How to buy a house?
We have put 5 offers on 5 different houses since 2/09. Two of those offers were accepted and we got the contract only to be told that the sellers got a better offer and sent a contract to someone else. This second time it was on a house that was for sale for one year….
We have put 5 offers on 5 different houses since 2/09. Two of those offers were accepted and we got the contract only to be told that the sellers got a better offer and sent a contract to someone else. This second time it was on a house that was for sale for one year. We don’t know how to get to the point of actually signing a contract without another buyer coming in. What is the deal? The first accepted offer was over asking price and the second one was near asking price. There was a ton of opportunity for the buyer on the most recent house to make an offer before we did, especially if he was going to offer nearly asking price anyway. If it’s this hard in this market to buy, I can’t imagine what is was like in 07.
We had the same problem as you did until we found a better real estate who called us when he type of property we wanted was found. We saw it the next day and bid. We went right into contract.
Find a real estate that has estate sale properties.
iwannabrownstone, what a truly terrible experience.
iwannabrownstone, just an idea, but do you think the RE agents are using a strategy of list at the low and then when they get a bite, re-list at the high?
How frustrating, iwannabrownstone. Why not wait and when this most recent seller also fails to sell the house at the 20% higher price, go back to them and offer even less than you offered before?
We have had 5 accepted offers all fall through over the past 18 months. In every case, the seller backed out.
First time the inspection turned up a lot more problems than the seller represented and they were unwilling to negotiate.
Second time we bid over ask, seller got greedy and relisted for 20% more and was never able to sell, delisted (by the way with Corcoran).
Third time we agreed to ask, seller got greedy, relisted at 20% higher while we were in the middle of having contract drawn up, and then delisted because they couldnt sell.
Fourth time, we bid over ask, but in due diligence the selling agent found a second party on the deed that was unwilling to sell at our price and wanted more. House was delisted.
Fifth time we had an accepted offer at ask. We have been trying to have a contract signed for the past 6 weeks and found out today the seller has gone greedy and relisted at 20% more.
What can we say except sellers are either uncertain or seriously F-ckin greedy, even in this market.
Have your attorney put a time limit in the contract, giving the seller x number of days to sign or the contract is void. Ten business days would be generous; I’d go 5-7 if the seller’s attorney will agree.
Binders mean nothing in NYC; both buyer and seller have to sign before you’re ‘in contract’.
Could be a run of bad luck, or maybe you are looking in an area that remains very popular? Curious where you are looking and what type of property?
I’m not expert in this matter as we just bought our first place. We were looking for about a year and we put 3-4 offers. Half of the offers were accepted and they were a 5-10% below the asking price. You cannot base the asking price since some sellers like to overvalue their house.
The rule of thumb is when you are looking at a house.
Check to see how long the house been in the market, the longer it is..the more room you have for negotiating. I believe if the house is not sold after 3-6 months..the RE agent will advise the seller to drop its asking price.
When you put in an offer and if the seller accepts, the RE agent will ask you to sign a binder which they will then send to the seller. A contract (within a week or so) will then be drafted based on the info of the binder. This is the phase where I believe you will be ‘IN CONTRACT’ and the seller cannot take another offer.
Again this is based on my experience. Hope this helps.