Buying your first home in US. Headache or super fun time?

[Fandango 1,439]

I have to add my pure speculation here.

I don't know how your offer was written, but I think the bank came back with 4700 as a limit to what they will contribute to your costs.

I also don't know how you work this out if the contract was written and counteroffered with realtor A.

[pixie77 2]

Many times, Zillow has incorrect information regarding 'market value'.

I hope I don't come across as snarky here, but I have to speak up here. I think it's unfair to work with three separate realtors. Our business is obviously commission based, so two of the agents you are working with are pretty much wasting their time with you. Of course, one could go with the mentality that if you find the 'one' you would be willing to work exclusively with that person, therefore you haven't found the 'one' yet. And it's awesome that (I'm inferring) they know they are working in competition for your business.

One thing that keeps coming up which I find curious - how agents seem to come up with different property. I've seen it mentioned here, and irl many times. I don't understand it, tbh...because let's say someone's looking for a 3/2/2cg, block home no pool, under a certain price range, I will pull up everything that comes up. We'll go thru each and every listing on the computer, then they weed out the undesirables, and then we go see them. It's that simple, there's no 'withholding' certain listings. Of course, if you say 'i MUST have a 2 cg' then the search will obviously not bring up anything below a 2 cg. If then you think 'I can deal with a 1 cg' then obviously that will change the search. Much like setting a price limit - $200k? It won't pull up the PERFECT house that could be listed at $200,000.01. Of course, what's the chances of it being a penny higher? but I am using that as an example. The search is what you set it to be.

Anyway, in short, please keep in mind that we realtors make our living off this, and if you're not planning on working exclusively with one, (s)he should know that. Personally, I wouldn't even turn the key in my car unless that's clear. While I don't mind a bit of healthy competition, I'm certainly not looking to fight with a fellow local realtor over customers, procuring cause, etc.

I just got off a 5 hour floor shift at work, showed 6 houses, and made 7 new leads. And now I'm here, talking shop. I need to stop, lol.

Hi Lisa,

I know where you're coming from and that's why my husband and I were surprised at what they came up with knowing that they use the same MLS [is that how it's called?]. The 3 of them know we are working with them and we always ask them if that bothers them or not. We want to get the best for our money and make sure that we've seen what we need to see at the same time try and be fair with them by letting them know that we're also working with other people. The 2nd and 3rd realtor came about when we were looking for houses on our own and they started sending us houses and scheduled viewings while we were there.

As for Zillow, a few told us that it's inaccurate but nevertheless it gives us an idea, there are a few more sites that my husband is using and one I think is a Chase site, am just not very sure, and another is redfin.com or something like that.We have made an offer on 1 house but a bidding war started and we didn't want to take part in it.We are not in a rush and our realtors know this, we want to take our time as this is a big investment. They still send us the listings, we still keep in touch with them and tell them truthfully were we stand right now. It's their call if they want to stop sending us listings.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Aren't the lenders giving you guys a good faith estimate of closing costs? That should tell you what your costs will be.

A seller's closing costs come to no where near what a buyer pays.

[silvana.toma 15]

OK, so i think i finally got it! I mean- the closing costs. Our bank person from M&T said 9k in closing costs, because this way we buy points, and our monthly mortgage is lower. When we ask our ex realtor she told us that the closing would cost 9k. So we imediatley assumed that that's how much closing is. The bank came back with a counter offer -we pay full price for the house while they give us 4,700 in closing...so basically half.

When we went to see these new realtors they were telling us that the closing should only be around 5k...now we went back and ask our mortgage guy from suntrust and he explained it to us that it could be 9k if we want to but the chances are not very big for the bank to pay all 9k.

We told them both -the realtor and her frined from M&T bank until we were blue in the face that we do not have a lot of cash, as there are a lot of out of pocket expenses just to move in this home, so we can not afford 4k in closing, so hearing this they went ahead and put 9k in closing anyway, and then she was beating us over the head how we still have to pay some of the closing costs no matter how high we go with the offer...

Also on the pre-aproval letter says that the USDA loan will only give us 94% and the rest will come from FHA. Is that normal?

[silvana.toma 15]

Ok, so i have some really bad news...and i am all stressed out and pissed of!

Our new realtors contacted the Ex realtor aka..big B.(sorry i can't help it) and she said that she is not alowing anyone to do any contract with us, and if they do she will sue them. So our realtors said that their hands are tied. So if we want this home we will have to go back to her!!!! #######????And our realtors said they will even give her a part of the comision if it's necesary.

