Is there a real estate agent in the house!?

We listed our unoccupied, super-clean, refreshed, etc house last week, in a HOT neighborhood where everything that's been listed (even during Covid) has been under contract in less than two weeks.

We got an offer for full price in less than 48 hours, but with us contributing $5k in closing costs (likely the full amount,) and only $1k in earnest money on a $239,000 home.

The potential buyers have unique first/last names, so I did a search. They have a "gofundme" page begging for $$$ because of some weird situation where they supposedly let some lady from their church come live with them, she turned out to be a psycho and they can't evict her...blah blah blah.

I discussed this, in detail, with our agent last night. Sent her the link to the "gofundme" page, etc.

In her opinion, in talking with the buyer's agent, it was no big deal. They're pre-approved for 100% financing. She ALSO mentioned, having spoken with the buyer's agent, that they backed out on a deal on another house where the seller's wouldn't agree to cover repairs after inspection.

After a long talk last night, we countered their offer, agreeing to contribute $2500 to closing costs, and asking for 1% of the purchase price ($2400) in earnest money.

They countered today with us still contributing $5k toward closing costs, them paying $1250 in earnest money.

I don't like this at all. If they can't scrape together $2400 to buy a $240,000 house, they shouldn't be buying a house, IMO.

The other issue is that our house was supposed to be listed on Trulia, Zillow, et al. around 24 hours after agent listed it.

It's "there," but in a location on their maps that is NOWHERE NEAR the actual location of our house.

I brought this up with the listing agent who basically said "Yeah. Their mapping sucks. I sent an email to Trulia, but that's the best I can do."

*I* found the property we currently live in on Trulia..searching a very specific area....which is how we ended up with the agent we're using.

Anyway, should we tell these potential buyers to pound sand? Should I dig my heels in with the agent, and if she can't figure out the mapping thing with Trulia, tell her to pound sand? (I don't even know if that's an option without getting an attorney involved.)

Should I just CALM THE berkeley DOWN, accept the offer, and go pound some sand mysel!? ...Knowing these berkeleyers are going to try to beat us down for god-knows-what after inspection?

Professional Real Estate Agent advice and or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated <insert prayer emoji> 

Personal experience, i had trouble scraping up 3k to put down but $700 a month was easy.  If they're pre approved the bank pays you even if they default in 3 months, not your problem.  5k towards closing costs sounds the norm from deals I've been involved in. We asked for and got 5k towards closing costs and points, so if closing costs were under 5k the balance went towards points to buy down the APR

The offer of full price is not full price if you have to drop $5k.  

Hold out for a real full price offer if you want to. 

Your house, your sale, your rules. 

You got this much in 48 hrs off bad info and a bad listing. Two more days might bring something better.  

Or, keep this fish on the hook and keep returning counter offers to these people.  If nothing else this stalls them and leaves you open to entertain other offers from other buyers. 

In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :

My big thing is: They're my age and don't have two nickels to rub together, and also have 4 kids. They're one hospital visit or unexpected car repair or whatever away from being ASS-OUT.

I've been there. And it sucks. But when I was there, I wasn't trying to buy a house I couldn't afford.

They want to close on 7/20. All kinds of E36 M3 could happen between now and then when your $1k away from living in your car. While that sucks for them, that's a month of wasted time and effort and days that my house is not being shown to real buyers.

So, in your next counter then move up the close date. When I bought this one, super below market, I offered to close in 20 days and did.

Tell the realtor that your signaling that you're trying to attract a cash buyer who can move quick. 

Additional to this counter offer or another future counter offer continuing to stall them could be to up the sale price by $5k and then offer $5k toward closing. 

They might like this because they still don't have to come up with any real money. 

In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :

I'd love to have a 10 minute phone call tomorrow if you have the time. And NOT because I love or respect you. 
 

*insert kissy-face emoji

In reply to poopshovel again :

Not an experienced house buyer or seller - only sold two and bought three - but if you don't like the deal now, how much are you going to like it when their home inspector finds problems? Or "problems"?

