Housing experts...I can use some advice.

So for about a month now my DH and I have been negotiating through our broker for a new house.

Every time we seem to get close in our numbers, it seems that all of a sudden they have another deal and they ask us to raise our offer.

I don't believe them - I think they are playing games with us so I dont raise my offer. (Part of the reason I dont believe them is because they keep having open houses AND they have lowered the price of the house 3 times already). Then mysteriously a week or so later, their other deal will fall through and I will get another call asking what my best offer is.

So just this past week we were about $30,000 apart in our negotiations when I got an email from the broker that they got another higher offer (surprise, surprise) and our offer is no longer being considered.

Fast forward to yesterday, I get an email from the broker that they are having another open house this weekend.

Anyone have any insight as to how to handle this or figure out what is REALLY going on with the house? I can't tell if my broker isn't giving me proper info, or not fighting hard enough to get us in this house...or if the owner is just wacky and playing games??

Re: Housing experts...I can use some advice.

Find a new house. And a new broker.

JMO

Re: Housing experts...I can use some advice.

Re: Housing experts...I can use some advice.

is your broker, their broker?

Re: Housing experts...I can use some advice.

yep playing games say this is my final offer no negotiations and say we are walking have a nice day. And if this is your broker I would say get a new one.

Re: Housing experts...I can use some advice.

sometimes the owners of the house are wacky.....we dealt with people like that and we didn't get the house.....they did the same thing with negotiating a little and then saying they were going to have an open house.....in the end they weren't willing to come down to a *realistic* price - and they wasted almost 2 weeks of our time when they could have just said no from the start.....it was really annoying....

then we lost out on two other houses - our realtor told us there were other offers - and there were......b/c those people got the house and not us....so although it seems suspicious depending on how competitive the market is in your area it could be true....

Message edited 7/2/2009 9:19:22 AM.

Re: Housing experts...I can use some advice.

I agree it's the sellers...they want a certain number and that's it. They figure if you want the house badly enough you'll up your offer if you think someone else is getting it.

If you are completely in love with the house, meet in the middle. If you don't love it and can walk away, I'd say choose your absolute highest number you'd consider and be firm and walk away.

Good luck.

I had this happen on 2 houses and low and behold those 2 houses are still for sale and still having open houses, and one yes even had to lower their price. Had they negotiated more with me, we would be in the house by now and they wouldn't have had to lower it.

Re: Housing experts...I can use some advice.

This happened to us, so I asked to see the other offer after we put ours in and they gave it to us. We got the house by offering $500 over the other offer.