All Forum Posts by: Jenny Ng

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Send a financing denied letter due to no appraisal and cancelation of contract notice to the listing agent and sellers lawyer. That may catch their attention.

Thank you but for some reason, I think that’s what the listing agent wants us to do so she can resale the property. I don’t think she wants the sale to go through. She’s  extremely volatile, impulsive and unpredictable. I don’t know if the sellers are aware of what the listing agent is doing (blocking my agent’s number so there’s no contact and denying a second appraisal. Is it legal or possible for me to speak with the sellers directly? I know the sellers want to sale because it’s an estate property and it has been listed for months. Thank you 

Hi, I have been under contract since 9/15 and my 30 days to get a bank commitment letter is due this Sunday but really 10/13 (Friday). The listing agent has been unprofessional and ethical since the beginning. This is the listing agent’s own business so there’s no one else I can reach out to at the business to complain or ask for help.

I was working with Bank 1 since the beginning but I decided to go with Bank 2 about two weeks ago. Bank 2 tried to schedule an appraisal with the listing agent last Friday (10/6) and she denied the appraiser access because according to her, an appraisal has already been done with Bank 1. Is this legal?

My lawyer already told the seller’s lawyer that I am moving forward with Bank 2.

I did not order the appraisal from Bank 1 and they didn’t cancel on time so it was done anyway without my approval. I confirmed with Bank 1 that my application was cancelled and I will not have to pay for the appraisal.

The problem now is the listing agent initially denied the Bank 2 appraiser access to do an appraisal which is now delaying everything. Today (10/9), my lawyer communicated with the seller’s lawyer and the seller’s lawyer said the listing agent will NOT show the apartment to the Bank 2 appraiser. Instead, the appraiser can get the key themselves at the business. I don’t even know if this is something the appraiser can and will do. I imagine it’s not their job! 

The listing agent also BLOCKED my agent’s number so my agent cannot reach her.  The listing agent also relisted the property back to active sale on all sites as of 10/4.  Meanwhile, we are still under contract.  Is this legal?

Bank 2 has not scheduled the appraisal yet and the request has been expedited. My concern is that the appraiser cannot get access to the apartment. The listing agent is actively sabotaging this sale and I don’t know what we can do about it. Please advise.  Thank you. 

Quote from @Tim Miller:

Quote from @Jenny Ng:

Quote from @Michael Gussin:

So a sellers concession (capped at 9%) and a discount off price are different. A concession is where the seller will pay a portion of the closing costs for you, which is great and minimizes the amount of out of pocket funds required.

A discount off price just lowers the sale price, which means you will have a lower loan amount and monthly payment, but won't effect your funds out of pocket much.

Any other questions don't hesitate to reach out!

Thank you.  To further clarify my question based on that lender's email, I need to understand if my final purchase price with any discount or credit will bring me down to 360K.  I understand that the contract price is 400K but I won't purchase if I cannot get the full 36K concession + 4K flip tax to bring the price down to 360K.  

Where do you think the $36k is coming from? It's coming from you, as part of the $400K loan. The seller is simply saying that out of the $400 they will give you $36k back for closing cost.
The only way to get the "price" to $360K is to ask the seller to drop the sale price.
Now the 1% discount will make the sale price of this property $396k. You're loan is still going to be $400k

Yes, I absolutely understand that I have to take out the 400K loan. 

The way I’m understanding the lender’s email, the 1% flip tax (4K) is going to be counted towards the 36K concession. 

My closing costs, let’s say it is 10K plus the 4K flip tax. From the 36K concession, how will I get the remaining 22K? The seller writes me a check?

Again, I understand the contract will say 400K and I will take out a 400K loan. The seller agreed to 36K concession plus 4K flip tax. I’m just going to understand how I will get the 40K credit since my closing costs will not be anywhere near 40K. 

Thank you. 

Quote from @Michael Gussin:

It looks to me like the price reduction of 4k will come off the top (400k to 396k) and then the other 36k will be in a concession 

 Thank you for your response.  We scheduled a call with our lender in a couple of days to get further clarification.  

Quote from @Michael Gussin:

So a sellers concession (capped at 9%) and a discount off price are different. A concession is where the seller will pay a portion of the closing costs for you, which is great and minimizes the amount of out of pocket funds required.

A discount off price just lowers the sale price, which means you will have a lower loan amount and monthly payment, but won't effect your funds out of pocket much.

Any other questions don't hesitate to reach out!

Thank you.  To further clarify my question based on that lender's email, I need to understand if my final purchase price with any discount or credit will bring me down to 360K.  I understand that the contract price is 400K but I won't purchase if I cannot get the full 36K concession + 4K flip tax to bring the price down to 360K.  

Hi, please explain the information at the end of the post to me as I cannot sleep thinking about it. My lender is not returning work for a few more days so I wanted to ask this group about seller concession on a conventional loan (Freddie Mac) through Chase.

