Our listing is live! Newbie real estate agent update

[scm1011]

Our listing went live today (yay!), but it hasn't been without bumps. The floor plan dimensions are in meters (WTF? how did she not catch this?) and she showed up for showings a little more disheveled than I would have expected, but....OMG the showings on day 1 - I wasn't expecting this! Listing went live at about 10:30am and by 11am she had already scheduled 3 showings for today. We ended up with 4 today, 2 more scheduled for tomorrow so far, and 2 more for Friday ahead of the weekend of open houses. The multi-family market has definitely cooled around here so I wasn't expected to be so hot out the gate and feeling optimistic we'll get some offers this weekend. The last showing the couple were here for over an hour. She also texted me during one of them saying "the walls are horsehair plaster, right? I told the couple here now it was and they seem to think its sheetrock" OMG ITS NOT HORSEHAIR PLASTER (for those who don't know thats an older, problematic alternative to sheetrock that is known for being riddled with asbestos).

Soooo feeling lucky I'm in a hot market, but otherwise regret not choosing a seasoned vet. She's trying hard but is definitely learning on the job and I'm not psyched my home sale is her education. 

[scm1011]

OMG, we already have an offer for $137,500 over asking, no inspection.

[af1212]

Aug 11, 2021 19:30:31 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

OMG, we already have an offer for $137,500 over asking, no inspection.

Wow!! That’s incredible.

[scm1011]

Aug 11, 2021 19:34:21 GMT -5 af1212 said:

Aug 11, 2021 19:30:31 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

OMG, we already have an offer for $137,500 over asking, no inspection.

Wow!! That’s incredible.

Thanks! Only $1k deposit though which gives me obvious pause.

Another offer just came through, $50k over asking. I can't believe this is happening so quickly. I thought we'd be waiting until Monday at least.

[jlt19]

Wow, that’s amazing!

I’m guess it’s regional, but our agent wasn’t present for any private showings, only the buyers’ agent, so that’s odd to me.

And yeah, I’d be a little perturbed she was telling people you had problematic walls! Hopefully she has a broker she can run the offers by to make sure she advises you on which to choose. I mean, the first one with no inspection is amazing, but I’d be worried about the appraisal situation and that earnest is super low, even though I don’t know what your asking. But pretty sure it isn’t $100k (my agent recommended 1% for us).

Also, did she not put in a “due date”? Ours would tell the buyers’ agents that all offers were due by 8pm Sunday. One person did ask if we’d consider an early offer, but it sounds like she isn’t offering a date for them all to be in and maybe these people are wanting to get it before anymore showings happen to try to escape a bidding war?

[expectantsteelerfan]

Wow, congrats! Hope one of the offers or a new one works out well for you! I was also going to say you might want to ask the advice of her mentor on the offers.

[scm1011]

Aug 11, 2021 19:52:31 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

Wow, that’s amazing!

I’m guess it’s regional, but our agent wasn’t present for any private showings, only the buyers’ agent, so that’s odd to me.

And yeah, I’d be a little perturbed she was telling people you had problematic walls! Hopefully she has a broker she can run the offers by to make sure she advises you on which to choose. I mean, the first one with no inspection is amazing, but I’d be worried about the appraisal situation and that earnest is super low, even though I don’t know what your asking. But pretty sure it isn’t $100k (my agent recommended 1% for us).

Also, did she not put in a “due date”? Ours would tell the buyers’ agents that all offers were due by 8pm Sunday. One person did ask if we’d consider an early offer, but it sounds like she isn’t offering a date for them all to be in and maybe these people are wanting to get it before anymore showings happen to try to escape a bidding war?

List was $1.15M and offer was $1.287,5M so $1k earnest is def an issue. And we talked about doing "offers due by..." ad nauseum and I ultimately decided against it (and she agreed). That is happening here a lot with single family houses but its very very rare for multi-fams. Slightly regretting that now, but ultimately it was my call and I can't blame her.

Offer 1: $1,287,500 with $500k down, $1k earnest
Offer 2: $1,200,000 with $240k down, unclear on earnest right now

She's currently talking to her broker for advice. 

[RockNVoll]

OMG, I'm excited for you!

But, yeah, I would insist on the senior broker being deeply involved in managing the offers and helping you come to a decision at this point. Your friend is a grown up and will have to learn to deal with your need for someone more experienced to step in where she has proven to need more growth before she's ready to manage on her own. Obviously you can say it nicer than that, but this is a big deal and she can deal with a little humble pie to make sure you get your $$$$$.

