chinnybloke

The story is...

18th December we said we wanted to buy a house. We went through an agent who was very, very helpful and showed me around several properties in Fredericton when I was there - she spent 3-4 hours with me giving me a full tour. We used her to contact the selling agent as she said this is how it works.

Since then we've been waiting and chasing her for paperwork, contract, basic further info. On Saturday she emailed us and said don't panic, no one else will buy it as there have been no recent viewings, the owners are away so the selling agent cannot contact them.

Yesterday the house disappeared from MLS and our agent has so far failed to tell us why.

If this has gone pearshaped I’ll be pretty annoyed as they’ve strung us along for almost one month. But, should we go through another agent or always speak directly to the selling agent?

I’m really hoping Canadian agents are nothing like in the UK and its been removed from MLS as we have said so many times we want to buy it.

ellsie

Hi Chinnybloke, how annoying for you.It's difficult to buy from a distance. We signed up with a buying agent who was recommended and they were great.
It's possible the house has been taken off the market. It's not likely to have been shown recently as the market is flat over Christmas. The person I would ask is frank'n'sense who is a realtor in Vancouver and has a website at www.relocation2bc.com He has always been helpful in the past

yatyat

chinnybloke,

agree with previous poster, the house could be been taken off the market for many reasons (it could have been sold too ...)

if you are not happy with the realtor you are using, find another one and he/she could probably find out if the house you wanted was sold. i would not suggest talking to the listing agent directly because then they would try to represent both you (the buyer) and the seller and there are always conflicts of interest (in my opinion).

hope this help.

chinnybloke

What is the normal time from an offer being accepted to the point where neither party can back out?

We are still hopeful its been taken off the market because we want it - its pretty poor on all sides if they've taken it off as they are now not selling or they've sold it to someone else.

Judy in Calgary

As I understand it, you did not make an offer in writing. Therefore what you apparently thought was an "offer" was not an offer at all. If you make an offer in writing, the offer to purchase specifies the date and time at which the offer expires if the owner has not responded to you. You can read more about the process on the Information for Buyers page of the Multiple Listing Service website.

There's a joke that women are like buses. The saying goes, "Never wait for a women, because there'll be another one along in five minutes." The same could be said of houses. If one house falls through, there's always another one.

jazzist

If this falls through, why not have a look at one or two of the house buying for Canadians books before having another go?

Griff

All sounds a bit odd to me; we had our offer accepted, for our house in Maple Ridge and the house is still on the MSL site. We have signed all the paperwork and had our mortgage agreed. So why yours has gone off the site is strange, I presume you have not paid any money up front to broker the deal. Good luck

Andy

iaink

Did you ever pay a deposit when you put in this offer?

If you didnt then you never actually put in a legal binding offer...

Have to agree with Judy (as usual)...there are a lot of "dream houses" out there, maybe something even better will come on the market...this is not the best time of year for buying selection by a long way.

Agents here are generally OK, I dont see what they have to gain by screwing you over, and they potentially lose thousands in commision by failing to make this deal happen. Making bids on houses is all very legally regulated, with written offers and deposits required to discourage frivolous offers...did any of that happen in this case, and if not why not?

It wouldnt hurt any to call the selling agent and see whats going on and find out if your agent ever spoke to them. Could have fallen through the cracks over the Xmas break I guess? Wouldnt be very professional if it had though

TruBrit

afraid it's not only the uk agents...whatever probs are in the uk it's the same sh*t everywhere and regarding Realtors you just have to be on your guard for the dodgy ones

i take it you did sign a contract when you first hired your Realtor?

houses can be taken off MLS for various reasons although not usually when a contract is pending?

daft batty

The agent we used said not to belive anything on MLS, the good houses dont get posted on there very often as they are sold soon. THeres a local MLS here for ontario agents and the realtor put us on a mailing list for that so any new houses were emailed to us straight away. bu again not all houses go o that so you have to check the estate agents websites rather than mls

An offer is put in writing, you have to sign a detailed contract, pay a deposit of around $500, and then the two agents negociate, if you didnt sign or pay anything you didnt put in an offer. At the same time you sign the contract you usually sign a contract with the realtor to use them to buy your house, its for 2- 3 months i think.

look at the local estate agents websites, and links like your online agents etc. they will help more than mls.

dbd33

I think a deposit of $500 would be very low. We recently made offers on two houses, each with a $5,000 deposit. The offers we got on the house we were selling all came with a proposed $10,000 deposit; there were eight offers so I'd guess $10,000 is usual.

I disagree about mls though it depends on the market, in a hot market sure, houses don't go on mls but then they likely don't go through an agent at all. In a slower market or if the buyer is not expected to be local then I'd think mls a good resource. I'd think both would be true of NS. The two properties we made offers on were from mls.

iaink

Are you confusing the down payment if the deal is accepted with the deposit just to make the offer?

Those numbers are extraordinarily high just to make the bid.

daft batty

We only put down $500 deposit on 2 houses, and $1000 on another, the prices were around $150,000 so maybe it depends on the price of the house?
I still think that looking a the local agents will get you a more up to date view of houses than MLS, so no harm in trying both??

dbd33

What deposit to make the offer? You only need forms for that, there's no money involved until the offer is accepted.

iaink

Eh? No, you have to put the deposit up front and then its deducted from the selling price if the offer is accepted. The idea is to discourage frivolous offers.

http://www.remax-oa.com/ResourceCent...ffer/Eight.asp