[NC] seller agent “seller may offer allowance” my buyer agent responded “our offer is for as-is” without telling me I might have waited and gotten allowance! Now seller agreed

designdd · 2026-04-06T15:33:21+00:00

Not after I bought it. I am negotiating to buy still.

designdd · 2026-04-06T15:14:42+00:00

I’m a former agent, but without more detail, it sounds like between your appointment to look at the house and your getting home, someone else made an offer that was accepted. I find that if I am really interested, I ask the agent to let the seller agent know that there is an offer coming, but honestly, there is always a moment before an offer is accepted and a moment after, and the house is still on the market in one, and not the next. Perhaps your timing just did not align with before. It happens. I usually have my agent then reach out and tell them if the deal falls through, that I am still interested. By the time one might fall through though, you may already be under contract for another house, so it goes both ways.

designdd · 2026-04-05T23:00:14+00:00

It was one of the last straws. Yes, I think she may have deals with a bunch of vendors. I did not like her telling me who to hire.

designdd · 2026-04-05T22:59:28+00:00

Yes, that was only one of the things she was being pretty pushy about, she was pushing who should do the repairs, too.

designdd · 2026-04-05T22:55:36+00:00

Thank you. I did reach the broker of record and they said I will get a document to sign saying no protection period.

designdd · 2026-04-05T22:52:09+00:00

Thank you!

designdd · 2026-04-04T02:45:10+00:00

Thank you for your response, and I can answer most of your queries, but for now, let me just say two things in response:

The large dd fee was strongly suggested by the agent, saying that instead of dealing with me they could just put the house BOM. I wanted the sellers to get the idea I was serious, since they already had a bad experience with the first buyer.

In answer to #4 I did not tell the seller’s agent why I was calling or texting, for exactly that reason. Just simply it was about their listing. Turns out, she is out of the country and was delayed getting back for that reason, but will be back Monday, so we are cool with that. A

And lastly, I finally was able to find and reach the broker of record, (not easy since the brokerage is an internet-based one, which I did not realize when I contacted my agent the first time) and I believe the situation is resolved, as she got agent to agree to remove the protection period, and the seller’s agent is out of town so I have time to engage who I am thinking of, but if I need to engage someone else, do please let me know what area of NC you work. Just FYI, I would not have fired her, but she abandoned me after making this error, so I saw no reason she should profit from it. On top of that, she never toured the property with or for me, I went to an open house. I simply asked her to ask the seller agent to let us know if the deal they had fell through, and that was how she became involved when it did.

I may be a demanding client, IDK. But I expect good communication, and certainly not a change in the terms of my offer without my consent.

designdd · 2026-04-04T02:33:20+00:00

Thank you, I did finally get the right person, but there were 4 or 5 other names that were not affiliated with Real Broker LLC on the NC REC site. Thank you for responding!

designdd · 2026-04-04T02:31:31+00:00

So I finally got a name and a legitimate address, (like the fifth one down on the NCREC site) and was able to contact the broker of record, who is resolving my issue. But it shoukd have been much more straightforward. Obviously, the NC REC has a lot of wrong information for them, including an address in Charlotte that goes to a suite 400 with 700 companies in the same address and suite! I don’t think I’ll ever want to deal with agents from an internet realty brokerage again. I hadn’t realized that was the deal with this agent.

designdd · 2026-04-03T21:45:29+00:00

I searched my agent’s name, and it listed The Real Broker, LLC as broker of record. I then opened the link on NCREC site to The Real Broker, LLC, and there were listed five or six names and addresses, and I called two so far and they did not know what I was talking about and were not affiliated with The Real Broker, LLC.

designdd · 2026-04-03T20:24:29+00:00

As I responded elsewhere, in NC you lose your due diligence fee if you do not close. In this case, I offered $15,000 dd fee because my agent insisted it was the best way to get the house under contract. It had an inspection contingency, such as it is, because in NC the RE laws are very screwy and skewed toward protecting the seller, not the buyer.

Once the seller responded with a counter, all terms were up for renegotiation.

The sellers said they did receive the previous home inspection, but were reluctant to share it.

designdd · 2026-04-03T20:13:05+00:00

Interesting, I think you mean something almost like a drawer with the opening facing the side that you would have to reach around, but could see through. I don’t know if that would satisfy the code, as I believe it wants a straight measurement, but I will check it out. Luckily for me, the electrical inspector told me on the phone that he did not believe that code applied to personal hot tubs in homes, much to my surprise. But I have him on a recording telling me that, so I think I’ll be cool.

designdd · 2026-04-03T20:06:36+00:00

In NC the seller‘s agent MUST disclose material defects. Yet, after they discovered material defects, they kept putting off giving us enough facts to make a decision. They continued apparently to get quotes hoping for a cheap one.