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly from here!

[Susie]

Wow, so exciting!  I saw your listing, btw, and it looks wonderful.  From the outside looking in, you can't see all the stuff that's been so stressful.  It just looks really great.  The redone bedroom photos were a very good call.  So I'm betting you're going to pay for helping your realtor friend in stress during the process, but I bet you'll do fine in the end.  Agree about insisting that her broker be involved at all steps at this point.  This is the clutch time.

Hearing your worries about the earnest money... it takes me back to debating between our offers, and who had this preapproval vs. that earnest money up front vs. the total down payment... it's so hard and you're trying to read so much in to offers.  I know we were.  But 2 offers above asking already is a fantastic start!

How long do you have to act on the offers you have?  Do they require a decision before your open house, or can you sit on them through then?

Around here I often see listings go live without an "offers due by," but within a day or so I see the listing updated to say "multiple offers / offers due by ___."  I'm sure that goes up the second they get offer #2.  IDK if you can do that at this stage, to give yourself more breathing room?  Or is the decision final not to do it?  

We had our first and second days of showings on a Sat/Sun with no open house (just virtually back to back showings those days), and our agent put in the agent notes (not publicly visible) on our listing that we would not act on any offers before Sun. night after the last showing (which was 6 or 7pm).  So we made clear that we weren't going to take an offer on Sat. that preempted half our showings.  We did not do the "multiple offers / offers due by" in our listing itself, but our agent communicated that verbally to the agents of the offerors.

[libbygrl109]

Aug 11, 2021 19:30:31 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

OMG, we already have an offer for $137,500 over asking, no inspection.

Holy cow - that is unbelievable!

[pumpkin]

This is great!

[icedcoffee]

I'm just here to say that I'm sad you'll no longer live in a Barney colored house.

[scm1011]

Aug 11, 2021 22:26:34 GMT -5 Susie said:

!

How long do you have to act on the offers you have?  Do they require a decision before your open house, or can you sit on them through then?

Around here I often see listings go live without an "offers due by," but within a day or so I see the listing updated to say "multiple offers / offers due by ___."  I'm sure that goes up the second they get offer #2.  IDK if you can do that at this stage, to give yourself more breathing room?  Or is the decision final not to do it?  

We have 48 hours to respond to the offers, which puts us at about 8pm tomorrow (Thurs) for both. I'm not sure it can be changed to an offers due by now, definitely something to discuss with my agent. Regardless, we have to abide by the 48 hour stipulation for the 2 in hand, any changes would be for other offers coming in.

The highest offer has a "buyer may perform inspection for informational purposes" clause which coupled with the $1k deposit seems like a workaround to get an inspection. They do want to sign P&S on 8/20 (with an additional $65k) close quickly  (9/8) which is very appealing. My agent is going back to them for more details on the informational inspection and to say we're not considering offers with less than 1% earnest. If she agrees, I'm inclined to take that offer (waiting the full 48 hours to see what else comes in of course). 

Buyer too also only offered $1k deposit, WTF? No. 

4 more showings before 2pm today and my agent will obviously inform everyone we already have offers on the table so hopefully more will roll in tonight. Fingers crossed! 

[scm1011]

Aug 12, 2021 7:06:55 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

I'm just here to say that I'm sad you'll no longer live in a Barney colored house.

Me too! At least I'll get to look at it everyday on the walk to DS' school. 

[scm1011]

Aug 11, 2021 21:57:20 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

OMG, I'm excited for you!

But, yeah, I would insist on the senior broker being deeply involved in managing the offers and helping you come to a decision at this point. Your friend is a grown up and will have to learn to deal with your need for someone more experienced to step in where she has proven to need more growth before she's ready to manage on her own. Obviously you can say it nicer than that, but this is a big deal and she can deal with a little humble pie to make sure you get your $$$$$.

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly from here!

You're right, and I need to be more forceful about this. I just told her I'd like a conference call between the 3 of us tomorrow to discuss all offers before deciding. I don't want anything lost in translation. 

[konapoppy]

Aug 12, 2021 7:37:54 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Aug 11, 2021 21:57:20 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

OMG, I'm excited for you!

But, yeah, I would insist on the senior broker being deeply involved in managing the offers and helping you come to a decision at this point. Your friend is a grown up and will have to learn to deal with your need for someone more experienced to step in where she has proven to need more growth before she's ready to manage on her own. Obviously you can say it nicer than that, but this is a big deal and she can deal with a little humble pie to make sure you get your $$$$$.

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly from here!

