<p>Just tell him you will use him to list it and then change your mind later. He doesn’t really deserve anything better.</p>
<p>House # 10 Hoarder House
I did another thorough inspection of this house today (with a mask on). They held it open for one hour, I guess for the group of offers that are turning in a ‘Highest and Best’. </p>
<p>Stood out on the street and realized that there is a fundamental issue with this house. Well, besides the fact that every item in that house has to be hauled down the steep stairs to a dumpster on the street (not to mention that all new materials have to be hauled up those stairs to get back into the house!!). There is no place to have the City trash cans. It’s very impractical to put the cans down in that little garage on the street. That means every time you want to take a bag of trash out you have to go down the stairs to the street, open up the little garage and put it in the trash can which pretty much rules out being able to park a car in there!! No wonder the guy had bags of trash in his house. He was too old to be doing that.</p>
<p>The listing agent claims he has 20 offers on this property. He told all of the offers that came through an agent that they had to submit Highest and Best by 5pm today. He called me this evening and claims he hasn’t even bothered to open up those offers yet. They’re going to open them tomorrow. Then he plans to call the ‘investors’ (read… the buyers that are going directly through him so he gets both commissions) what price they need to be at to get the property. His reasoning is that he only wants to deal with true investors that have experience with this type of property, have done their due diligence and won’t be asking for concessions during a contingency period.</p>
<p>And, once again, he started telling me I had to list it with him in the future. He asked several times if I was going to flip it. He said other investors have made that promise to him. I said… Wait a minute, I need to ask some questions. I asked how much the commission agreement would be in the future. Is he going to stage the house? Does he have staging furniture and accessories? If not, what is his strategy for staging? What type of marketing and photographs would he be doing? I mean honestly, he thinks I’m just going to make some blanket promise? He was very wishy washy and insisted on 6% commission on the future sale. Highway robbery, 5% commission is standard in our market now. I told him that he cannot expect me to sharpen my pencil and make a solid offer if I don’t know my true costs for selling the property.</p>
<p>Uggh</p>
<p>We are going to discuss again tomorrow afternoon after he had the other offers figured out. If my offer isn’t even in the ballpark I will just withdraw (or at least I threatened to withdraw). </p>
<p>Remodel Progress Update:</p>
<p>Flooring installation is almost complete. They haven’t finished installing the flooring in the kitchen yet because I want to wait until the tile guys have finished tiling all the bathrooms upstairs. Right now they are cutting tile out on the patio and trailing through kitchen area with water and mess. Also, I won’t let them do the complex stair install until the tile guys are done. </p>
<p>Kitchen cabinet install is done but we have many many hours of building the drawers and installing hinges and railings inside the cabinets. I’m not going to put the actual doors on until the quartz countertop gets installed, so they do not get damaged.</p>
<p>Owner didn’t pick out master bathroom tile until today which is causing us a delay because I need to go out and get it ordered now.</p>
<p>New pics loaded to the Flickr group, with descriptions</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Tell him you bet they’re not being honest with him. You are at least asking all the right questions, so he can be assured that if you tell him you’re listing with him, you’re telling the truth. </p>
<p>Also, why is he spending so much time talking to little ole you if he already has 20 other offers? What does he care if you get the property or not? Something smells fishy. Maybe he doesn’t have those other offers.</p>
<p>Yeah. He sounds desperate. </p>
<p>House #10 Hoarder House
Listing Agent called this afternoon to tell me that he has received the highest and best offers from all of the buyers being represented by an agent and he told me what number I had to be at, which is still in my ballpark. I said I would send in my final offer and he insisted that he had to write it up (stalling tactic). He told me he was going to be calling other investors also and the number may go up.<br>
He then proceeded to tell me that he was going to send me the listing agreement to sign. When I started to ask more questions he gave me a 10 min spiel on how he was the biggest dog agent in San Diego, he is constantly on television and radio, etc. Then he wanted to pin me down on what commission to put on the agreement.
