do buyer's agents try to up-sell?

[georgeharrison]

I don't know if up-sell is the right term.  We just got pre-approved for X and the mortgage broker told me that if we find something we like for less to get the pre-approval letter to say that lower number because if the agent knows we are qualified for more, they may try to get us to buy a more expensive home.

I know they make their money as a percentage of the sale price, but it never occurred to me that they might try to get you to buy a more expensive home just because they know you qualify.  

Does this really happen?

[wambam]

My realtor definitely didn't do this. And honestly, I wish she would've. We limited ourselves in looking because she made our upper limit a hard line rather than a suggestion.

[just]

Mine definitely didn't. We were preapproved for three times what we were looking for and she kept right on budget.

However she (my buyers agent) strongly suggested that we get a lower-amount preapproval letter for our offer in case our buyer used the fact that we COULD spend more money in negotiating.

[gummy]

Our agent didn't upsell us. However, when we made an offer on a home significantly less than the amount we were pre-approved for she had us go back to our broker and get a new letter stating we were only approved for what our offer was so that it wouldn't hurt our negotiation. She said she didn't want the sellers/sellers agent to see how much wiggle room we truly had.

[gtkim]

I don't understand this.  We gave our realtor our budget.  He had no clue what we'd been approved for and didn't ask.  When we were ready to make an offer on a house we got a pre-approval letter showing we were approved for that exact amount.  No questions asked.

[mekia]

Mine didn't really do that. We knew our limit and were firm with it regardless of how much we were preapproved for.

[georgeharrison]

Maybe I misunderstood and she was referring to when we put the offer in as PPs mentioned. That would make a lot more sense.

[sunshine608]

We got a new pre-approval letter for every offer and he always asked us what we offered and then he went a little over that. Probably lots more extra work for him.

I thought it was more for the sellers agent than ours because she knew what we were approved for and what we were looking for.

[zoomzoom]

Apr 11, 2017 14:53:00 GMT -5 gtkim said:

I don't understand this.  We gave our realtor our budget.  He had no clue what we'd been approved for and didn't ask.  When we were ready to make an offer on a house we got a pre-approval letter showing we were approved for that exact amount.  No questions asked.

Same.  We told our agent that our budget was 'X' dollars and to look for homes in a particular neighborhood.  When it came time to put in an offer, our bank just said we were approved for the amount of the sale.  The realtor had nothing to do with it.  However, this is the second time using him and the first time, he did advise to only state that we're approved for the offer amount and not any more.

[daisybuchannan]

Apr 11, 2017 14:53:00 GMT -5 gtkim said:

I don't understand this.  We gave our realtor our budget.  He had no clue what we'd been approved for and didn't ask.  When we were ready to make an offer on a house we got a pre-approval letter showing we were approved for that exact amount.  No questions asked.

That's really dumb on their part to not have the pre approval prior to looking. A lot of times people will have an idea of what they want to buy, start looking, and then don't get qualified for that amount. Buyers like to look, so unless they are very qualified, agents can waste their time running people around. 

[Gato]

This didn't happen either time I was the buyer.  Maybe a crappy agent would do that, but I think the agents knew what number we were comfortable with, and that it would be a waste of everyone's time to show us things we wouldn't end up buying.

[Deleted]

On House Hunters the realtors always seem to show at least one house over budget, and we all know that's real life, right?

Our agent definitely did not do this. I had a budget in mind, then we were approved for more, and I told her we needed to stick to the budget I originally had in mind. There really wasn't much of a discussion about it because I was pretty firm.

[dani302011]

When we bought our house we knew what we wanted to spend and what we were comfortable with and that is what we requested to be pre approved for by our bank. So there was no way for anyone to think we could spend more then we wanted since it wasn't even an option.

Now my husband and I did go back and ask to increase our preapproval a couple weeks in because we weren't finding what we wanted in our set price range. We easily got that approval, but actually never used it because the next day found something we loved under our original set budget.

[W.T.Faulkner]

We got pre-approved for a number so goddamn ridiculous that I did go back and get our pre-approval adjusted to the offer amount when it was time to give it to the seller's agent, per the advice of our realtor.

I'm glad we did. The seller's agent was unreasonable enough as it was. Knowing we "could have afforded" (um, no, we most certainly could not have) a house twice as much as the one we bought would have really hurt us in negotiation.

[penguingrrl]

Mine didn't. We bought below our preapproval number because it was the house we wanted. Our realtor was thrilled that we found what we consider a perfect house. While I know she obviously makes more money with a more expensive house, she stands to have the most successful business long term if she has happy clients who refer her and don't feel like they were pushed beyond their means.

[dochas]

The first agent we tried to work with told us we should be looking at more expensive houses because we could afford more. She was an idiot for many reasons but the realtor we chose did not try to do that.

[Champagne Supernova]

I don't think this happens. Our agent knows we're pre-approved for a certain amount but we told her we only want to pay up to X amount of money and that is it.

[circa1978]

Apr 11, 2017 14:52:08 GMT -5 just said:

Mine definitely didn't. We were preapproved for three times what we were looking for and she kept right on budget.

However she (my buyers agent) strongly suggested that we get a lower-amount preapproval letter for our offer in case our buyer used the fact that we COULD spend more money in negotiating.

Exactly this. The number you can get approved for can be crazy high. 

[katfco]

Our broker was also one who did it so the sellers would be more willing to negotiate.

