lpn
04-12-2007, 10:51 PM
I sold my mother's house while she was in europe through power of sale (we were interested in relocating due to a death in the family but have since decided it is not possible). I am only 24 and followed the advice of my listing agent because I knew almost nothing about real estate. They provided me with a CMA and determined that our house had gone up in value of 125,000 in 6.5 years based on an average increase of 43% for the area. Sounded really good at the time. The house quickly sold for $529,000.
Upon my mother's return we decided it had been a bad idea to sell and we began looking at other houses but much smaller houses were costing more than $400,000. Recently we have found that houses the same size as our house are asking and selling for more than 800k.
I have now been looking desparately at houses for 3 months and I believe it is almost insane how poorly we sold. Houses are selling for $250-400/sq.ft.
At 3400sq. ft. of living space our house sold for a measly $150/sq. ft. The plot of land was also large for the area with double frontage.
The problem was I had no idea how large the house was in comparison to what you get for a similar price. It had many appealing selling features: views of the lake, a basement appartment, a coblestone driveway and patio, sun rooms, third storey etc...
The agents were well established with many years experience. I questioned more than once the fact that we received offers very quickly and that we should try to get more but they kept telling me I was lucky to receive offers like this and I might lose the sale if I asked for more. In hindsight it was ridiculous advice.
Is there any point to pursuing this with a lawyer or the real estate board? I am so upset about this, our equity was barely 200k and we cannot purchase another house unless we downgrade considerably at this point. We are renting and this is a disaster we had to get an expensive appartment it was too stressful to part with a house full of belongings but this will have to happen when our lease is up (the mortgage was more affordable than renting).
One other thing is we had a conditional offer (buyers had to sell their home) and we then received an unconditional offer. At that point I preferred the first offer because the agent's commission would have been lower as only one was involved. HEre they told me they spoke to the first buyers and they were no longer interested as the basement needed a water repair that acted up after they made their offer. If we had fixed it, it would have offset the profit to be made so we went ahead with the other offer.
I am starting to believe the first buyers were not offered to buy the house without having to firm up. I am going to write them a letter about this.
Are there any other ways to build a case against my agents? Do I even have a case? Please do not simply direct me to speak to a lawyer, other than the equity in the home we are considered low income family.
Thank you for your time,
Upon my mother's return we decided it had been a bad idea to sell and we began looking at other houses but much smaller houses were costing more than $400,000. Recently we have found that houses the same size as our house are asking and selling for more than 800k.
I have now been looking desparately at houses for 3 months and I believe it is almost insane how poorly we sold. Houses are selling for $250-400/sq.ft.
At 3400sq. ft. of living space our house sold for a measly $150/sq. ft. The plot of land was also large for the area with double frontage.
The problem was I had no idea how large the house was in comparison to what you get for a similar price. It had many appealing selling features: views of the lake, a basement appartment, a coblestone driveway and patio, sun rooms, third storey etc...
The agents were well established with many years experience. I questioned more than once the fact that we received offers very quickly and that we should try to get more but they kept telling me I was lucky to receive offers like this and I might lose the sale if I asked for more. In hindsight it was ridiculous advice.
Is there any point to pursuing this with a lawyer or the real estate board? I am so upset about this, our equity was barely 200k and we cannot purchase another house unless we downgrade considerably at this point. We are renting and this is a disaster we had to get an expensive appartment it was too stressful to part with a house full of belongings but this will have to happen when our lease is up (the mortgage was more affordable than renting).
One other thing is we had a conditional offer (buyers had to sell their home) and we then received an unconditional offer. At that point I preferred the first offer because the agent's commission would have been lower as only one was involved. HEre they told me they spoke to the first buyers and they were no longer interested as the basement needed a water repair that acted up after they made their offer. If we had fixed it, it would have offset the profit to be made so we went ahead with the other offer.
I am starting to believe the first buyers were not offered to buy the house without having to firm up. I am going to write them a letter about this.
Are there any other ways to build a case against my agents? Do I even have a case? Please do not simply direct me to speak to a lawyer, other than the equity in the home we are considered low income family.
Thank you for your time,
