Atlanta Real Estate | Atlanta Housing News for Real Estate

In the last week, I've received about thirty emails from one buyer directing me to bid exactly 50% of asking price on homes he's identified on my site.  I have no problem whatsoever in tendering offers for fifty cents on the dollar.  There is no bank or company that I fear will hate me or think me a bad agent.  I do not care if I ever offend a seller or an agent.  My duty is to my client and to do what I am directed to do.
 
Rule Number One:  I will never make a verbal offer for anyone.

Rule Number One (a):  You must be a qualified buyer by which I mean I MUST see a signed letter on company letterhead stating you are a qualified buyer and what your loan parameters are and this letter must also include the phone number of the loan officer who has signed said letter and if I cannot reach this person after calling all day, I will assume your letter is bogus.  Every loan officer understands they will not be paid on a loan they don't close.  If they don't answer their phone and cannot be reached, they are not working.  You can call my office 24/7 and my phone pages me, even at 3:00 a.m.  I will not answer calls I receive after 11:00 p.m until 9:00 a.m. the following morning, but you can leave a message.  I answer calls at midnight with your permission, so don't tell me your loan officer won't do the same, especially when my loan officer at Wells Fargo will call me day or night. I have my trusted loan officer's home number, cell number and her husband's cell number in case she doesn't return my call in an hour.  If she doesn't return a call immediately, she's taking a loan application and she knows if I don't return her call immediately, I'm writing a contract.

Rule Number One (b):  If you are an all cash buyer, I must have a letter from your banker on bank letterhead with his/her cell phone number, email, something where I can get a quick response.

I recently closed a property over one million dollars and I didn't even have to ask this client to produce the letter.  When he called my office and left a message, he gave his name, phone number, email address and the brief message that he had his proof of funds letter from his bank.  This savvy buyer knew that many listings one million dollars and over won't even let you cross the threshold without that letter.  In the "eyes only" section of multiple listings, there are directions to fellow agents only which often instruct us that this seller will not allow unqualified buyers to view their property and that is their prerogative.  That doesn't mean you can make an offer on their asking price, they just want to be sure you are qualified to buy.  Too many "buyers" who are only qualified to purchase $500,000 think they can purchase any million dollar property for fifty cents on the dollar and as the song goes:  It Ain't Necessarily So.  I had two buyers recently who both wanted the same listing.  This was a property in Alpharetta that was a foreclosure listed at $439,999 despite a $600,000 mortgage.  Now that it's closed, I can tell you the purchaser got it for $425,000 with $1300 in closing and no other concessions.  The other offeror who insisted the banks are in dire straits and MUST take his bid lost out.
 
Rule Number Two:  Please don't call me on Monday at 9:00 a.m. and assume I can show you any random property, even a vacant foreclosure by 9:30 a.m.  I am not a baseball player up at bat or in the hole.  I get calls all the time from people who want to go out this minute.  That's a red flag to any agent or person with common sense.  I have to courtesy call owners and sometimes owners want you to call their agent first or we now have the added drudge of calling a call center who has to call a seller and then return my call when they hear back from the seller which could be hours.  Let's not discuss here what hoops I have to jump through if there is a pet that has to be put up.  If a property is vacant, I still want to ensure there are no contracts that came in.  If the property is in foreclosure, I want you to know up front that there are six offers in consideration, do you want to be number seven and will you be a back up contract and sit for six months while we wait and see if the property closes or not.