OP, are you saying you made the offer directly to the seller's agent, and you have no agent representing you? And are you saying you offered $5K above list without an escalation clause? If you did, you overpaid. And if you don't have anyone representing you AND you paid the $5K without escalation, you have just told the seller's agent that you are naive and an easy mark for being taken advantage of.

case=cases

Honestly, most agents do not read the letter. They are too "emotional" and "heartfelt", and they don't want the letter to be the deciding factor, usually. Just some inside info.

You may have beat the other offers by a small amount (via escalation clause), but that is what matters, in most case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I know an agent that was in the Fairfax/Annandale area who was the QUEEN of this crap. She would push the offers of her other clients on people. She always had them write a letter to the owners of the house for sale too. It turned my stomach because the ethics (or lackof involved). It really should not be allowed.

OP here. To be fair, the letter was my idea, not the agent's. I've read that it can really help when the bids are close.

And I believe we had the best offer, though "not by much" according to the agent. I'll be the others bid the listing price, and/or asked for help with closing, and we beat them out by just a few thousand.

Ask the agent for a copy of the competing offer. If you are in Virginia and used an escalation addendum, the agent has to give you the competing offer. Either way ask. Even if an escalation wasn't used, it will put the agent on notice that you know what you are doing and make her hesitate to pull anything

OP. Whatever you do please have your title company order the title work and plat immediately and have a good real estate lawyer review those items and have the lawyer with you at settlement. It may cost a few hundred dollars but the listing agent does not have your best interests in mind. There could be other reasons besides more money for the agent. There could be issues with the property that she knew she could slide by you. Not to burst your bubble but you have to know what you are doing as you move through the process. I hope all goes well

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I know an agent that was in the Fairfax/Annandale area who was the QUEEN of this crap. She would push the offers of her other clients on people. She always had them write a letter to the owners of the house for sale too. It turned my stomach because the ethics (or lackof involved). It really should not be allowed.

OP here. To be fair, the letter was my idea, not the agent's. I've read that it can really help when the bids are close.

And I believe we had the best offer, though "not by much" according to the agent. I'll be the others bid the listing price, and/or asked for help with closing, and we beat them out by just a few thousand.

Of course you had the best offer. Agent probably 'lost' the higher bids which would have cut her commission in half.

We closed in 30 days with Wells Fargo, fyi. But we were pre approved and pre qualified to the max. But local lender not required and WF had unbeatable rates.

Anonymous wrote:

I know an agent that was in the Fairfax/Annandale area who was the QUEEN of this crap. She would push the offers of her other clients on people. She always had them write a letter to the owners of the house for sale too. It turned my stomach because the ethics (or lackof involved). It really should not be allowed.

OP here. To be fair, the letter was my idea, not the agent's. I've read that it can really help when the bids are close.

And I believe we had the best offer, though "not by much" according to the agent. I'll be the others bid the listing price, and/or asked for help with closing, and we beat them out by just a few thousand.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We got the house!!! Thanks everyone for all the advice.

I have a feeling that we've been shopping in a less moneyed area than where many PPs are, so while many people said it was important to come in with more cash, we came in with standard 80/20 (which is even a little bit of a stretch for us) but we didn't ask for help closing, and the agent said other offers wanted help with closing. We offered 5k above asking price just to show that we were serious, hoping it would increase the likelihood that they would come back to us if someone else bid higher. We wrote a letter to the sellers explaining why we love the house and what we plan to do there (raise a family), including a couple pictures of us and our baby. We went directly through the selling agent, thinking that she would look favorably on us because selling to us meant more commission for her. And finally, we were very flexible on closing and didn't need a contingency for selling our current home because we are renting and can move whenever.

Thanks again!

I know an agent that was in the Fairfax/Annandale area who was the QUEEN of this crap. She would push the offers of her other clients on people. She always had them write a letter to the owners of the house for sale too. It turned my stomach because the ethics (or lackof involved). It really should not be allowed.

I will say this, she could stage the HELL out of a home and was used to getting multiple offers on properties that she was selling. But it was very common for her to end up representing all the parties involved.

I know someone who won and offer by writing a letter to the owners telling them why they wanted to live in the neighborhood. They were not the highest bidder but still got the house.

I can see this working if two offers are close, Obviously probably wouldn't work if there was a huge price difference.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We got the house!!! Thanks everyone for all the advice.

I have a feeling that we've been shopping in a less moneyed area than where many PPs are, so while many people said it was important to come in with more cash, we came in with standard 80/20 (which is even a little bit of a stretch for us) but we didn't ask for help closing, and the agent said other offers wanted help with closing. We offered 5k above asking price just to show that we were serious, hoping it would increase the likelihood that they would come back to us if someone else bid higher. We wrote a letter to the sellers explaining why we love the house and what we plan to do there (raise a family), including a couple pictures of us and our baby. We went directly through the selling agent, thinking that she would look favorably on us because selling to us meant more commission for her. And finally, we were very flexible on closing and didn't need a contingency for selling our current home because we are renting and can move whenever.

Thanks again!

There you have it ... the quintessential real estate conflict of interest ... but congrats to you for using it to your advantage!

OP here. We got the house!!! Thanks everyone for all the advice.

I have a feeling that we've been shopping in a less moneyed area than where many PPs are, so while many people said it was important to come in with more cash, we came in with standard 80/20 (which is even a little bit of a stretch for us) but we didn't ask for help closing, and the agent said other offers wanted help with closing. We offered 5k above asking price just to show that we were serious, hoping it would increase the likelihood that they would come back to us if someone else bid higher. We wrote a letter to the sellers explaining why we love the house and what we plan to do there (raise a family), including a couple pictures of us and our baby. We went directly through the selling agent, thinking that she would look favorably on us because selling to us meant more commission for her. And finally, we were very flexible on closing and didn't need a contingency for selling our current home because we are renting and can move whenever.

Thanks again!

Any update OP?

The big banks are slow. You should use a small local lender. Try Cardinal Bank.

We had an escalation, waived appraisal and financing contingency, and closed in less than 3 weeks. We got the house, and beat 8 other offers. It is so competitive, you have to be ready to waive as many contingencies as possible. I think the appraisal contingency is especially important.

We won in a multiple offer bid (only one other offer, but the place was only on the market for 3 days).

We had looked for months, and saw lots of houses where we heard, "We'll be looking at offers by Mon/Tues at xx time." It was hard not to get caught up in the craziness, but I have zero regrets.

We made an offer within hours of our place being listed, which we felt comfortable with because we already lived in the neighborhood and knew it was what we wanted. We offered above asking, but only by $5k--as my agent put it, just something to get their attention. We kept inspection but did it within some crazy time frame--3 days I think?

As PPs said we offered to close whenever the sellers wanted. We could have done 30 days or even a bit less, but left the date flexible.

We used SunTrust, so not a small/local bank, but used a broker who knows our agent well and has worked with her a lot--and who was really helpful and responsive whenever we needed anything.

There is no way we would have waived an inspection, but we considered having one "for informational purposes only" or something similar. In the end, that's not what we did with our house, but I think it would have worked in a situation with more offers.