The sale price on the contract is 400K but the seller agreed to give me a 36K seller concession and pay the 1% (4K) flip tax, bringing my purchase price to 360K.

I have to put down 10% (40K) deposit when I sign and I plan to put a minimum of 30% down payment.

I have an unsigned contract with a contingency that I will walk away from the sale if I do not get the 36K seller concession and 1% flip tax paid by the seller.

I would appreciate it if you can explain what the bank is saying below. Thank you.

Bank:

As you noted, the Agency maximum allowable interested party contribution is limited to 9% (or $36,000) based on an LTV < 75% and a $400,000 purchase price.

The additional 1% being paid by the Seller for the customer's flip tax would be considered a

Sales Concession since it exceeds the limitation. A Sales Concession is deducted from the PP when calculating the LTV, meaning that we would consider the PP to be $396,000 and the resultant LTV to be just slightly over 70%. Since this wouldn't have any negative impact as to the loan structure, it shouldn't cause a problem. (The customer's PP would still be $400,000 and the loan amount would not need to be changed)

Quote from @Matt Devincenzo:

While it sounds like the agent may not be the nicest to deal with, being rude isn't unethical. Neither is accepting a contract for a price, and then having another party like the co-op board determine that they won't agree to that same price. Overall nothing to do here except figure out how to get this deal done, or move on. 

Thank you for taking the time to reply back. I appreciate it. So it is completely legal and ethical for her to list the price at 390K on the app (to attract buyers) with the intention of asking the buyer to pay more in person or at contract?

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Nothing sounds unethical here.

A verbal agreement has no standing in real estate. The statute of frauds requires contracts for real estate to be in writing. Additionally, an agent is acting on behalf of another party. They can not enter into a contract to sell the property for a certain price. And lastly, youve experienced one of the the headaches with buying a coop. Buyer and seller are not the only parties to have a say. The coop board has to agree to everything as well, including the price, and approving the buyer. 

Thank you for taking the time to reply back.  I appreciate it.  So it is completely legal and ethical for her to list the price at 390K on the app (to attract buyers) with the intention of asking the buyer to pay more in person or at contract?

What actions can I take against the unethical and potentially illegal practice of the listing agent?

Hi everyone. The co-op listing price dropped to 390K on Zillow. My agent sent the listing agent an email offering 370K with 10K concession (final sale will be 360K in reality then) which the listing agent verbally agreed to last week. I did an inspection this week for $475. Red flag: During the inspection, the listing agent was in the home and I heard her being argumentative and unprofessional with someone about another sale. Before my inspector came, her tone was loud and aggressive with me asking me why I was getting an inspection on a co-op because no one does it. I did it for my peace of mind since it was my first purchase. Inspector came and she was argumentative with the inspector too about why we were doing this because there was no point. The inspection was completed and we discovered things that I was hoping to use to renegotiate the sale price. 

I sent my lawyer the inspection report. My lawyer said the contract listed 420K sale price with 50K concession (final sale will be 370K then). I was baffled because that was not what we agreed on in my offer. Firstly, my bank will NOT approve a 50K concession. Secondly, this means I will need to take out a bigger loan for a purchase price of 420K instead of 370K as originally agreed. 

My agent called the listing agent to find out what was going on. The listing agent claimed that she did not see the 10K concession in the offer email. She then insisted the co-op would not approve the sale if it was below 400K. Therefore, the sale price on the contract will need to be listed for at least 400K with a concession. We learned that this listing agent had NO intention to ever sell at 390K as listed on Zillow because she knows the co-op will not approve any sales below 400K.

I spoke with my lender. If I buy at 400K, my max concession will be 36K which brings the final sale at 364K. Again, the original agreement was 360K after concession. I was fine with this if I could recoup the extra $4K by asking the seller to fix the list of issues in the apartment per the inspection report. It is unknown if the listing agent ever spoke with the seller but she said it is being sold as is. 

I went back to my lender to see if I could get 40K instead of 36K concession. Lender said I would have to submit documents and provide a letter of explanation and the lender would submit it to the underwriter to see if I am eligible. No guarantees. Before I did that, I went back to my agent to ask if the listing agent and seller would agree to 40K instead of 36K concession. Listing agent had a disgusting attitude with my agent, and said we were wasting their time, take it or leave it at the sale price of 400K with 30K concession. At this point, I refused to go through with the sale because of her unethical, deceiving, and potentially illegal practice. 

In summary, she never had any intentions to sell at the price listed on Zillow because the co-op board would not have approved the sale below 400K. The contract listed a higher selling price than agreed and she claimed ignorance that she did not see the full offer in the email. Although I did not sign anything, I still spent $475 on the inspection with the intention of buying at the original agreed price. 

Thank you.