica, when we were buying our house a few years ago, our realtor mentioned something about situations like yours. I don't remember if she said that the same agent can't act for both the seller and buyer, or if it's just frowned upon. That may be why that agent doesn't want to put in the offer. My recommendation is to ask her. Have you signed any paperwork for her to be your agent? If not, find another agent who you feel comfortable working with.

[heathergw]

yeah... find another realtor... short sales are soooo different than a regular sale... if the owner is still in the house then my guess is she doesn't want to force them to move out... so putting an offer on that house and getting the ball rolling will force the owner out of the house earlier than letting it sit until it's forced to go into foreclosure... since she's the listing agent, she's invested in the owner of the house... it's wise to find another realtor... and yes, they don't get much money from the sale of a short sale so I would do some research and find a realtor that specializes in short sales and foreclosures to put the offer on that house... because it's going to be a lot of work to get things going... if the seller doesn't want to leave then it's going to be a long process of fighting with them to get things signed and stuff like that... it's part of the reason ours took 6 months to close... my realtor was a very dear friend of mine and she had to work crazy hard for us... constant phone calls, written letters, constant hounding... the owner dragged his feet as much as he could... but she's a fighter and seriously the bank closed our file 6 times... if it weren't for her nagging and hounding we would have never closed... you really need someone who will be invested in you... and has no interest in the seller... please... if you really want this house, find someone else!!!

[Patti]

Yup, I'd find another realtor! Good luck, house buying is stressful enough without the realtor not being on the same page. HUGS!

[SeattleSheri]

Yeah, she probably doesn't know how to deal with a short sale. I'd just ask her outright if she is prepared to work on a short sale. If not, she should understand that you need to work with a different realtor. Short sales can take a long time to close and sometimes the buyer is expected to contribute to legal fees. Do you know how many liens are on the house? Is the house adequately priced for the market? If it's not, that can elongate the time to close.

[Sherri Tierney]

Because she is the listing agent, I would definitely find another agent to help you place an offer. It does work better when buyer and seller have different agents. When we bought our house we used the same agent that the seller used. We called the number on the sign outside the house. LOL We never really thought about finding a different agent. For us it worked out really well. The agent was very impartial and in the end both sides walked away happy but it could have created problems in some circumstances.

[SeattleSheri]

I agree with not using the listing agent, it's definitely a conflict of interest to use the same agent, they can't impartially represent both parties. There are plenty of agents that would be happy to work with you and are familiar with short sales.

[jessica31876]

The guy we bought our place from invests in properties and knows a lot about how stuff works with buying and selling properties and also knows a lot of people in real estate because of that so we are going to call him and see what he says and he may even be able to help us a litlle bit in navigating the sale process. With him being the direct contact and who we paid mortgage payments to we developed a friendship with him over the years

[jessica31876]

Ugh this is really frustrating. We talked to the guy who we purchased our place from. He said property value is so low. He has tons of property here in Florida but nothing like we are looking for right now. He said he would keep his eyes open though cause he knows other people who own property. But anyhow he said that these people are kinda like squatters where they live in these homes without paying the mortgage and the bank can not foreclose because there is an overload of foreclosures and I think they have put a halt on foreclosures as well. He told us that we need to be careful with short sales that it is stated in the contract the current tenant needs to vacate within 30 days of closure. Sooo while we really want to put an offer in on the house we looked at it seems like it is going to be a super long process.

[my2monkeys]

I totally agree with the others about finding a different realtor, especially if she is the listing agent. Her behavior is strange... I could understand her not wanting to write up the offer on the place if she is the seller's agent to; but she should tell you that straight up. Also, she may know information about other offers or what the seller/bank is doing. We looked at short sales when we brought our home three years ago. One house already had several offers that had been waiting MONTHS for any feedback from the bank. I would straight up ask the agent if she is willing to write up the offer and if not then I would move on to a different agent.

[jessica31876]

We also found a foreclosed home which we are going to go look at. It is way under property values in the area because it needs work done on it. It is in a nice neighborhood but a subdivision type neighborhood which I swore Id never do...ever. I like having land and not being close to the nearest neighbor BUT the plus on this house is we know what they want for it, it has no tenants and we would not have to deal with all the waiting and hoping like in a short sale. We would be way closer to our daughter and she is super happy about that and if it turns out we did not like it well we still have our house here we could alwys relist it after doing repairs. Of course that is depending on what repairs need to be done. I can do drywall myself. I can paint. I can do flooring. My husband can do plumbing and wiring. and our son in law said him and his dad would do anything we cannot do. And because the price is so low we would have the money to make the repairs. So it is always an option.