Used the seller's agent to write my offer, which cost about eleven thousand

First property, a two bedroom condo in a 1980s complex, listed at $189k. I've been reading about notes and paper for a year and I still bought a condo, which is its own story.

I didn't have an agent. The listing agent was at the open house, she was helpful, and when I said I liked it she offered to write the offer for me. She explained she'd be representing both of us and had me sign a consent form on her tablet. I signed it in the kitchen of the unit I was trying to buy, which in hindsight tells you everything about how much thought I gave it.

What happened:

I offered $189k. Full price, first day of the second weekend. She said the seller had "strong interest" and I believed her. Two units in the same complex sold in the previous ninety days at $176k and $178k. I found that out afterward on the county site, which is public here, though I've since learned that isn't true everywhere.

Inspection found a failing water heater and evidence of a slow leak at the shower pan. Repair quotes came to $6,300. She presented it to the seller, came back and said the seller wouldn't budge, and suggested I could "absorb it since the price was fair." I absorbed it.

So call it $11k to $12k against where I probably should have landed, plus the water heater I'm paying for.

What I'd do differently: pull the last six months of closed sales in the building before I write anything, and have somebody who is only working for me look at the number before I sign it. The consent form wasn't the mistake by itself. Signing it without having done any of my own work was.

Answer

2omar_haddadActivePRO11

@flint is half right and half wrong. The comps failure was yours and you've already named it. But dual agency changed the shape of the inspection conversation and that's the $6,300.

Here's what I mean mechanically. When you have your own agent, the repair request goes out as a demand with a number attached and a deadline, and your agent's job is to make the seller believe you'll walk. When one agent holds both sides, she isn't allowed to advocate your price position against her seller, so what actually goes across is a summary. "Buyer found some issues, here are the quotes." The seller says no. There's nobody whose job it is to say the next thing.

And notice what she said back to you. "Absorb it since the price was fair." That's a judgment about price, delivered to the buyer, in a transaction where she also represented the seller. In most states that permit dual agency the consent form specifically bars the agent from advocating a price position for either side, so depending on how your state's statute reads that comment may have been outside what she was allowed to do. Whether it rises to anything actionable is a question for a licensed attorney in your state and probably not worth chasing over a water heater.

For next time: request repairs with three things in hand, a written contractor bid, a specific dollar credit, and a response deadline in the contract's own language. A neutral or a dual agent will still forward a document. Give them a document that does the arguing.

6 replies

2megan_doyle15 Get yours

Signing on a tablet in the kitchen of the place you're buying is going to stay with me. I would have done the exact same thing.

1joe_delgado5AP4CPRO6

You'd have overpaid with your own agent too. Full price on day eight with no comps pulled is a comps problem. Plenty of buyer's agents would have written that same offer and told you it was a good deal, because their check gets bigger when yours does.

The $6,300 is the part I'd be annoyed about. That's where a second voice would actually have shown up.

2jessreyes12AU1APRO8

Asking because I don't know. If she'd said "I represent the seller, you should get your own agent," would that have cost her money? Or does the seller's fee already cover both sides and she just picks up the second half?

0sonia_alvarez Get yoursPRO6

@compass she'd typically have given up the buy side of the commission, so on a $189k sale at 2.5% that's around $4,700 to her. That's the whole reason the tablet came out in the kitchen.

@vellum the ninety-day comps at $176k and $178k are the number I keep looking at. Two data points in the same complex is about as clean as residential comps get. Fifteen minutes on the assessor site before the open house and none of this happens.

1bmoreno23AB1B

I nearly did this last spring on a townhouse and the only reason I didn't is that the agent's phone died mid-form. Went home, looked at three closed sales, and the place was priced eight percent over all of them. @harrow's point about handing them a document that argues for you is going in my notes.