"I've Seen It All and I've Seen Too Much!"

“I’ve Seen It All and I’ve Seen Too Much!          

(My favorite quote from “A League of Their Own.”)     As the market has shifted from a Buyers Market to a Sellers Market, so have real estate practices and behaviors. It used to be that as a Buyers Agent, our buyers could select their own title company, select their closing date, request repairs, and choose their lender.  These days that has changed entirely.

Typically, banks will select the title company, minimum required earnest money deposit, change the inspection period, and select your closing date.  But lately, it has become more common for the banks to require loan pre-qualification through their own bank.  Kind of ridiculous if you read through our Arizona Pre-Qualification form as it has boxes to check showing that all financials have been received, the interview has taken place, the application has been completed, and the form is signed by both the loan officer and the buyer.  But I digress…..

So yesterday, while setting up showings for my buyer, I threw up my hands and said, “That does it!”  This agent and seller have literally crossed the line on what they are asking.  Mind you this is a “normal” sale, not a foreclosure or short sale.  But wait for it…..  it’s one of those “flips.”  A flip being a foreclosure turned into an un-repaired glistening jewel, and in the sense that the seller has created his own rules by following the same strategy as the bank, minus the 13 page addendum; although some of them are creating their own addendums.

So what made this listing different from all the other requests we see for flips?  This seller has listed his preferred closing dates!  Never having seen this one, I just decided that does it!  I’m frustrated with the fact that the public has decided to act like the banks when selling foreclosures.  Are agents part of this strategy?  Are agents telling sellers they can behave this way?

The good news is that eventually, the market will normalize and hopefully this tactic will disappear!  Okay –my rant is over – thanks for listening!