We offered 96% of asking price today on a house that was listed on Friday;

[mnhtnbb]

the seller countered at 100% of asking price. Three hours later our broker called to tell
me another offer had been submitted! He said we should make our best offer: I said we already did!
I told him I'd check with hubby--but my opinion was we weren't going to chase it. I asked the broker
to let me know how it all turns out.

This is in a neighborhood where if we gave asking price we would be paying top dollar because most
other properties on the street are 60-70% (smaller and older)of the listing price of this house.

:wtf: Maybe the economy is turning around.

[suninvited]

1. maybe they were bluffing.

are they allowed to do that?

[mnhtnbb]

2. I don't think so. We've known the realtor for years--he sold us our

first house when we moved to Chapel Hill-- and has an excellent reputation. My guess is that the seller
(who is divorced) has an unrealistic expectation of the value of her house--but maybe I'm wrong!

[suninvited]

3. well, it sounds like you are in good hands

I wouldn't go above what you want to pay, and in this market you really shouldn't have to.

[PVnRT]

13. You're probably right

Since it sounds like it just went up on the market, the seller thinks they can get whatever they want for it. If there's another offer, maybe they were right.

[mnhtnbb]

17. Or maybe the other offer is for less, or has a contingent sale in it.

We'll probably find out today because I asked my realtor to let me know if the seller accepts the other offer. We wrote a clean offer, no contingencies, fast escrow, low loan. She might have thought we'd
be good for more money, but the house is really more space than I need and would throw a wrench in my fall schedule to move. Plus, we have the lot where our house burned down two years ago...and not having to go through the rebuilding process is worth something--but not as much as she wants. The amount she wants
would pay half the architect's fees to rebuild, or most of the changes that we'd make if we did buy her house.

[quakerboy]

10. Pretty sure yes

otherwise, I have a few potential lawsuits on my hands. Cause they keep lying like rugs, seems like every time we talk to a sellers realtor, we get lied to.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Eh, we refused to counter higher than our comfort zone & were told flat out that we'd lose the house

because this was back when the real estate market was heating up rapidly in our area. We were renting it and would have had to move if we lost out on the sale. Seller took our final offer, we think because they weren't interested in starting from scratch again because they lost a boatload of cash each month in costs.

It's hard to know what the right move is, but we stayed within our budget and crossed our fingers.

Good luck.

[Writer]

5. We were among one of three competing bids on our current home, which was listed for only 1 day.

This was last year. Two of the bids were at around $5K above asking price, while the other was at asking price. (The house, in my opinion, was underpriced for this area and in its condition.) This area of Colorado has been downturn-proof. Prices have been relatively stable and demand has remained high.

It depends on the area and what else is available. Good luck on making your decision!

[MajorChode]

6. When I bought my first house I made an offer of 100% and was turned down

Someone else also made an offer of 100%, but I was going for a VA loan and they weren't so the seller went with the non-VA loan. For that and other reasons I learned not to go with a VA loan.

[pitohui]

7. you showed desperation

the house listed on friday, you offered 96 percent on monday and you wonder why they won't deal

don't play poker

and the next time, if a house is listed on friday, wait a couple months and then offer 80 percent

my mom was a real estate agent, yah, they're allowed to "bluff" -- it's called negotiating

they're not under oath nor is the seller when they claim that somebody else is giving them a better offer, it's part of the game -- a game they're playing for money even if you're not -- the agent is paid a commission based on the selling price so of course they are going to play you hard esp. since you come across as extremely naive (please don't take offense but you do, based on your posts here)

[mnhtnbb]

8. Desperation would have been taking the counteroffer.

I was a real estate agent 30 years ago in Southern California. Swimming with liars, sharks and
marginally reputable people was not my thing. Of course, I'm sure your Mom wasn't one of them.
No offense, of course.

3 days on the market does show up in local statistics

http://www.movoto.com/statistics/nc/chapel-hill.htm

[Writer]

9. I see that you're feeding off of someone's discontent again.

WHAT is wrong with YOU.

[suninvited]

15. I was reading around on the subject

of bluffing on other offers and according to real estate columnist Peter Miller:

They (real estate brokers) understand that to claim the existence of a bid that does not exist – or to inflate the value of a competing bid – is unethical and dishonest. Such fraudulent claims could result in the loss of their real estate license, the loss of their livelihood and, potentially, criminal charges. The result is that if you trust and believe your broker then you have reasonable grounds to proceed.

http://www.spokane.net/SearchResultDisplay.aspx?contentid=800&keywords=&ccshorttitle=realestateqa



So,unless I misread that it seems it is not really "part of the game", and is indeed considered highly unethical behavior.

[bluesbassman]

11. Unless it's the "dream" house that you plan on staying in forever,

never pay top of value in a neighborhood. The other properties tend to drag your value down. Most people don't adhere to this, but an old real estate investing adage is to buy the least expensive house you can in a neighborhood. That way the other homes will tend to pull your value up.