You're right, and I need to be more forceful about this. I just told her I'd like a conference call between the 3 of us tomorrow to discuss all offers before deciding. I don't want anything lost in translation. 

I don’t know how this would work, but it would be nice if there is a way to signal to the buyers agents that she isn’t going it totally solo. I am a trusting person, and I feel like this is somewhere I may get taken advantage of by another agent who is telling their clients that your agent is new to the industry. You have done such a nice thing for her - it isn’t intended to undermine her, just strengthen your side of the deal.

Like, I feel a lot of realtors talk about their “team”. So maybe there is a way to do it that doesn’t undermine her.

[scm1011]

Good thought, konapoppy - def gonna think on that one.

[scm1011]

Ok, so we CAN switch to an offers due Monday situation but I don't think we're going to go that route (because we risk losing the high offer). The 1st offer is honestly higher than I ever dreamed we'd get and she immediately agreed to the change to 1% earnest money request. Also the contractor walk through won't be scheduled until after P&S is signed so if she backs out at that point she'd be out ~$80k. We're going to continue with the showings today and go back to her tomorrow with best and final offer, but I have a feeling this offer is the winner.

[Susie]

Regardless of how it ends up and whose offer you take, it sounds like you will wrap this up really quickly. An early congrats is in order!

[Pilsy]

Wow, congrats, scm1011!!!

I wouldn't bother saying anything to the buyers' agents. If they assume they're dealing with a newbie, they'll just be wrong and it'll work in your favor. [shrug] I say this as long as you're confident the more experienced realtor will be active behind the scenes.

You know how realtors often buy a little gift for their clients? She better come through with more than a token for you. lol

[heygrey]

That is a great first offer!

I'm always intrigued by the differences in how real estate works. I never once saw any of the selling agents on the houses we toured. Our realtor was with us and he could contact them with any questions, but they didn't come to showings.

[scm1011]

Aug 12, 2021 12:01:45 GMT -5 heygrey said:

That is a great first offer!

I'm always intrigued by the differences in how real estate works. I never once saw any of the selling agents on the houses we toured. Our realtor was with us and he could contact them with any questions, but they didn't come to showings.

huh, interesting! i'm glad she's there so she can feel them out, field questions, and give me feedback after showings on their level of interest.

[Susie]

Aug 12, 2021 12:01:45 GMT -5 heygrey said:

That is a great first offer!

I'm always intrigued by the differences in how real estate works. I never once saw any of the selling agents on the houses we toured. Our realtor was with us and he could contact them with any questions, but they didn't come to showings.

Same here.  We didn't see any of the seller's agents when we toured houses, and our agent wasn't there for any of the showings when we were selling.  We just got feedback from buyer's agents to our agent who forwarded to us.  

Our agent would've been at our house if we'd had an open house, but we didn't because we listed this spring before covid vaccines were widely available in our area, and open houses were pretty much one group at a time.  I attended a couple as a buyer and it was a lot of waiting outside in the cold.  

[thejackpot]

YAY! I'm late but it sounds like things are going quickly. I hope it all goes well and you get the best deal.

[scm1011]

Update: we accepted the first offer of ~138k (~11%) over asking and are currently under contract 🥳

Immediately after we accepted a dude who saw the house yesterday tried to offer and was livid we wouldn’t consider. He was presenting an all cash offer, but DH and my agent both got a bad vibe from him (showed up super early while DH was still there and was mad that he was told to wait for our agent, made it very clear he had a lot of money, demanded he keep his car in our driveway for a couple hours post viewing so he could scope out the neighborhood). I’m glad I never got to see his offer because I don’t want him in my neighborhood.

Sooo we’re now on our weekend “vacation” to Providence to avoid being around for the open houses that are now cancelled lol.

[konapoppy]

Great news! And I feel a lot better (lol like I matter) that they immediately met the request for standard earnest money. That was the part that made me wonder if they would try to take advantage of you and your agent.

Fingers crossed for a smooth close!

[mrsukyankee]

Congratulations!!!

[aspentosh]

Congrats! Hope it's a painfree and swift process for you guys!

[RockNVoll]

Hooray, so excited for you! Hope the rest of the process hours just as smoothly. And, yeah, that guy sounds like an ass; you made the right call.

[scm1011]

Aug 13, 2021 21:14:49 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

Great news! And I feel a lot better (lol like I matter) that they immediately met the request for standard earnest money. That was the part that made me wonder if they would try to take advantage of you and your agent.

Fingers crossed for a smooth close!

Lol I appreciate your emotional investment