Author: /u/flamingflamethrower

Hello Houston real estate mavens, I’m considering buying a 450k single family home in inner loop Houston near the Heights in Shady Acres. I’m not sure of my long term plans, but I probably wouldn’t live in this house for more than 2 years; I’d probably rent it out as an investment property for a couple more years after that until the house goes above water in the future. An adjacent home (that was pretty much exactly the same) sold for 430k in January, under the same seller and agent for the other home. The home has been listed for 2-3 weeks, and when I went to the open house there were other families there – the home has gained decent traction. I’m not working with an agent right now so the seller agent for the house is also the buyer agent (hence they get to double dip in 3% fees for both buyer and seller). I originally placed an offer at list price, it was accepted, and then we signed the contract with a marginal option fee, but ended up deciding to back out yesterday due to economic uncertainty and high mortgage rates (5.125%). Once I told the seller agent this, he gradually offered me larger discounts, I declined, until he ultimately offered me a $10k discount to go through with the transaction. I find it hard to believe that he doesn’t have any other comparable offers at this point, and I suspect the house was overvalued at listing time… does anyone have advice for what to do in this situation?