Agent and I not on the same page

[Maxwell Milholland]

Hello everyone, I'd like to tell a story about a recent experience I had with my agent and would love to hear your input on it. So recently, as of two months ago, I learned about real estate. I quickly realized that I didn't know much, so I picked up a book. Then another, and another, and twenty more. Now I have a basic grasp on the fundamentals. However, I have no practical experience, so I decided it'd be good to get in touch with a real estate agent. So I did. We spoke for a while, I told him what I was trying to do (house hack a duplex), what kind of time frame I was looking at (6-12 months), the price range (70-100k), and many other things. We seemed to have been getting along just fine, as far as I could tell. A couple weeks later, I stumble upon a duplex for 100k. Nice house, pictures looked clean, good area, boasted high rents, low expenses, everything looked great, except the price. It was too high, and the numbers didn't work. At 100k, it had a negative cash flow of 200. So I thought to myself, well I really like this house and it's not that far off, so let me run the numbers at 90k. Much better. So I email my agent and say "Hey! I found something, what do we do now?" We ended up looking at it, and it was great. I told him I wanted to put an offer in at 90k. He says "Maxwell, that's way too low. If anything, we have to offer above list price. Its a sellers market, there's going to be multiple offers, and you are financing with a FHA backed loan. We should put the offer in at 105k". My first thought was "Are you freaking kidding?!!" but of course I didn't say that. I said, "Okay, well I've ran the numbers as thoroughly as I can, and the house doesn't make sense at anything over 90k. That's all I can do". We go back and forth for a few emails, and I eventually tell him to not make an offer. I'll find something else. A week later I did. Similar situation, similar outcome. What do I do? I don't want to seem like a jerk. But, the numbers are going to drive my decision. I'm not going to buy a property that is going to lose me money. At the same time, I'm new at this. I don't want to be a pain, I don't want to drag my real estate agent around for months and making low ball offers and looking at apartments if I know that we have very different approaches to determining the amount I offer. Do I need to let up a bit, get a new agent, or is there something else I am missing? Any advice greatly appreciated!