I'm the earlier poster with question about putting down an offer on a house...

[Anonymous]

We had to wait a week for an answer to our offer. The owners were out of state, and it took them forever to reply to our offer, even though we'd given them 24 hours to respond. They called at hour 23.9 and said they'd need a few more days. It's aggravating, but that's how it is. Sellers wait, even in this bad market.

yes, OP, calm down, take a walk, go see a move, get your mind off of this. If it happens, it happens, if not, it's out of your control. I think you put in a good offer. Nobody writes full offers these days unless the house is grossly underpriced or you are in an extremely competitive market (only in DC area), everywhere else it's much slower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here...my concern is that the listing agent didn't even confirm that he received the offer, hasn't responded to text, voice mail or e-mail from our broker or DH. The offer is solid...offered 435k for the house which is listed at 449k (with 30 year old kitchen and bathrooms)...and we don't have a house to sell and can put 20% down. We are willing to go up to 449k if they don't accept our offer but didn't want to do that right away.

Hope the owner isn't on DCUM!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had to wait a week for an answer to our offer. The owners were out of state, and it took them forever to reply to our offer, even though we'd given them 24 hours to respond. They called at hour 23.9 and said they'd need a few more days. It's aggravating, but that's how it is. Sellers wait, even in this bad market.

yes, OP, calm down, take a walk, go see a move, get your mind off of this. If it happens, it happens, if not, it's out of your control. I think you put in a good offer. Nobody writes full offers these days unless the house is grossly underpriced or you are in an extremely competitive market (only in DC area), everywhere else it's much slower.

If this or something similar were the case, your agent should be able to tell you this. Your agent should be giving you some feedback about where along the process of deciding the sellers currently stand. Your agent should at least be telling you that s/he called the seller's agent and plans to hear back at x time. Could also be that the seller's agent is a dud and not informing buyer's agents about what the sellers have decided.

[Anonymous]

Breathe, OP. 4 hours is nothing. Even 24 hours is not a big deal. The sellers' agent and the sellers, have lives, too, you know!
Know that it is considered bad form for a seller to wait more than 3 days to accept, refuse or counter-offer on your bid. In that time-frame, they are hoping to generate competition, and will just acknowledge receipt of your offer. But maybe not in 4 hours!
It is also part of the "rules" that you contact your (buyer's) agent and not the listing agent directly. Silly, I know, but people get confused when roles are not set in stone. The last thing you want is to confuse an already confusing process and alarm the sellers.

And never disclose your max price, even on an anonymous forum. Not even to your agent.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the feedback. We heard from the listing agent--he'll get back to us within 24 hours. Now I'm worried that 15k below listing price is too low, based on PP's input. Is 435k really low for a 449k listing price?
The house is in the DC area but not necessarily a "hot spot". There are no other offers currently, although there has been a lot of interest so far. If I could take anything back, I would offer more because we really do want this house. I'm not worried about the sellers reading DCUM because they are a a retired couple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I know, I'm a mess. I have to somehow put this out of my mind. We've been looking for a house for so long and this is the first one that has felt really right. What a stressful process!

My worry is that another buyer submitted a good offer, but I would think that the listing agent would let us know and give us a chance to put our best offer out there.

Why did you give your best offer in the first place? Calm down, you do not want to appear too desperate to the listing agent they could use this as a way to get you to up your offer even if there is no competing bid. BTW, I am assuming that you are not buying in DC.

Why would you make that assumption? I would assume she is buying in either DC or the metro area given this is a local message board

Because DC allows escalation clauses in real estate purchase letters (don't remember the exact name of the form) - if OP were buying in DC and has a buyers agent that is worth paying then she would not have to worry about having to make a second bid to get her best offer out there.

This is not unique to DC. VA has escalation clauses as well. It would be reeking of desperation to include an escalation clause in this market, unless this house potentially has multiple bids, this sort of stuff is what went on during the bubble. That would be a pretty dumb move on the buyers agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the feedback. We heard from the listing agent--he'll get back to us within 24 hours. Now I'm worried that 15k below listing price is too low, based on PP's input. Is 435k really low for a 449k listing price?
The house is in the DC area but not necessarily a "hot spot". There are no other offers currently, although there has been a lot of interest so far. If I could take anything back, I would offer more because we really do want this house. I'm not worried about the sellers reading DCUM because they are a a retired couple.

If it makes you feel any better, we are putting an offer in on a house tonight listed 498k for 485k with 10k back. We suspect we will meet somewhere in the middle.

As far as interest, I'm hearing ya! The house we are putting an offer in on had DOZENS of cards in the kitchen from agents. ALOT of traffic. The inventory is so low, there is very little to even look at. When you are looking below 500k, I'm finding that there is a ton of buyer competition. We just sold our house without even putting it on the market and our list price was 420k. Our listing agent circulated the house around her office before putting it on and one of the other agents had a buyer right away. I've seen the good houses go under contract in as little as one day. I see it hit redfin and then 2 days later it is under contract. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

http://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/722-7th-St-NE-20002/home/9898536

Is this the house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I know, I'm a mess. I have to somehow put this out of my mind. We've been looking for a house for so long and this is the first one that has felt really right. What a stressful process!