[mnhtnbb]

12. I agree--which is one reason I wasn't willing to pay list price.

We still own the lot where our house burned down and I've resisted building on it because by the time
we put up the house I'd like, we'd be at the top of the market for the neighborhood. Right now I have the detached garage with studio apartment built over (that didn't burn)it leased, which pays for the taxes on the lot. But lots
are not selling, so I'm coming around to the idea that after Christmas I may find an architect and
design a house for our lot anyway. We have several unique needs: hubby has his private practice (psychiatry) based out of our home and our youngest son is a percussionist. He just this weekend moved
his drums (which were in the studio apartment above the garage) to a friend's house--but because he is a student at UNC I'd like to have a place for his drums for the next several years. If we build a house
on the lot, we can easily include a soundproof music room--which would make the house worth a premium on resale because there are so many musically inclined academics in our area.

The thing that was great about the house we made the offer on was that it had space for hubby's office
and a separate 16 x 20 studio space that could be used for the drums and was in-town--accessible by walking or bus--to our son who has a vision impairment and doesn't drive.

Many of Chapel Hill's older, in-town neighborhoods have houses in a range of values because larger
lots were subdivided and newer, larger houses built on them.

[City of Mills]

14. I feel your pain

I've been outbid on several houses in the past few months, unfortunately I'm buying in the low end of the market (up here that's anything < 200K) and I think the housing stimulus has artifically inflated the low end of the market. I'm running out of time to take advantage of the stimulus, so if I can't get a signed P&S and close by the end of November, I'm out of the market...I'll just continue to rent for the foreseeable future :(

[mnhtnbb]

16. My oldest son bought his first house--a new townhome--in 2008--

but closed on it at the end of February that year so he misses out on the credit, too!

Maybe you'll get lucky in the next week or two!

:hug:

[mnhtnbb]

18. Update: Our broker just called to say there are now 4 offers on the house!

Obviously, if the owner hasn't accepted one, she still hasn't gotten her full price--or if someone is
offering full price there must be some contingency or someone is marginally qualified or wants a long
escrow.

I had quite a discussion with our broker and he reiterated that he has seen multiple offers on houses recently but that in no case in the situations he is aware of has the house sold for asking price--even though there were multiple offers.

He told me we may end up being the owners--because she still has until noon today to officially respond
to our offer, even though we declined her counteroffer yesterday afternoon!

[mnhtnbb]

19. I called him back and officially withdrew the offer.

[wickerwoman]

20. The problem around here is all the short sales.

They take forever to go through (4-6 months) because the banks won't get their shit together and take a loss on the bad mortgage and they also drag down the prices of the regular sales.

So I think a regular sale that's a good deal will get snapped up pretty quick because there are some buyers out there and they don't want to deal with short sales.

But I'm not sure it's a sign that the housing market is really turning around.

[Broken_Hero]

21. Man, I hope the economy is turning around

We have had a three bedroom house in the market since Dec of 07, and no takers, its been very rough.

eta;clarify

[mnhtnbb]

22. Ugh.. So sorry.

[Broken_Hero]

25. don't be to sorry,

I'm only 25k sorry...hell, I'm willing to sell the house for 25k, realtor has it at 60k...still no takers. On the good side though, we have renters in there, but thats a whole other can of worms.

[Xithras]

23. A lot of markets are undervalued right now.

The traditional yardstick of affordability was that a home should cost no more than three years of your total household income. If your family makes $50k a year, you shouldn't buy more than $150k worth of home. These numbers were settled on a long time ago because they're generally affordable to most working people at that ratio.

Many markets have fallen well below that. I live in one of the poorer parts of California, and the average household income in this county is $48,000 a year. The average home price in the county has plunged to $115,000, well below the three year ratio. Unsurprisingly, home sales have skyrocketed.

It's not that the economy has turned around, but that people who were previously priced out of the market are suddenly finding it affordable and are jumping in before it has a chance to rebound. The vast majority of Americans have not lost their jobs, and the overwhelming majority haven't even seen a reduction in pay and benefits because of the down economy. While they may not be making any more money than they were in 2006, they're suddenly finding that those paychecks are going much further in the real estate market than they did back then.

[Xithras]

24. A lot of markets are undervalued right now.

The traditional yardstick of affordability was that a home should cost no more than three years of your total household income. If your family makes $50k a year, you shouldn't buy more than $150k worth of home. These numbers were settled on a long time ago because they're generally affordable to most working people at that ratio.

Many markets have fallen well below that. I live in one of the poorer parts of California, and the average household income in this county is $48,000 a year. The average home price in the county has plunged to $115,000, well below the three year ratio. Unsurprisingly, home sales have skyrocketed.

It's not that the economy has turned around, but that people who were previously priced out of the market are suddenly finding it affordable and are jumping in before it has a chance to rebound. The vast majority of Americans have not lost their jobs, and the overwhelming majority haven't even seen a reduction in pay and benefits because of the down economy. While they may not be making any more money than they were in 2006, they're suddenly finding that those paychecks are going much further in the real estate market than they did back then.