Yahoo Finance Home buyer fumes over real estate agent's 'odd' request: 'Genuinely got played'
The real estate agent requested the Sydney couple to complete additional steps in the buying process.
One hopeful home buyer believes she was unnecessarily asked to "jump through hoops" by a real estate agent who told her and her fiancé they were "front-runners" in their bid to secure their dream family home. But a blunt phone call was all it took to dash their hopes after a lengthy buying process.
Maddie Langshaw, 25, and her partner Ante Jungbluth Miocic, 30, have been house hunting for several weeks and are admittedly "already buggered" from the process. She asked her parents to view a property on the NSW Central Coast over the weekend for them and were told everything "looked great" and to make an offer — but there was one catch.
"The real estate agent was like, 'Look, your offer is really good. But you have to come and see the house... you really need to have a personal connection it'," Maddie told Yahoo News Australia.
The couple jumped in their car and drove up from Sydney to attend in person. Langshaw said the real estate agent kept "selling us on that dream when we were literally at the front door".
Realtor allegedly emphasised need for 'emotional connection' to property
Not only did the real estate agent allegedly share stories about the previous owner who had recently died — saying he knew him personally — but he also asked the couple to "write a story" for the owner's daughter on who they are and what their plans are for the property.
"He asked us to write a story about what our vision in the house would be, how we would plan out our life there, why we want the house... We thought it was an odd request but we were so keen to get it," she said.
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After spending an hour on the "story" and following advice to make an offer "north" of a specified figure, the couple sent off their offer on Sunday and were left to wait for hours with no response. The real estate agent allegedly ignoring their calls when they reached out for updates.
Couple 'sideswiped' by change in tone
The following day the couple managed to get hold of the real estate agent who told them they had lost out to a higher offer on the property.
"That afternoon he rings us and just said, 'Sorry, house is gone'... He said the contracts had been signed [by someone else]," she said. "We were absolutely sideswiped."
Despite questioning why they had not been given the chance to make a counter-offer, the real estate agent was allegedly so blunt the couple decided they didn't want to be involved with him going forward, to which he allegedly replied, "it's just the way it works", and hung up the phone.
Buying a house is 'taxing' on Aussies
It's becoming increasingly more difficult to secure a property with house prices skyrocketing and competition going through the roof, and that's not taking into consideration how difficult it is to be in a position to buy in the current market.
The process of buying a home is not only expensive and time consuming but also causes an immense amount of emotional strain on those involved.
"This whole white picket fence, Australian dream just doesn't feel like a reality and that was my immediate feeling on Monday," Langshaw admitted. "It is very taxing... and it's pretty disheartening, honestly."
She firmly believes the real estate agent was "playing an emotional game" in the hope of scoring a higher price for the property but somewhere it backfired — with the couple left to deal with the fallout.
"We genuinely got played."
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