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[deangelo51]

My husband and I are first time home buyers with little experience. Our agent is my aunt, who has been in the business for about 7 years. We found a house the first day is was active on MLS that was priced about 30,000 less than it is worth. Its is in a terrific neighborhood, and near my husband job, pretty much right were we wanted to be. It is a newer house, perfect for us, and so on.

Now we had just been turned down on another home because we offered $9,000 less than asking price and someone else offered full price.

Seeing as this house was obviously (even my aunt agreed) priced very low for how lovely it was, and we caught it first day on MSL, we offerered full price.

Here's the back story: When my aunt called thee realtor to show the house, the woman did not call back at all that day. So the next day my aunt called the company, and eventually got ahold of the realtor. We went to see the house and the realtor forgot the key. So the realtor told us to go look at other houses and come back. We didn't. She told us a few times to go ahead and see other places and come back but we instisted on waiting for her partner with the key which only took about 15 minutes. The realtor told us that the owners husband died 3 weeks ago suddenly, and the wife wanted to sell the house.
We saw the house, loved it and drew up an offer that day. We agreed to come bacl the next morning to take another walk through, at the selling realtor request. Then next day my aunt told me that the realtor told her that she presented the offer wrong and told the owner we offered $7000 less than full price. The CORRECT offer (full rpice) was told to the owner that morning.

So my aunt expected to hear a yes from them pretty much after we left.
Its been 4 days, and the sellers (who now admitted is best friends with the owner) realtor said that the wife wanted to present the offer to a lawyer before saying yes... and that the lawyer hasn't been available.

I also come to find out through a little research that the house has been on and off the marker for almost a year, that the husband was terminally ill and had aheart attack or something health related happan that cause the car accident and that he actually died 5 months ago, not 3 weeks.

Ok what the heck is going on?
We'd hate to pull out of this because the house is perfect and a great price for what we'd get.

[herald]

They are trying to get a bidding war going on. Your aunt (the realtor) should know this. A house is offered at an extremely low price and it gets buyers bidding against each other.

[geol19]

Sounds kinda funny... I would ask to talk with the sellers broker or go visit them at their office. Sit down and tell them the "story".

You need to be aggressive with sellers agent and get answers. Also sounds like you need to get a realtor that is NOT related and does this full time and can get the answer you want. Family realtors not always the best choice and often will cost YOU money.

Make sure title/escrow pulls a title report and makes sure nothing is funny on the backend with liens.

Also do a home inspection.

Best of luck.

[jorian23]

Sounds kinda funny... I would ask to talk with the sellers broker or go visit them at their office. Sit down and tell them the "story".

You need to be aggressive with sellers agent and get answers. Also sounds like you need to get a realtor that is NOT related and does this full time and can get the answer you want. Family realtors not always the best choice and often will cost YOU money.

Make sure title/escrow pulls a title report and makes sure nothing is funny on the backend with liens.

Also do a home inspection.

Best of luck.

I think you have answered your own question. Even in this day in age there is no reson for a seller to lie about anything. Usually if they do there is more behind the story. Also when you see a home taken off and put back on the market in a short amount of time it should raise an eyebrow. There is no reson to back out because there is really nothing they can do to rip you off. Once they have excepted your offer or counter offer and you accept the next step is title work nows when you want to make sure there are no hidden fees and that they are not going to ask you to pay for all title work and realtors fees. If that is all straight then you should be fine. It could be that they are just simply undecided but more than likely what they are doing is shopping price. This used to get caught relativley quick by the MLS service but what they do is continue putting their house for sale and raising the prices if they get an offer then they take it down off the market wait a month or so and put it back on for more maoney and so on. The reason its not caught so quick now id simply all of the homes for sale. If its the right house dont back down and hold them to their price contact their realtor everyday and badger her she will get tired of hearing your name everyday and hurry up her sellers. By not backing down I mean stay diligent but also just FYI I wouldnt get your hopes up. Sorry to say it like that but I think that they will end up taking the house back off the market.

[cinnard]

You have a mess.

When the house can only be shown because the listing agent has the key - then there's room for doubt. This agent gets to 'look your client over' and determine whether s/he is 'suitable'.

Real estate offers are always supposed to be presented IN WRITING. This lessens confusion. There's no need for an attorney to look over - except as a stalling tactic OR unless there's a problem with who can make the decision as the Executor of the Estate. No lawyers works for free, so why should s/he be available?

I had a client make full price offers on two different homes. Seller 'supposedly' accepted another office in each case. We honestly don't know if either offer was presented, - because we had to go thru the listing agent. The listing agent may have wanted the property to be sold thru their own firm to gain the entire commission (and badmouthed my clients to do so).

All you can do for the moment is wait. No one can force a Seller to sell to him or her.

[edmondo93]

The seller having just lost her husband is experiencing anger and loss. She is unsure of what to do and has mixed feelings about selling. You are attempting to deal with someone in mourning who should not be making important decisions at this time. Her ambivalence requires her to consult with others and not trust her own judgment. Suggest you find another house since the paperwork of removing her husband's name from the deed could take up to 2 yrs through probate court.

[karlitis]

I have been in real estate 34 years. It is very common for stories to messed up going from owner- to agent to other agent to buyer. And my Father died over a year ago and my Mom is still acting weird because of it.

There could be lots of conspiracies going on to hurt you - but more likely it is just strange to actually sign the contract to sell the house you and your dead spouse lived in. Anytime during this period another buyer can come up and offer more and take the house away from you- you can not force the widow to sell you the house against her will. Even at full price. That has been shown in court that the seller can refuse even a full price offer if they wish as long as it is not for a descimination of protected class issue.

Your choice is to pull out or wait. You can also make a new higher offer but I doubt that is what is causing the delay.

[kyledyr]

As a Realtor there is one of two things going on here.

1. Another buyer has offered more than the asking price (always a possibility on an under priced house), or there is a bidding war amongst other interested buyers.

2. The listing agent is stalling to allow for one of her own buyer's to consider and make an offer to buy the house so that the listing agent can keep the whole commission. By the way this is illegal.

Ride it out. If you get screwed, call the your state's real estate commission and ask them to investigate.

[bachir93]

Often properties are offered for sale below market value.....the idea is to get multiple offers and get a bidding war going between buyers. Nothing legal or uncommon about this strategy on the seller's part. Make your best offer based on yours and your agents opinion of the true market price.. Just make your offer subject to the appraisal.