I like to share more “colorful” stories, of things that happen in real estate.
I had a listing in Hollywood Lakes for sale, and we got a large amount of activity as soon as we listed it. One REALTOR® requested to show it, and I confirmed that someone would be home to let her and her buyers in.
A little bit later, she texted me that her assistant would be showing it. That was fine.
The assistant shows the buyer the property, and while there, he tells the seller that he wants it for himself.
As a buyer, I don’t think I would be very happy if I was looking at homes, and my REALTOR® was competing with me for them…
The REALTOR® called me and told me that her assistant was an investor and he wanted to buy the property. The property had been listed for 2 days, and we had 5 showings. I told her that she better get me an offer that will convince my seller to take it off the market so quickly.
She emailed me a full price offer (mid $300s), with 20% down, and a $5000 deposit. She didn’t include the buyer’s pre approval letter, so I texted her letting her know that she needed to send it.
Her response? “Didn’t know you would need that.”
Why wouldn’t a seller want to see the buyer’s pre approval? As a REALTOR® she should have known better, and this so called “investor,” should have known better as well. If you are purchasing a property, you have to show proof of funds (for cash deals) or a pre approval letter (for financed deals). That is basic real estate 101.
She sends a pre approval over showing that the buyer was preappoved. The offer was good, except the deposit was less than 1% of the purchase price. Many sellers require 10% deposits, and a buyer should put down a large deposit, to show that they are serious to take the property off of the market.
We said that everything was fine with the offer, we just wanted a $15,000 second deposit. The REALTOR® then tells me that her buyer refuses to put down that much money, and he has never been asked for a large deposit before. Which leads me to believe, this guy has not had a lot of experience as an “investor.”
We said that we would accept a $5,000 second deposit (less than 3% of purchase price).
Then, nothing.
The REALTOR® disappeared for about 6 hours. Her voicemail was full and she wasn’t answering my texts either. When I finally spoke to her at 10pm, she said that she didn’t know what was going on with her buyer. He was having second thoughts about the property and she didn’t know what he wanted to do.
The next day she told me that he still wasn’t sure. Again, it made me wonder what kind of investor he is, since he couldn’t seem to make a decision.
Finally, by the end of the day, the buyer decided to move forward.
The REALTOR® sent me a copy of the deposit…. five cashier’s checks for $1000. That is a bit random…
I had to remind her a few times to schedule her inspection. A day before the inspection she let me know that she was not going to be coming to the inspection. She explained that her buyer gets out of control at inspections, so she doesn’t want to be there for that.
And this guy is a REALTOR®’S assistant….