I am not an agent or related to RE in any way, other than owning a home.
The original post is very time sensitive. Sometimes it is good to buy, sometimes not. However, the agent can’t and should not make the buy or loan decisions for the buyer because nobody knows what may happen (except for those on this list that claim to know).
I think it is a very likely possibility that if an agent discouraged a family from buying because they really could not afford it, they would get reported, sued, called racists if the family was a minority, etc.
The agent is there to market and sell the home. The buyer is responsible for their finances. The lending institutions are in the same boat as realtors with respect to declining an application. They need to blindly apply the current corporate policy otherwise it is discrimination.
So I fault the lending institutions for bad practice, but in the end buyer beware. There really is no other way.