[imojoebunny]

What we were pre-approved for, and what we actually bought, were completely different numbers. Of all the houses we have purchased, only the 1st purchase agent tried to push me on the price. I ended up switching to a different agent. It is odd because that house was 4X my income, which was fine because I was young and getting promoted regularly. Our others have been much less of a multiple. Our current is >1X our (pretax) income. The realtor didn't even ask for pre-approval, until we were ready to make an offer.

[mccallister84]

Apr 11, 2017 14:48:30 GMT -5 wambam said:

My realtor definitely didn't do this. And honestly, I wish she would've. We limited ourselves in looking because she made our upper limit a hard line rather than a suggestion.

I don't think that's fair to the realtor. When we were looking we said we wanted to spend no more than x. And every house we were shown was at most x. I didn't want to see any houses over x amount.

Most realtors are very respectful of their buyers' budgets (except for in house hunters lol). If the number you gave to your realtor was flexible you should have communicated that.

[karinothing]

I am not sure. our broker pre approved us only for the amount we wanted to spend and then he wrote a new letter to the exact dollar each time we made an offer (we offered under listing though). He told us he preferred not to gove us a pre approval letter for whatever our incomes would allow, but I think this was to keep ua in budget. our incomes likely allowed double our pre approved letter.

[FastHands]

Yup, they mrant the seller's agent, not the buyer's. If your agent tried to sell you higher after you say "no, we will only look at ones under $x," you'd just find a new agent.

[laurack]

I don't think so, we told the agent what our upper limit was and where we'd be most comfortable and we only looked at houses that were in our range.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Apr 11, 2017 17:08:36 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

Apr 11, 2017 14:48:30 GMT -5 wambam said:

My realtor definitely didn't do this. And honestly, I wish she would've. We limited ourselves in looking because she made our upper limit a hard line rather than a suggestion.

I don't think that's fair to the realtor. When we were looking we said we wanted to spend no more than x. And every house we were shown was at most x. I didn't want to see any houses over x amount.

Most realtors are very respectful of their buyers' budgets (except for in house hunters lol). If the number you gave to your realtor was flexible you should have communicated that.

I would respectfully disagree.  Part of being a realtor is reading your buyers and getting the "why" behind the want/need/nope.  One of the things I always ask during a first-time meeting, immediately after "what's your budget?" is "are you open to seeing homes slightly over that limit or is this a hard line" with the caveat that I would not show them a home I thought would *sell* for over their budget.  

For example, if you have someone with a budget of up to $750k, not showing them the badly priced home at $755k would be a disservice, provided you've discussed this prior to showing them the home.

[Jalapeñomel]

Apr 11, 2017 14:55:41 GMT -5 georgeharrison said:

Maybe I misunderstood and she was referring to when we put the offer in as PPs mentioned. That would make a lot more sense.

We had to have the financed amount in the contract, and here is where our mortgage broker told us to over the cost if we needed funds for closing and get a concession from the sellers.

[Jalapeñomel]

Apr 11, 2017 17:13:36 GMT -5 karinothing said:

I am not sure. our broker pre approved us only for the amount we wanted to spend and then he wrote a new letter to the exact dollar each time we made an offer (we offered under listing though). He told us he preferred not to gove us a pre approval letter for whatever our incomes would allow, but I think this was to keep ua in budget. our incomes likely allowed double our pre approved letter.

This is what ours did too.

[bex1973]

Apr 11, 2017 15:23:09 GMT -5 daisybuchannan said:

Apr 11, 2017 14:53:00 GMT -5 gtkim said:

I don't understand this.  We gave our realtor our budget.  He had no clue what we'd been approved for and didn't ask.  When we were ready to make an offer on a house we got a pre-approval letter showing we were approved for that exact amount.  No questions asked.

That's really dumb on their part to not have the pre approval prior to looking. A lot of times people will have an idea of what they want to buy, start looking, and then don't get qualified for that amount. Buyers like to look, so unless they are very qualified, agents can waste their time running people around. 

Agree. We only showed our house to those that were pre-approved.

[mccallister84]

Apr 12, 2017 8:22:50 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Apr 11, 2017 17:08:36 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

I don't think that's fair to the realtor. When we were looking we said we wanted to spend no more than x. And every house we were shown was at most x. I didn't want to see any houses over x amount.

Most realtors are very respectful of their buyers' budgets (except for in house hunters lol). If the number you gave to your realtor was flexible you should have communicated that.

I would respectfully disagree.  Part of being a realtor is reading your buyers and getting the "why" behind the want/need/nope.  One of the things I always ask during a first-time meeting, immediately after "what's your budget?" is "are you open to seeing homes slightly over that limit or is this a hard line" with the caveat that I would not show them a home I thought would *sell* for over their budget.  

For example, if you have someone with a budget of up to $750k, not showing them the badly priced home at $755k would be a disservice, provided you've discussed this prior to showing them the home.

Yes, this is true and a situation I didn't give much thought too. I took PP's post to mean she was more flexible with her upper limit than she let on to the realtor and then was annoyed at only seeing things within her stated range. If I interpreted incorrectly I apologize.

[gummybear]

Our realtor has always been respectful of our budget. She playfully teased up bc we tended to spend a lot less then we were approved for, but she never pressured us one way or another. HOWEVER, she was always willing to show us houses outside of our "budget" so we could become familiar with what XXX extra got you. IMO that is an important part of knowing your market and how it can even vary from one neighborhood/township to another. I also think it helps prevent unrealistic expectations (a la House Hunters) about what you can get for your money. In the end though, she left the decision 100% up to us and gave us no opinion on what we were spending.