I was really put in a corner. It looks like he is going to force me to sign the listing agreement before he will even write up my offer. Even worse, it is illegal to sign a listing agreement if you aren’t the legal owner of the property. So I am sitting here tonight trying to figure out whether I should just fill out the offer myself and email it so that I can go on record as having a final offer. </p>
<p>Meanwhile he is sending me emails with links to his videos (I haven’t even bothered to look at them)</p>
<p>He just marked the property Pending in the MLS, which isn’t ethical until someone has a signed contract with the Seller, I just cannot figure out what is going on.</p>
<p>House #11 Beautiful View</p>
<p>House #11 Beautiful View
I am salivating over this house. Listing agent had another Open House today because there are several buyers that want to come in and do inspections. Unfortunately when I stopped by, there were at least two groups with professional home inspectors going through the house. This means that there are potential buyers with all cash that want the property to build big homes. I am probably going to get shut out of this opportunity. But I do know that I am the only buyer working directly through the listing agent.</p>
<p>How strong is the real estate board out there?</p>
<p>If he actually sends you a filled-out listing agreement, you now have written proof he is violating all kinds of rules and maybe laws. If you wanted to cause him and his broker some grief, you can file with the REB and probably the state licensing agency.</p>
<p>Would the listing agreement be binding, since you don’t own the property?. It might be harmless to sign it and then claim it is invalid after your offer is accepted. IANAL though.</p>
<p>One of my private lenders (I am going to need to borrow a lot of money) is livid about this sleaze ball and his tactics. He says I should call Real Estate Board first thing in the morning and check whether listing agreement is valid if signed when I am not an owner. Then, if I have to sign it, go ahead. His words “Don’t let this sleaze win, don’t back down, you have every right to get this property”</p>
<p>I also made it very clear to him that I have been working with a loyal agent for 5 years. Evidently that is unethical also, you’re not supposed to actively solicit. But, I think that’s only when I have a signed listing agreement with an agent. They’re not supposed to solicit your listing away from an agent who already has a listing.</p>
<p>had to look up IANAL I am not a lawyer! </p>
<p>coralbrook,</p>
<p>We’re all very upset – as are you! – by this agent’s unethical, if not illegal, tactics. It seems to me you have three choices here:</p>
<ol>
<li>Walk away from this property. I sense you don’t really want to do that.</li>
<li>Do whatever he wants – sign the listing agreement, which may or may not be valid; submit your best and final offer, which may or may not be accepted even if it’s the highest – because getting this house is really important to you. The only caveat here is if you are doing something illegal by signing the listing agreement for a property you don’t own and if you could get in trouble for that – maybe when you go to sell the house and don’t use this fellow, he could get you in some sort of trouble.</li>
<li>Pretend to go along with him but report his sleazy and illegal activities to the real estate board. If your complaint is public – and I don’t’ know if that would be the case – you may have some short-term satisfaction, but it may also mean you’ll never work in this town again. It also probably means that you won’t get this property.</li>
</ol>
<p>House #10 Hoarder House
I have decided I am not going to sign the listing agreement. I will string him along verbally, but I just cannot handle the stress if I signed the document. I will tell him that I read the document carefully and it clearly states that I am guaranteeing that I am the legal owner of the property (which it does) and I cannot sign the document because that would be fraud.</p>
<p>Even if I did sign it and agreed to have him list it, I just cannot work with this guy for many many reasons. One of which is that he is way too busy to be bothered to answer phone calls and has never even visited this property that he has for sale. Also, he is demonstrating that he doesn’t really care about the Seller, he cares more about getting commissions for himself. Would you want this guy selling your house? He doesn’t even answer urgent phone calls or emails from a buyer trying to make an offer.</p>
<p>Yesterday the Agent shared that the Seller (who is very elderly) is very concerned that he wants to remove important personal possessions from the house and there is some car stuck in that garage under the house. I have sent an urgent email to the Listing Agent adding some clauses to my offer (let’s see if he even bothers to get these written up).</p>
<p>1) I have offered to give Seller up to 10 days from close of escrow to remove any personal possessions he wants.</p>
<p>2) I have offered my pickup truck and one laborer for two 4hr days to help go through the house and load his personal possessions. I will deliver them to any location he selects, up to 25 miles from subject property.</p>
<p>3) I have offered to purchase the car located in the garage, dependent on receipt of the pink slip/title. If he does not want to sell it, I have offered to pay for an auto transport to any location he selects, up to 25 miles from property.</p>
<p>I want to turn this around and make it about the Seller and what his specific needs are. He is very worried about his ‘stuff’ and I want to show that I care about his stuff and I’m willing to help him move his stuff. I get the feeling that he doesn’t have any relatives near who can help him.</p>
<p>coralbrook, those are all very wise things to do – especially focusing on the seller’s needs. I just hope your offer and all its details are in fact presented to the seller.</p>
<p>House #10 Hoarder House
Finally submitted my final offer just now. I think I am the highest offer with best terms for the property. The Listing Agent did not mention signing the Listing Agreement during the last 3 phone calls today. I think someone else may have called him out on it and he has backed off a bit. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>House #11 Beautiful View
I did not get this house. At the last minute an owner occupant submitted a huge offer that blew me out of contention. She is in love with the view and has to have the house. </p>
<p>Fingers crossed on #10, cb. Good luck!</p>
<p>Good luck with #10, pulling for you!</p>
<p>Good luck, coralbrook! Fingers crossed for the next CC flip thread. </p>
<p>Hope it works out, coralbrook!</p>