[quote author="graphrix" date=1250613444]First, don't take my frustration personally. It has nothing to do with you, but with your loser agent and the slimy seller/selling agent.
Second, you need to find out the listing history of this house ASAP. Don't ask your agent, because he is a lying douchebag, and you need an unbiased 3rd party to tell you the truth. I'm willing to bet this place went into escrow and fell out at least once.
[quote author="WishUponAStar" date=1250602280]thanks!!...will take your advice. I had slightly fawked (like that word) myself because when I originally submitted my offer, I bid a little <strong>higher</strong> than the asking price (<strong>as recommended by my [strike]agent[/strike] douchebag</strong>, since there were multiple offers and he felt this would help get my offer accepted <strong>to close the deal so he could collect a commission and a bigger one at that with the higher price</strong>).</blockquote>
Only bid what you are willing to pay. The seller can always come back higher, and what if they did? You are a buyer, you are in control, and you need to let them know this. Sure your sleazy agent tells you to bid higher... higher likelihood the deal will get done, and the higher likelihood he will get his commission check to make his debt consolidation payment for the month.
<blockquote><strong>Then they countered with a price slightly lower than the original asking price if I remove the appraisal contingency</strong>. I'll just leave the contigency in there and see what happens.....</blockquote>
Of course they did... Either they know the comps don't support the value and it will never appraise for that price, or they have already been in escrow and it fell out because the appraisal never came in at the price needed. Hell... it may have been in escrow more than once because of this, and why you need to find an unbiased 3rd party to get you that info.
You should counter with the appraisal contingency still there, and add in a contingency that if it doesn't appraise for that value the seller agrees to lower it to the appraised value, pay all closing costs and points (jack up the discount points on the loan to 2%-3% to get a nice rate), give you a $5k credit for misc. repairs, and have the selling agent credit you half their commission for knowingly adding a contingency that they know will only fawk you.
P.S. Fire your agent if this deal falls through. He is a slimy douchebag. IrvineRealtor and even t-man (who didn't catch this slight of hand by the sleazy selling and buying agents) have more ethics in their pinky fingernail than these two corrupt RealTurds.</blockquote>
Just an FYI - The selling agent is the buyers agent. There is a listing agent and a selling agent if there are 2 agents involved in a transaction. It is confusing but, like the song says, "it's like that, and that's the way it is"