Why is buying a house so stressful?

Posted by Blokeman on March 28, 2008 under General Bloke Stuff | Be the First to Comment

With all said and done, it looks like my relocation out of the “Big Smoke” is starting to take shape. We have been up to where we want to move looked around and decided we love it. So on the basis of that we have decided we should try and buy a place up there. Pretty easy I though, get your finance pre-approval, start looking put in some offers and buy the one you want for the price that you want, or at least negotiate on the price and come up with what you want to buy. Sign some papers, pay your fees, move in and resign your self to a life of debt.

That would be the process if it weren’t for Real Estate Agents. These guys are just snakes, collectively an agency of around 10 people would have an IQ totaling somewhere just over 100 meaning that if they work as one unit they function at an above average rate, but when you corner just a single staff member, you tend to be dealing with something much like a scene from “Idiocracy”. They try to squeeze more money from you constantly “I like money!” and screw you at every turn. They act like your best mate when all they care about is the cash cow at the end.

The patronizing that goes on is ridiculous. “Hey man, I may be a first home buyer, but I am 26 and my IQ hits the triple figures, I am not a child”.

I just don’t know why they can not be honest about it. We played the game a little bit when we were going for a house. We put in offers trying to find the best. The offer got turned down, and the seller decided to go to Auction. It went to auction and the house did not sell, they came back and offered us the house at $15,000 less than our last offer, because they were desperate. We decided not to go for the house in the end because we found another place with a pool.

Anyways so with the negotiation for the next place, we told the bloke we are not going to mess about we do not have the time, nor the patience, we said simply that we will make one offer and one offer only, he can take it or leave it.

We made a very reasonable offer, he turned around and counter offered. So once again I informed the agent that we are not interested in negotiation, we are putting in an offer and that is our final offer. We thanked him for his time and told him only to contact us should he be coming back to say “we accept that offer”.
Much a spluttering and a begging went on, but we are standing firm