8:00 - 8:30 or 10:00 - 11:00 are times of easy availability for me tomorrow. 

Email me at:

Jwelsh02... Yahoo... 

and I'll send you phone number. 

Edit: now's good too. 

I would think if you don't like them in limited contact......you won't like them in the month plus long journey it takes to sell a home.

When we sold our house the buyers tried to knock off 5 k for 2 outlet covers being off basically. It went thru but it was a pain in the ass, and from Google maps......they trashed the place

I would pass. 

I'd go with upping the purchase price the amount they want you to chip in as said above. Probably working off of some VA program if they have 100% financing.  Don't worry about what happens after closing, not your problem.

If your realtor hasn't used this one on you yet, they might.

Example: If you turn down the offer of (235,000)  it is the same as buying your house at that price in hopes to sell it at a later date for (240,000).  How much time are you willing to wait to make (5000) on your 235,000 investment?

(          )   =fill in your deal numbers

Bird in the hand...

5 or 10K is not a make or break amount on a 150K house, IMHO. Even less so for your selling price. They will likely stand firm on you paying closing because they are unable to come up with cash. There will be other little bites coming out of your check. Try not to worry about it. 

Be prepared to be firm on BS offers like the 5K outlet covers mentioned above. A home inspector has to find something wrong, but not be a "deal breaker". 

You're too empathetic, that's a good thing. 

But you don't need to be concerned with what other people feel like they need to do with whatever resources they have. Lots of people, myself included, make poor financial decisions all the time. 

If they're only moving 250$ on the entire thing as a counter, they don't want it that bad. With interest rates being what they are, it's a seller's market. Anecdotal advice tells me that these buyers are gonna be a pita, and you're better off letting them go away. I am no expert, and I probably make less than these guys do, but I know better than to go anywhere near a house if 250 will sink me. 

Edit- I went back and re-read it. I absolutely despise the words pre-approved. It's lies to me. All that means is there has been no actual approval and some low level monkey listened to the story you sold them and said it sounded good. There's not generally social security numbers and or financial records involved, at all. Perfect example- I was pre-approved for 250k in home financing with nothing other than a wink and a smile (and a 10k earnest check I had in my hand) but my DTI was way too high to secure more than 100k in financing. I could have fixed it, but I was looking at repairables and wanted the cash for...repairs. that would have left me tapped and forced to take on additional debt for E36 M3 like a fridge and I was in no mood for that. Good thing too, because that was a house with my now ex wife. 

Assuming this would be a traditional home loan and not an FHA (which it sounds like it would be) and they're stuck with a property they can't sell (which it sounds like) and they're begging on GoFundMe because church lady berkeleyed em (which is what you said) I doubt very seriously these folks have a down payment, or really any liquid assets at all. You do you boo, but this one smells like a free lotus. Wayyyyy more than it's worth. 

I would decline their offer and their counter-offer. I would sit back and wait for another to come along IF the market area is as "HOT" as you hope it is. Check comps in the area, see how many "days on market" they averaged, find the initial listing price and the eventual selling price. That type of information will give you an idea moving forward on your next offers.
 

We buy and sell commercial real estate and have bought a few residential homes as well. I've never paid or sold a property at the "listing price" in any transaction. Today's banking regulations are different than they were in the past and they can sometimes do strange math? As mentioned before, raise the price $5k. Include some furniture, let them go back to their lender and see if they will bump up their funding. It's worth a shot, just don't sign an agreement until you get closer to the $$$ you want, because they will just tie up you property during their "due diligence period" effectively taking it off the market for months.

Keep us posted as I'm in the middle of a transaction myself and hoping to close in the next 10 days.

Their situation doesn’t really matter to you. Gofundmes and liquidity do not matter. I can paint all sorts of situations where they can afford the house but not have enough to increase the earnest money that are completely reasonable. I can also see just as many that are not. And at the end of the day, they just don’t matter to you. 

