Sold! Sort Of...
So, as I mentioned before, we were looking at a condo in Bermuda Dunes CC. I should have elaborated and mentioned that we've actually walked through 3 different condos in the same complex. While we were very interested in that joint on the green that I spoke of, we couldn't help but fall for the charming cheapness of another condo -- a condo that is nicer in every way, except for the fact that it boasts a view of busy intersection. This may be just fine if it yields some awesome accidents. Anyway, the no-view condo was priced $57,000 less than the fairway one, and by the time Rich finished haggling with the realtor it was priced $67,000 less. So long story short, we bought a condo. A nice cheap condo.
Here's where my title "Sold... Sort Of" comes in.
We never hired a realtor, so Rich wrote out the offer on his own. No problem. He's useful like that. Rich gleefully wrote up a very one-sided low-ball offer with touching conditions like "seller pays 6 months of HOAS, seller pays all inspections, seller pays all escrow fees," and of course, he eagerly scratched out the paragraph agreeing to arbitration. An hour after we faxed the offer to the real estate agent we received a call from her. "We accept your offer," she said. Rich flinched, and said, "What?" He then asked her to clarify, because he couldn't believe it. Again, she said, "We accept your offer - congratulations!"
The next day -- guess what? The realtor didn't read past the first page of the offer. She reneged, trying to cast the "misunderstanding" on us. She said that she only meant to agree to the purchase price, not the conditions. God help me. The good news is that we finally came to an agreement. The bad news is that I lost what little faith I had in realtors.
Remember:
Verbal contracts in real estate are not binding, but if you make one and then renege, Sheryl will casually mention to everyone in your small desert community that you are a sleazeball realtor that goes back on her promises, AND that you wear fake Louis Vuitton.
Here's where my title "Sold... Sort Of" comes in.
We never hired a realtor, so Rich wrote out the offer on his own. No problem. He's useful like that. Rich gleefully wrote up a very one-sided low-ball offer with touching conditions like "seller pays 6 months of HOAS, seller pays all inspections, seller pays all escrow fees," and of course, he eagerly scratched out the paragraph agreeing to arbitration. An hour after we faxed the offer to the real estate agent we received a call from her. "We accept your offer," she said. Rich flinched, and said, "What?" He then asked her to clarify, because he couldn't believe it. Again, she said, "We accept your offer - congratulations!"
The next day -- guess what? The realtor didn't read past the first page of the offer. She reneged, trying to cast the "misunderstanding" on us. She said that she only meant to agree to the purchase price, not the conditions. God help me. The good news is that we finally came to an agreement. The bad news is that I lost what little faith I had in realtors.
Remember:
Verbal contracts in real estate are not binding, but if you make one and then renege, Sheryl will casually mention to everyone in your small desert community that you are a sleazeball realtor that goes back on her promises, AND that you wear fake Louis Vuitton.