E3only

Another update...house sold for 30K more than what it was listed.

We offered (initially) 15K above list and got countered for 15K more....so we responded. the counter was recd in the morning and we responded around 430 (5 PM was the deadline).

Nothing seems to be going our way. Pure bad luck - this time we did not get it because other buyer responded to counter in the morning. so the seller now makes the assumption they are more in need of the home than us.

Enough said...

Tarkak9

That is very frustrating.
without knowing more specifics of the counter proposal - that can be a sticky thing to do... as a seller/listing agent can find themselves undercontract with 2 different buyers. I've seen it happen (not by me) and it can get very ugly!

E3only

There was no agent overlap...I was represented by one and the other buyer by other....

Tarkak9

Right; but what may occur is - w/out thinking, a listing agent will will generate a counter to two parties, with an acceptance deadline for each and the problem arises when both buyers accept and deliver w/in their respective deadlines... and both are under contract on the same property. Acceptance and Delivery become the issue so if someone is doing multiple counterporposals, its wise to have somesort of verbiage addressing such scenario in each counter for each party. (or, what I will do is a 'reverse submittal' - have the buyers sign first then the seller chooses which one to accept and go with...)

Giantaxe

Or they merely got what they wanted from the first counter and were satisfied with other aspects of that offer...

E3only

The listing agent stated that we both were countered same amounts but they chose the other party coz they responded quicker....my wife was absolutely frustrated. our point is, if you want to ignore us because we did not respond quicker then why the heck have the 5 PM deadline? It's so stupid.

Giantaxe

Well, that's their prerogative, right? I mean, a seller can make their decision any way they choose. I understand your frustration, but it's really counterproductive to dwell on this stuff. Much better to focus on moving forward.

E3only

Totally understand ....we alredy have moved on. It's yet another frustration that we have to over come what was our 6th offer in 2 months!!

Cape Blue

Have you considered buying an RV?

Xebedee

This isn't as daft an idea as it might first sound....

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/pages/houses

Steerpike

Any update on this? I'm eagerly following your story of East Bay real-estate!

E3only

Thanks so much for asking. Apologies I couldn't update earlier but I had decided to shut up until we succeeded.....

So here is the update. It was out 10th offer and we finally secured a house!! It was not easy let me tell you. The whole experience was eventful at almost every stage. We are of course excited.

It was fun experience We went to the open house and were very 'aggressive' if you will. When we entered the property we knew we wanted it so this time we bombarded the agent with lots of questions and tricked him in giving us a so called 'this will work' $ range. We made the offer in 2 hours and asked them to get back to us that night (so we won't risk the 2nd day of open house). The seller of course asked us to get lost as she wanted to continue to see if anyone else tops us. We were were confident that we will be the highest. At the back of our mind we knew we probably offered 10K more that we should have.

So it turned out that we did get it. This time we did not have to hear "there is cash offer","sellers wants to remove appraisal contingency", "someone else got it because they responded quicker than us" and things like that.....

The real pressure came when we realized we had paid about 5% more than the valuation. When I did read the report from the appraiser i think they had done a very good job. Really we need folks who tell buyers are we are being irrational. But anyway, we then re-negotiated with the seller. At first the seller wanted us to pay 1% below our original offer i.e. 4% above valuation. We declined and walked away...by that time we were 2 grand int he hole (pest/termite, general and roof inspection, upfront loan fee, upfront valuation fee)....so we were pretty disappointed. However, the seller did eventually come back to us and we ended up paying 2% above valuation.......

Anyway long story. The different here was we went aggressive and as it turns out we ended up paying little more than valuation price. The very interesting thing was the comparable sales used by the appraiser included 4 (out of of 6) properties that we had bid on (and that had closed) and excluding one property of the 4, every other property we went to the final stages and accepted counters. We now know that every property our accepted counter was above the valuation. So clearly we were bidding against some irrationality OR the valuations are a little conservative. Either way we now have found something!! The inspections are clean, the loan is through and underwritten, we are hoping to sign papers next week and probably will move in 2-2.5 weeks. It was been an experience but we did learn a few things

1. Never get carried away when others are making irrational offers.
2. Prepare to be patient and there is always something out there next week
3. Prepare to compromise. we wanted something around 1700 sq foot 4 bedroom. We ended up couple of hundred smaller place 4 bed +2 but a huge lot size. I think short to mid term we will be fine. But the point is you almost will have to compromise on something like space, kitchen size, lot size, price etc. the one compromise i will NEVER do is the location. I rather wait and spend a little bit more but live in a good location
4. Earlier homes we bid one we were very conservative. Almost going at list price. We figured, at least in Bay Area, there is very low inventory and especially around summer the competition was fierce. Although I don't recommend this but be prepared to pay a little bit more. I figured by the end of the process that 10-15K over the life of the loan is nothing. Mind you 10-15K is not change I can throw away but it's just the way it is


We are now all go. We are not struggling finding good appliances, window treatments, good landscaper etc.....with the baby due early next year I am glad my wife does not have to stress about finding something bigger to live in. We are in a <900 sq foot place right now so looking forward to the move!!

Thank you all....

WEBlue

Wow, fascinating! You & your wife learned fast and put your knowledge into practice to good effect.

I don't know if the husband & I could ever jump on a property that fast & that aggressively, so I guess it's lucky the housing market isn't so over-heated here as it is in your area.

Enjoy your house!!

Bink

Congrats on the purchase (& the upcoming baby!).
You've definitely done right to move before they're born - we moved when our son was 2 months and it was prettystressful trying to manage a baby and move at the same time!!

Congrats once again and enjoy the fun bit of purchasing all the appliances, furniture etc! We had great fun doing that but I can vouch that money goes very very quickly in doing so!!

E3only

Thanks very much..we are pretty excited. Hoping to close and move in by end of the month or early next which gives wifey good 2 months to settle down before baby is due. can't wait!