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Never a dull moment in Treasure Island Real Estate #8

By Anne Hensel

Real Estate Broker/Owner with South Beaches Real Estate Professionals BK 652174

August 17, 2008 05:20 AM

My poor buyer, we just could not believe this you probably won't either.

Cash buyer flies in from Europe for 3 day, only to see properties and make an offer on one. We find the perfect deal, make the offer, didn't get it, seller went for an offer that was 90% financing but $1000 higher sales price. So, my buyer makes another offer on a different unit. We did not get it, it was short sale and they had run out of time, so it was going into foreclosure. The buyer comes all the way back here from Europe to look at more property. He tried to make an offer on a unit, but the Listing agent played games with us and took her merry time, till she could also present an offer from her own buyer, needless to ay, we did not get it. By now I am loosing tract of all the offers and rejections, my buyer is back in Europe and getting frustrated, as you can possibly imagine. Anyway, we make another offer on a unit. Comps came out to $225,000 asking price was $250,000

We offered $230,000 (I thought that was too much, but my buyer said I do not care, I want the unit) Long story short, the offer was countered 3 or 4 times, we are now offering $249,000 cash, no contingencies, AS IS. Guess what, we did not get it, seller decided that he did not want to sell anymore (unit was on the market for over 500days)

All this time I am thinking that I must be in a very bad movie, WHO says we have a buyers market?

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Vickie Nagy

Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate - Palm Springs, CA

Vickie Jean the Palm Springs Condo Queen

It's tough for both you and your buyer, but sounds good for the local market conditions. Hope your other transactions are closing!

Aug 17, 2008 05:27 AM

Charlottesville Solutions

Charlottesville Solutions - Charlottesville, VA

I imagine that this deal is done? What if the listing agent or seller was reading this post?

I ofen think about posting regarding back and forths on a transaction, but being in such a small area I know a lot of people/agents read my blogs...

all the best, Charles

Aug 17, 2008 05:30 AM

Lou Ludwig

Ludwig & Associates - Boca Raton, FL

Designations Earned CRB, CRS, CIPS, GRI, SRES, TRC

Anne

It's never a dull moment in real state, that's an understatement. But what are starting to see less negotiating with homes that are properly listed

Good luck and success

Lou Ludwig

Aug 17, 2008 05:38 AM

Anne Hensel

South Beaches Real Estate Professionals - Saint Petersburg, FL

Realtor - Broker - St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island

Charles, it is the truth, I am not writing these post to blame anybody, I am not using names or subdivisions or something, but it happend. I might not make any friends with telling the truth, but I guess you can not please everybody.

I recently had a great experience with a title company and a condo association and I wrote a few posts about this too. I really believe as long as it is true, positive or negative we should talk about it. People, buyers and sellers need to know what happens behind the scene in a real estate deal. I am on a mission to make the work of a Realtor more transparent to buyers and sellers and give new Realtors and real estate agents a heads up. We have a great job, I love it and I am passionate about it, but it is no always a walk in the park.

So, who is going to help me with my mission?

Anne

PS. deal is NOT done, buyer made an offer on yet another property and cross your fingers, we actually have a closing date.

Aug 17, 2008 05:41 AM

Anne Hensel

South Beaches Real Estate Professionals - Saint Petersburg, FL

Realtor - Broker - St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island

Vickie, yes, my other deals are closing, believe me if i had one more situation like this I would probably change jobs.

Aug 17, 2008 05:46 AM

Aventura | Bal Harbour | Sunny Isles Beach | REALTOR® 786-229-7999

SIB REALTY, Llc // WaterWayRealty.com - Sunny Isles, FL

Hi Anne:

These things can and do happen. In your case; you know you had a sincere and loyal buyer. The listing agents, have no clue as to the sellers real motivation and intent to sell. it seems like there are many sellers that get cold feet when a real offer is presented. There should be some form of recourse.

Aug 17, 2008 06:16 AM

Liz Blandford

Island Real Estate - Anna Maria, FL

Wow, I have to agree ...I had a buyer here for two days. They decided to put a cash offer on a listing at the contract price because it was perfect for them with no contingencies. I was confident for them and they left to go to dinner then off to the airport back home. I submitted the offer and the sellers agent then called to inform me that it was a short sale and we were in backup position....huh was my response? It was never posted or mentioned when the property was shown.

The point is it happens -not all the time but we must keep a positive outlook and continue to be professional and hope that it rubs off! Our clients count on us! You can't get caught up in the negative.

Keep up the good work!

Aug 17, 2008 06:27 AM

David Daniels

Owner of FlyersToYou, Inc. and former Top Realtor - Hemet, CA

Anne!!!!!!!!

Sheesh! Reading your post almost made ME feel like jumping off a cliff!!! LOL!!

If this isn't the perfect example of why some listing agents need to go back to whatever business they USED to be in...then I don't know what is!!!

I can't wait until you hear back from offer #1. The $1,000 price difference...but with 90% financing! I AM curious as to why your buyer didn't just agree to the $1,000 though??? In any case, for a listing agent to recommend to the seller that they take a financing contingency over a cash deal for $1,000 is just beyond me. They'll spend three months closing that sale (IF it appraises, that is)...and the seller will be out 3 months worth of payments which is probably wayyyy MORE than the thousand bucks! If the property doesn't appraise...he'll be out a lot more than that! And he'll PRAY for another cash buyer! Problem is...only 2-3% of all buyers are cash buyers, so he can wish all he wants. It's not likely to happen! Bad listing agent...bad listing agent.

Each of your above situations are the reasons I NEVER made an offer without presenting it in person. If the listing agent wasn't smart enough to advise their client on the best decision....I certainly was!!! And if you run into resistance from a listing agent ("just fax the offer over")...call the seller direct. Yes, you CAN do that! You've got a bonafide offer and the seller is paying the commission. It'll upset the listing agent every time...but in each of the situations you outlined above...I'm not convinced I'd care too much about that.

At this rate...there's a buyer who may be giving up on the idea of buying anything, and I'm not letting any indifferent, lazy, incompetent, or inexperienced listing agent ruin that.

People wonder why Realtors have bad reputations. There's several great examples of that answer above!!

Good luck Anne! Tell your buyer to hang in there!!

Dave