My hubby says he will file a complaint to the Realtor association. This is crazy. Why would she be such a b.? I can understand that she is pissed of with us, but she should have thought about this before she lied to us, and come up with stupid offrers etc etc etc....

I am even thinking we should get a lawyer realtor? Of course now we are going to spend more money...

We never told this ex realtor the reason why we fired her, as i'm sure if we would have she would have come with all sorts of excuses, so we just told her in a polite way we are working with someone else that had a better understanding of what we need.

Now my hubby called the M&T bank person, as she was the one to recomend this ex-realtor, hoping that she can tell her friend to back off, or something since she is the one to recomend her to us(you also have to take a bit of respoonsability when you recomend someone). And she sent us an e-mail saying she doesn't know the legalities of realtors and she can not help us....that is pissing me off even more. You would think they would be nicer, as they are trying to get your bussines, and buyuing a home is a big deal, and with this economy and not so many people killing themselves to buy a home you would think they would fight for the bussines...i guess i was wrong..

[웃 910]

So let her sue? Who is she gonna sue? You guys?

Use the other Realtor and try to get the house...I have never heard of the situation you described.

[luckytxn 2,264]

That would piss me off too and if it was me I would stop having to do anything with the house that she is being a B about and even tell the bank that I had made an offer thanks but no thanks and why. Too many houses and I know I would find another at probably an even better deal.

It is ridiculous to be stuck with one Realtor and I will never do it. Of course they will say it isn't and the reasons why. I always pretty much use one that I know real well but if I see a house on my own usually but have used others. Whoever showed me the house I will use to make what offers I want to though. I have bought many and know what to pay and say and all I use the realtor for is to be my go between and ask them to find out any questions I want answered. Realtors are pretty much a nuisance to me and unneeded but since they have made themselves part of the game with laws I have to do deal with them but only where the laws say I have to. Other than I just want them to shut up.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

OK, It's hard to cut through all you have written, silvana. No offense meant at all but it's hard for me to understand the transaction from what you have written.

Here is how the law usually works though in regards to a realtor having any legal rights to a particular transaction.

The listing agent has a contractual agreement with the seller of the property (usually for a limited period of time like 90 or 180 days). This agreement allows the agent to collect a commission during that time should the property sell. It does not matter if the listing agent themselves sells the property, as long as it sells they earn a commission.

Most of these agreements contain at least two important clauses. First of all it says that any potential buyer cannot go "around" that realtor and contract directly with the seller to buy that property in order to avoid the commission. Secondly, most listing agreements say that should any buyer who viewed the property during the time it was listed cannot go back to seller directly for XXX number of days after the listing expires. So even if you view a property while it is listed, you may have to pay a commission to the listing agent if you buy it AFTER the listing expires.

So.....is your first realtor by any chance the listing agent? And if so, have you tried to contract directly with the bank in order to avoid paying realtor commissions?

As I said, I cannot tell exactly what is going on here because the details are hard to follow. I cannot tell if your former agent has a leg to stand on or not.

PS - It is unrealistic to expect not to pay some closing costs. And at this point, you should be knowing what those costs are. Your bankers should have given you what is called a GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE OF CLOSING COSTS. It's printed in big letters right at the top of the form. And you should have such a document for each different lending scenario.

I am frankly concerned by your lack of knowledge of this process. And I don't mean that in a snarky way. I really don't think you have a good enough idea of home buying to enter into a transaction at this point. You sound like the type of person who could easily get roped into a house you cannot afford. Or talked into a mortgage that costs a lot less at the lender down the street. Sorry.

[Fandango 1,439]

I think she's stuck with realtor A because the deal was already going through before she met realtor b. Meaning, she can certainly walk from the counteroffer (and depending on whether OP signed an exclusive buyer's agreement would be totally relevant), but if realtor A wrote this deal, then unfortunately she, and her firm (depending on state laws, I'm not sure, but in FL this is true) is part of the contract.

I would talk to realtor A's broker. If you're not happy with her service now, then it would suck that you would have to work with her through this whole deal. Perhaps they could reassign this to someone else, or at the very least, have another realtor in that firm deal with talking to you, which realtor A handles the paperwork/etc. I dunno, this is complicated.

I think A is threatening to sue B, so B is backing off. Technically, if OP is in contract with A, it's questionable how B would think it be ok to take over this particular contract. Again, speaking for how it works in FL - realtor A has 'procuring cause' as to how you wrote an offer on this house. Realtor B would be dead in the water, technically speaking.