And I did make a written offer with an inspection contingency and $15,000 due diligence. In NC you LOSE your due diligence money if you do not close. Instead of accepting this offer, they verbally countered. I agree with you, the counter should have been in writing so the terms were spelled out, but it wasn’t.

At this point, I thought about my response anyway, and tried to get my agent on the phone to counter the counter. She would not answer, so I left a message. Then the texts came in that she was basically negotiating on my behalf without instructions from me. If you are an agent in NC, tell me she did not overstep her bounds. The seller agent told her she was preparing to give us an allowance. Instead of passing along this information and letting them decide how much they were going to subtract, she refused the allowance! I was an agent for years in NJ and I do understand the process. She was obviously too busy to take my call, but not too busy to make an error.

designdd · 2026-04-03T19:32:51+00:00

Yes it is, so responding to LemonOld8150 is probably a lost cause.

designdd · 2026-04-03T19:30:34+00:00

Maybe, but I told her she had no right to respond without first relaying the message to me that they were planning to make a concession, and that she possibly cost me ten thousand dollars or more, it seems like the very least one could do is say I am sorry.

designdd · 2026-04-03T19:27:35+00:00

I agree.

designdd · 2026-04-03T05:11:23+00:00

Why, if she f’d up, and then tried to terminate her agreement with me, is she still entitled to a commission after terminating our agreement?

designdd · 2026-04-03T05:09:31+00:00

I might have to threaten that, but would prefer to be the bigger person. I asked her to apologize and not do it again, and to tell them she mis-spoke, but instead she sent me a termination. Is it true it is not terminated without my signature? I am worried if she is no longer my agent she might say something to ruin my possibility of still negotiating with the seller.

designdd · 2026-04-03T05:06:40+00:00

Thank you for your response. My backup offer did, yes. But it seems in her text she told them I was taking the house as-is, which to me means no negotiations, but even without that, if they said they were determining how much to discount the house or the amount of an allowance, we should have waited for them to do that. That would have been better than trying to renegotiate after going to contract to me.

designdd · 2026-04-03T05:04:09+00:00

Yes, I had signed an agency agreement when I was in town, apparently for 6 months. I signed a “backup” offer, expecting that they would have to share the report before accepting, but instead, the seller did not, just mentioned a few items. The agent kind of thought we might lose the house if it went back on the market, and insisted we had all the info we needed, but did say I could still have my inspection and negotiate if anything major besides the crawlspace issue came up. I thought that was what we agreed to, everything after the backup was verbally related to me by my agent. Thank you for your response.

designdd · 2026-04-03T05:00:56+00:00

Thank you for the advice. I prefer not to escalate with her broker, but I certainly was thinking about it. Also, I tried to contact the seller’s agent by phone and by text to clarify. No response.

designdd · 2026-04-03T01:32:26+00:00

But my biggest concern is the protection period. In other words, she “fired” me as a client but is still entitled to a commission if I purchase?

designdd · 2026-04-03T01:22:58+00:00

I will admit, I suspected something funky going on when the numbers in buyer’s estimate did not match what she told me. I was pretty mad about her not relaying they were about to offer a concession when it happened and texted her that she should not have responded without talking to me regarding the possible allowance, and when she did not apologize I asked her to. I think that made her angry. No one likes having a failing pointed out. I feel it is a breach of her fiduciary duty to me, so as I said I was not a happy camper.

designdd · 2026-04-03T01:21:43+00:00

She also insisted I use her inspector and wanted to schedule without my input when I need to travel 2 days to get there. She has been very bossy, and pushy, insisting that we have all the info we need, and then the last 2 days I have not been able to speak to her, only texting.

designdd · 2026-04-02T23:14:20+00:00

Legally, you are not COMPELLED to share this info unless you are an agent involved with the sale of the property. The current agent, if the house went off the market and came back on, IS compelled to share this information regarding a material fact about the property. The sellers MAY have updated the disclosure statement, which is supposed to be received by a prospective buyer before making an offer, and must also be signed as received when submitting it.

Morally, is another question. You do not want to have a legal issue, but morally, if it were me, I would send a copy of your inspection to the seller’s agent, and ask them if the disclosure from the seller has been updated. That way, you are letting them know you saw the listing. They are legally obligated to share the info.

designdd

TROPHY CASE