My worry is that another buyer submitted a good offer, but I would think that the listing agent would let us know and give us a chance to put our best offer out there.

Why did you give your best offer in the first place? Calm down, you do not want to appear too desperate to the listing agent they could use this as a way to get you to up your offer even if there is no competing bid. BTW, I am assuming that you are not buying in DC.

Why would you make that assumption? I would assume she is buying in either DC or the metro area given this is a local message board

Because DC allows escalation clauses in real estate purchase letters (don't remember the exact name of the form) - if OP were buying in DC and has a buyers agent that is worth paying then she would not have to worry about having to make a second bid to get her best offer out there.

An escalation clause only kicks in if there are multiple bids and since there is no way of know whether there will be other bids its a safe option if you really want the house and are willing to pay more to have it.


This is not unique to DC. VA has escalation clauses as well. It would be reeking of desperation to include an escalation clause in this market, unless this house potentially has multiple bids, this sort of stuff is what went on during the bubble. That would be a pretty dumb move on the buyers agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I know, I'm a mess. I have to somehow put this out of my mind. We've been looking for a house for so long and this is the first one that has felt really right. What a stressful process!

My worry is that another buyer submitted a good offer, but I would think that the listing agent would let us know and give us a chance to put our best offer out there.

Why did you give your best offer in the first place? Calm down, you do not want to appear too desperate to the listing agent they could use this as a way to get you to up your offer even if there is no competing bid. BTW, I am assuming that you are not buying in DC.

Why would you make that assumption? I would assume she is buying in either DC or the metro area given this is a local message board

Because DC allows escalation clauses in real estate purchase letters (don't remember the exact name of the form) - if OP were buying in DC and has a buyers agent that is worth paying then she would not have to worry about having to make a second bid to get her best offer out there.

This is not unique to DC. VA has escalation clauses as well. It would be reeking of desperation to include an escalation clause in this market, unless this house potentially has multiple bids, this sort of stuff is what went on during the bubble. That would be a pretty dumb move on the buyers agent.

An escalation clause only kicks in if there are multiple bids and since there is no way of know whether there will be other bids its a safe option if you really want the house and are willing to pay more to have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/722-7th-St-NE-20002/home/9898536

Is this the house?

Wow, I like, are those tin ceilings - hard to tell from the pictures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I know, I'm a mess. I have to somehow put this out of my mind. We've been looking for a house for so long and this is the first one that has felt really right. What a stressful process!

My worry is that another buyer submitted a good offer, but I would think that the listing agent would let us know and give us a chance to put our best offer out there.

Why did you give your best offer in the first place? Calm down, you do not want to appear too desperate to the listing agent they could use this as a way to get you to up your offer even if there is no competing bid. BTW, I am assuming that you are not buying in DC.

Why would you make that assumption? I would assume she is buying in either DC or the metro area given this is a local message board

Because DC allows escalation clauses in real estate purchase letters (don't remember the exact name of the form) - if OP were buying in DC and has a buyers agent that is worth paying then she would not have to worry about having to make a second bid to get her best offer out there.

This is not unique to DC. VA has escalation clauses as well. It would be reeking of desperation to include an escalation clause in this market, unless this house potentially has multiple bids, this sort of stuff is what went on during the bubble. That would be a pretty dumb move on the buyers agent.

An escalation clause only kicks in if there are multiple bids and since there is no way of know whether there will be other bids its a safe option if you really want the house and are willing to pay more to have it.

Yes, technically that's right. But even if there is only one offer, you have telegraphed to the seller what you are willing to pay. Why would they not make a firm counteroffer at or near the top of your escalation clause?

[Anonymous]

Are you a first-time buyer? Are you working with an agent? If you are a first-time buyer you would have been better off having your own agent. If this is driving you nuts wait until you get to the housing inspection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the feedback. We heard from the listing agent--he'll get back to us within 24 hours. Now I'm worried that 15k below listing price is too low, based on PP's input. Is 435k really low for a 449k listing price?

If it's in a good neighborhood and worth $449k, then *yes* $435k is too low and even insulting. Why do people think it's across the board a buyer's market? If you think it's worth $449k don't low-ball (which is what you did), offer $440 and know you will come somewhere in the middle.

[Anonymous]

Hang in there. We went through similar situation. Found dream house. Put offer in that day at full list price. Gave them 24 hours to respond and sweat a lot. Heard the next day there was another offer coming in. We basically freaked out for a few hours and discussed whether to revise offer with escalation clause. Fortunately, our offer won out and we got the house.

And yes, even in this market, there is very little inventory at certain price points and locations. We sold our house before it was even listed (with multiple offers). Amazing what a "coming soon" sign in your yard can do.