Also, if the bank countered and you have yet to sign it, there will usually be a time frame for acceptance. If you haven't signed it within that time frame, technically speaking the offer is dead. Sure, the bank could extend the time frame, but if there were other, better offers presented in the meantime, bank technically does have the right to just walk an accept another offer. OTOH, if you've accepted the counter, then technically you are in contract, and realtor A is in contract too. If you're in contract and you decide to walk, your escrow is in jeopardy. (providing you meet all of the conditions - inspection, appraisal, getting your loan). So I really don't know how you'd get around that.

Before levying a formal complaint - that is so very serious, and not to be taken lightly - talk to A's broker and see if some sort of arrangement can be made before doing so.

If you want this particular house, you're in a bit of a situation. If you want another house, don't care about possibly losing escrow, and haven't signed any exclusivity agreement with A, then walk.

Again, keep in mind that all my posts stem from knowledge based on FL law and how things work here. Things in your state may vary, so check it out first. This post is entirely speculative, because I've never been in, nor heard of a similar situation here.

Good luck.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Lisa C

[juliava 80]

Ok, so i have some really bad news...and i am all stressed out and pissed of!

Our new realtors contacted the Ex realtor aka..big B.(sorry i can't help it) and she said that she is not alowing anyone to do any contract with us, and if they do she will sue them. So our realtors said that their hands are tied. So if we want this home we will have to go back to her!!!! #######????And our realtors said they will even give her a part of the comision if it's necesary.

My hubby says he will file a complaint to the Realtor association. This is crazy. Why would she be such a b.? I can understand that she is pissed of with us, but she should have thought about this before she lied to us, and come up with stupid offrers etc etc etc....

I am even thinking we should get a lawyer realtor? Of course now we are going to spend more money...

We never told this ex realtor the reason why we fired her, as i'm sure if we would have she would have come with all sorts of excuses, so we just told her in a polite way we are working with someone else that had a better understanding of what we need.

Now my hubby called the M&T bank person, as she was the one to recomend this ex-realtor, hoping that she can tell her friend to back off, or something since she is the one to recomend her to us(you also have to take a bit of respoonsability when you recomend someone). And she sent us an e-mail saying she doesn't know the legalities of realtors and she can not help us....that is pissing me off even more. You would think they would be nicer, as they are trying to get your bussines, and buyuing a home is a big deal, and with this economy and not so many people killing themselves to buy a home you would think they would fight for the bussines...i guess i was wrong..

Wow, what a mess!!! I remember when we worked with our realtors we signed an agreement saying that the agency would work with us finding a home within a 3 months timeframe. Probably there was an option to extend that timeframe,in case you couldn't find your dream house, but we never felt like we were locked in because the realtors were great.

Did you sign some kind of agreement specifficaly with that realtor A or with the agency in general?Do you have a copy to go over its terms?If it's with the agency, you may request a different realtor that works for them, as Lisa said.

Sorry for things turning out so ugly!

Edited February 12, 2011 by juliava

[silvana.toma 15]

We only put one offer on this home, so we didn't give them the ernest money yet. We love this home, and unfortunately there is no other home like this one, this is a hot deal, our hearts are set on this one.

We already talked to the seller's realtor and worst came to worst we represent ourselves, as we can negociate..just to be honest i am not afraid that we can get the short stick, as i feel we are "raping" them with this price anyway. But of course we will negociate as we worked in the art world so we are good with negociating. We will hire a realtor lawyer to overlook the contract so we make sure it's all good. The EX realtor will get the comision unfortunately, but we like this home, and it's not like we pay her anyway, the seller is paying her..

It's really sad what happend as this has put a shadow on our first time home buying experience, but at least we will get the home we love. Of course it's not perfect as it overlooks the neighbours back yard, but i will learn how to garden and i am intending to make a garden of eden of of it.

i will let you know how it goes, and i thank you all for beeing with me on this!

have a good sunday!

[웃 910]

.

You should try looking for the HGTV channel....I watch it every day. The shows are amazing...You will learn a lot and love it.

[Fandango 1,439]

We only put one offer on this home, so we didn't give them the ernest money yet. We love this home, and unfortunately there is no other home like this one, this is a hot deal, our hearts are set on this one.

We already talked to the seller's realtor and worst came to worst we represent ourselves, as we can negociate..just to be honest i am not afraid that we can get the short stick, as i feel we are "raping" them with this price anyway. But of course we will negociate as we worked in the art world so we are good with negociating. We will hire a realtor lawyer to overlook the contract so we make sure it's all good. The EX realtor will get the comision unfortunately, but we like this home, and it's not like we pay her anyway, the seller is paying her..

