"Larry Fishel" wrote in news:1136011715.713517.238450
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

"Insulting" the seller is hogwash the realtor tells you.

I would have thought that until I put my condo on the market. I was
sking $180k and eventually settled for $160k. Along the way, one couple
checked the place out, went away and called the realtor later... I
don't remember the exact numbers, but they offered something like $45k
and claimed the place needed $80k in repairs! WTF? You could have blown
the whole apartment out the side of the building with a bomb and it
wouldn't have cost $80k to fix... I still have no clue what they were
up to.


Some buyers are weird and some realtors are a bit unscrupulous. Sounds
like this one was a combination of both.

When I sold my last house, the first buyer I encountered underbid my house
and passed along a letter of credit that was only $500 over what they bid
(making it look as though they couldn't go higher). I got another bid the
next day for $250 under my asking price and took it. The first bidder
called me up and told me he actually was able to qualify for a much bigger
loan. It seems his realtor instructed him to get multiple letters of
credit from his mortgage broker so they could support whatever bid they put
in, but it would make it look like they had little to no wiggle room in the
bid. That's the way I took it, and I told him he should consider getting
another realtor before he continued his home search.