Add us to the list of people to whom this has happened.
The first offer we got on our place in Temecula last year was for 10K over asking w/ a 20K cash back to buyer request. Since we were not in a rush to sell we allowed our anger at the agent to prevent us from making a bad decision and accepting this offer. Not only would the buyers have gotten what we called a “booby prize” of 20K the agent dude, escrow babe, title chick would have recived extra too since they are all paid on percentage commissions.
Granted the buyers would have “technically” paid all these things since it was their lender “technically” loaning them the money to inflate prices and pay commissions, but we were so annoyed by the sleeze factor we took a pass on the deal…glad we did now that I learn it’s also ILLEGAL !
You can add my Mother-in-Law to the list too…she was advised by her San Diego RE agent to offer over the asking price for a place in RB she wanted, then ask for cash back to upgrade the place….M-I-L asked the woman, “why would I want to have a bigger mortgage and higher property taxes when I can just ask the seller to come down in price 20K and use my own money to do the upgrades?” The RE agent just stared at her for a good 10 seconds…it was quite classic !
Renting Rocks – for now..If we see Spring ’01 prices again we’ll buy again…until then 4.5% earnings on our CD and a fully funded 401K just can’t be beat !