It's really sad what happend as this has put a shadow on our first time home buying experience, but at least we will get the home we love. Of course it's not perfect as it overlooks the neighbours back yard, but i will learn how to garden and i am intending to make a garden of eden of of it.

i will let you know how it goes, and i thank you all for beeing with me on this!

have a good sunday!

You put in an offer with no earnest money, and the bank accepted it without one? Did you sign the counter offer? What is the date for acceptance? Usually, there's not a lot of time between these things, and this thread has been going for a while, which makes me quite curious as to what's going on. Everything in the contract (again, in FL, check your state) goes by dates. You have X amt of days after the counteroffer to accept, then that date is called 'execution date'....all the other dates are based around this date. Like, you have X amt of days from executed contract to make formal application for loan, X amt of dates to get the property inspected, etc. For instance, if you have 10 business days to get it inspected, and let's say you went into contract 2 weeks ago - your inspection period is already over. So hypothetically, if you had given escrow, then you inspected OUTSIDE of the insp. period, and let's say the prop has a severe electrical problem, you will lose escrow by walking.

I know you said you didn't give escrow yet, but still. Please check your dates.

I have to say that it doesn't sound like you are being advised and educated well with this process. I'm not trying to bash you; rather I'm quite confused as to why you're not being educated more from your agent about these things. Someone should be pointing these things out for you. It's going to get messier when you add any 3rd party (in this case, an atty) to this scenario. (btw, I am not telling you to NOT hire an atty, you have to do what you feel comfortable with)

And why are you going to pay a lawyer when you can just work with the agency? Have you spoken to the broker, to see what (s)he can do for you? 'm assuming that some sort of compromise can be reached. I put myself in this realtor's shoes, and if customers were that unhappy with me, at the very least I'd taken on a 'partner' for this deal (another agent at the firm) to help you, and make you feel comfortable. I'd pay them a % of the commission.

If I were you, I'd really try to do things that way. Or the broker him/herself can do that so you feel satisfied with the company on a whole. Again, I'm NOT telling you to not get an atty, it just seems to me that you are going to be out of pocket for the atty, when you are already cash strapped, and I don't recall you mentioning whether the broker offered you any sort of resolution.

Good luck

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I've kind of come to the conclusion that the OP is hampered a bit in this process because she's not used to the "American" way of buying real estate.

Hell, because she's young she may not be familiar with ANY way of buying real estate.

I think her USC husband is probably "driving the bus" with this transaction. We can only hope he's got a better understanding than she does.

I also think adding a real estate lawyer into the mix (at this point) is an odd concept.

I wish the OP and her husband the best of luck. This is an odd deal that has implosion written all over it. I hope it turns out in their favor.

[silvana.toma 15]

Well...yes i am not familiar with the american way of buying real estate. You are correct, but the people, who were americans, were also not able to explain it to us so we understand it, as i already mentioned we are first time home buyers...so obviously we don't know a whole lot about this.

Now let me clarify, I am sorry, i stand corrected, we did put $1000 in ernest money, but we decided to withdraw the offer for a week, as we could not close untill april anyway, and the seller-bank wanted us to close in march, so that would buy us more time. So we decided to wait a week, then put another offer in. But in that week we came to the conclusion that our realtor is lying to us, and on top of that is not a very good negociator, so we decided to let her go.

We never signed a buyer's realtor contract with realtor A, but we put an offer in for a home with realtor A, and that entitles her to part of a comision in case we decide to get someone else for this job.

We were recomended another real estate agent, and we were very pleased with them, but when they called realtor A to tell her they are representing us, she told them they will be sued, if we end up buying this home, if she doesn't get part of the comision. I would guess our new realtors did not want to get involved in this, as they said their hands are tied when it comes to this house.

Realtor B IS the brocker, she owns the company, and the only other person working with her are the secretary and her son, so you can understand that after all that comotion we do not want to go back to her, or her son.

NOW....we want this house but no realtor would work with us because i'm sure no one wants to split the comission...

SO, knowing this, we have one choice but to work straight with the seller, negociate straight with the seller, and when we are ready to close we will hire a lawyer to review the contract to make sure everything is all right. I heard a lot of people hire a lawyer just for that one aspect. And that would be because we have no realtor to represent us.

Yes, you are right we could buy another home, but we love this one..

If we would have known that this will be the situation we would probably just stayed with this realtor A, but in the same time, i don't want to promote her lying, and misleding people. I hope she learned something from this experience and next time when she will try to play smart with first time home buyers she will think twice.

thank you guys for baring with me.

so you still think we should not get a lawyer? It's a shame lisa you are in florida, otherwise maybe you would take our case, as this part is the easiest...no need to see any homes, just negociate and sign the final contract:)

have a great sunday!