Make the deal for what you think the house is worth. If the closing costs or earnest money aren’t enough, counter to where the total deal is worth it. When we bought ours, we had to pay $5k more for the house to get $5k back from the sellers to make the down payment work. Everyone was happy. And once the paperwork is signed, it ain’t your problem. If you’re not happy about the paperwork for whatever reason, because you’re getting a bad deal, then don’t sign or accept. End of story. Don’t over complicate it with emotions - this is a business transaction. Treat it that way. 

In reply to Mndsm :

We had "no fha loans" terms on the one we sold last year because fha is a pain in the D and we wanted someone who was willing to buy the house and do the last few little bits like paint the soffits and garage.  Got a pre approved for conventional mortgage asking price offer and once everything went through they only qualified for FHA.  And fha says paint the soffits and garage or no deal.  I had priced it high enough to offer 2k off for painting, but instead i had to give 2k out of pocket to paint prior to close.  I hate FHA, we had to get one for our house because it was a first home deal and i was building credit, and we had to paint awnings, trim, and the foundation in February in 10 degree weather because the seller said they wouldn't but we were welcome to.  Paint froze on the way on, fha inspector came out to verify it was done, and as soon as it got above 30 it all fell off.  
 

i guess the moral of that is if the buyer gets an fha loan, be prepared for them to scrutinize everything.  Also home inspectors that people hire during sales are generally inept and don't know their ass from a chimney and always need to find something wrong to justify their existence even if it's not wrong.  Be ready for some "what the berkeley is this moron looking at?" moments.  We had one report a wet basement on a slab house.  Another said we had incorrect wiring with 2 wires into 1 breaker, even though it had the only breakers that's acceptable with(they even have pictures of 2 wires on the breaker) and the prospective buyer made adding another breaker to "correct" this a contingency of the deal.  They sure do love to point out the hot water tank relief pipe not being close enough to the floor, and that's generally the obvious one i leave wrong so they can point it out and justify their pitiful meaningless existence.  

In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :

That was more my point. I don't really care what the actual financials are, but in a case like this, there's enough red flags in my book that either they A- won't actually be able to secure funding after wasting all of Mr. Shovels time, or B- it'll be some other type of BS that will....waste all of Mr. Shovels time. 

I can drive to Dodge right now and get pre-approved for a Hellcat- but there's no way anyone sane is giving me that loan with my earnings being what they currently are. 

You have some valid real-world concerns. But you also have a full price offer in hand. 
 

An experienced agent should be able to counsel you through your concerns.

I imagine it going something like this: "you have a full price offer. Take it and I'll solicit backup offers".
 

Yeah the 5k off for outlet cover thing was stupid. I laughed at them and said no.

The people offered us a few k over our asking price 5 hours after it listed, they wanted the house bad and I knew it.

When we bought the house the original inspector say some masking tape on the windows and said they were holding together the windows because it was an old house. Inspection seems to only find the stupid things, not actual issues

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

Inspection seems to only find the stupid things, not actual issues

I suspect this is by design.  If and inspector thinks that there is a large structural issue or obvious expense coming, people who are emotionally attached to the house will think that the inspector ruined the house for them.   If the inspector finds 3-4 gimmie nickle and dime issues that they can make the seller fix the buyers think "Man that inspector saved me money/hassle, what a good inspector".  

I've never had an inspection done that was worth the price of admission on a house I was buying or selling. It's an easy gig, buy a big fat shiny book that's basically a checklist and just run through it. The big book makes the new buyer feel good. Ask your dirt pimp...sorry, Realtor TM...for the inspector that costs them sales. That's the guy who will report problems, not just plug a $15 tester into the outlets.

When we sold one of our houses in the run up to the 2008 bubble, we kept it on the market for about three months while everything else sold immediately around it. We set a high asking price and basically just waited for the market to catch up. It worked.

DUDES! Thank you all SO much for your help!!! I'll post details later but we made a counter and are pleased with the results.

Thank you!!! Dicks-crossed!