Anything I can do against a poorly performing buyers agent?

[Deve]

California.

I am in an unpleasant situation, I bought a house recently and after the fact everything points to I got suckered into paying too much. Problem is outside no small part of this is due to my own lack of experience and the parts I would atrribute to the buyers agent I don't have solid evidence of, so I know it's a longshot but I have to ask for some kind of peace of mind.

Backstory: We interviewed a few agents before we started hopping, went with one of those online discount agents from a large real estate website that offers $$$ back on the agents commission for using them. I figured this was fine as we were doing all the searching on the web anyway and really only needed the agent to open doors for us. They guy seemed really nice, very attentive, answered calls fast and always responded so we went with him.

So we spent a year shopping, our agent was always patient with our search, never pushed us to buy something and actually steered us away from a few poor deals so earned our trust.

One big problem is we were shopping for a deal, we wanted a big house on a big lot at about the lowest price you could imagine getting such a house so the options were few and far between.

Fast forward to finding a house we felt was good, larger, old but came on a corner lot. Lots of little things wrong (dated, almost everything needed updating or patching but our agent assured us everything was pretty cheap and easy to fix). This is where things started to go south in hindsite.

First off he was wrong on a lot of counts on how expensive repairs were, then at his suggestion we took a very short escrow. This meant when it came time to get a home inspection we couldn't finnd anyone and he pulled strings to get an inspector he used often. This seems in hindsite a mistake a the inspector also glossed over a lot of the damage in terms of how hard it would be to fix. It's all in the report, but every section says "Suggest you contact a professional contractor for this for more information" so his butts covered even though verbally his position was very "oh no big deal" the report does not say that, just suggests getting more info. Due to his demenor during the inspection we didn't get more info. Our stupidity but we feel in large part due to the direction or agent pushed us in.

So we ask the agent what he thinks is a reasonable offer for this place, and he just says about $320-340. It's asking about $270. Now some places similar are selling for the $320-340 range BUT they are in much better condition and often remodeled.

I ask him if he is sure considering the condition of the property and he says definitely.

Note during all this he has been showing us the property but oddly is a little harder to get scheduled for this one than past ones... turns out the street this property is on is fairly busy and we think he was trying to time the showings as best as possible.

So we make an offer based on his recommedation and the fact he has talked to the selling agent and found there are 8 competing offers in the first week.

Later he slips and forwards me an email where the selling agent says only 2 offers were made... he later "finds" the mot recent email which include a follow up of "how many total offers" and an answer of "8". In hindsite I am not sure I believe that either.

So the real kicker, and the part that is the real crux of this whole story, on the day we close and get the keys we meet at a local lunch place as he busy but wants to drop the keys to us, our conversation goes along and at one point he says "you got a great deal on a 2000 sq ft house."

The house is 1700 sq ft.

We go back and forth on this and he is sure it's 2000 and I tell him tax docs, my own measurements and the banks appraisal all say 1700.

He ends it with "well it's still a great deal".

So all of a sudden, I have the feeling my agent has been giving me advice based on thinking the house is bigger than it really was.

If so, and he was our signed buyers agent, I think he has severely cost us a 300 sq feet more would increase value by $50-70k.

A few months later 2 houses of similar size very nearbye on a slightly busier street, but newer and in a good or better condition sold for $50-75k less.

Problem is I only have that last part as a verbal and the appraisal we got goes with the price we paid. However the appraisal was done after the appraiser viewed our offer and history and I think does not propery account for the condition of the house and it's dated interior.

So I know that every one of these little issues should have been brought up at the time and I am not in any way thinking my own stupidy is not a big part of where we are.

But consideirng this whole ordeal, do we have any leg to stand on with anyone involved with this process to help get ourselves back to a fair deal? Or was everyone involved technically in the clear?

Thanks for any advice and let me konw if I need to provide more info.

*The price of and sq footage have been slightly altered and rounded for ease of reading and to protect my exact stituation, however they are representative of the situation I am in.

[Zigner]

The only advice I have is to enjoy your new house!

[Deve]

Originally Posted by Zigner

The only advice I have is to enjoy your new house!

Thanks for the positive support... I really wish I could, if I could I probably wouldn't be asking for advice here... I can't sleep becuase the street is fairly busy almost 24/7, I have no idea where I will come up with $$$ to fix what needs to be fixed and am currently lilving in only 1 room of it that is smaller than my old apartment which rented for much less while the rest is stripped and waiting repar; I have been told by multiple contractors that the problems are so many and so intertwined realistically it would be cheapest and the best idae to strip most of the house down to the stud and restart including jacking the whole house up to fix grading and I hate coming home every day becuase the site of the house reminds me of how much $$$ I am down (already basically in the hole $50-100k and then repairs still to come) and the fact that I don't see anyway I can afford to get out of this place financially

Sorry to be so negative... it's just been months I have been trying to convince myself it's not so bad and... well... I am out of ways to look at it positively...

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by Deve

Thanks for the positive support... I really wish I could, if I could I probably wouldn't be asking for advice here... I can't sleep becuase the street is fairly busy almost 24/7, I have no idea where I will come up with $$$ to fix what needs to be fixed and am currently lilving in only 1 room of it that is smaller than my old apartment which rented for much less while the rest is stripped and waiting repar; I have been told by multiple contractors that the problems are so many and so intertwined realistically it would be cheapest and the best idae to strip most of the house down to the stud and restart including jacking the whole house up to fix grading and I hate coming home every day becuase the site of the house reminds me of how much $$$ I am down (already basically in the hole $50-100k and then repairs still to come) and the fact that I don't see anyway I can afford to get out of this place financially

Sorry to be so negative... it's just been months I have been trying to convince myself it's not so bad and... well... I am out of ways to look at it positively...

You were told by the home inspector to have a huge list of items checked out further by a professional contractor. I really can't see how the red flag could have been any larger.

[Deve]

Originally Posted by Zigner

You were told by the home inspector to have a huge list of items checked out further by a professional contractor. I really can't see how the red flag could have been any larger.

Yes that part is as much my stupidity as anything - although I do feel he represented the situation as "look I have to write this here but it's not really a big deal".

But the main issue I was thinking about is, does a buyers agent advising your purchaes decision based on incorrect information put him in any kind of compromised position?

I am fully aware I might just be the sucker here and have to live down my mistake but considering my agent was paid for a service I am just wondering if he can be held liable in a situation like this.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Deve

Yes that part is as much my stupidity as anything - although I do feel he represented the situation as "look I have to write this here but it's not really a big deal".

But the main issue I was thinking about is, does a buyers agent advising your purchaes decision based on incorrect information put him in any kind of compromised position?

I am fully aware I might just be the sucker here and have to live down my mistake but considering my agent was paid for a service I am just wondering if he can be held liable in a situation like this.

**A: your agent did make some mistakes but you have no claim.

[sniper111]

Should have used a general contractor to get estimates for repairs, not an agent or an inspector. inspector finds what's wrong with the house, not how much it costs to repair.
I bet in the purchase contract everyone's butt is covered against lawsuits - especially sellers and buyers agents'.
The fact that similar houses sold for less refers (again) to the condition of your real estate market. Some buyers saw as much as 30% of the value dissapear in a matter of months. But guess what - the "loss" is only a paper loss, since you didn't sell the house to realize it.
I am not a legal counsel, but I doubt there is anything you could do...