First Time Buyers vs. Investors
Hey gang. Here's the situation.
A few days ago my wife and I finally put in our first offer on a tiny 2 bed, one bath house. It wasn't without issue - some visible mold that we traced down to an overly damp basement and some foundation crumbling from a bad patch job. But at $35K we figured it was the perfect opportunity to finally make the jump. We have a family of five and quarters would be cramped, but we were excited and enthusiastic to BRRR the heck out of it and get our start in the real estate game.
So we booked another walk through for the following morning with our agent and friend with knowledge of troublesome foundations. At this point, it had only been on the market for a day. About 9:00PM our agent calls us in a panic. She informs us the listing agent called her and said he's got an offer he's willing to accept and, if we plan on submitting, we have ten minutes to get it in. Which seemed weird to us, given the time of night. So, we place an offer for the asking price and hope for the best.
Long story short, we're informed about an hour later that our offer wasn't accepted. Now, the part that we're finding bothersome is that "winning" bidder is a well known investor (who also has his real estate license). As an added bonus the listing agent (also a very well known, familiar face in the local RE market) has been fined in past for poor practices such as posting a house as "Pending" before it hit the market. Which leads us to the following questions and where YOU guys come in with your all knowing wisdom...
1) Isn't there a waiting period investors have to abide by before making an offer?
2) Are there fines for any agent or investor guilty of such behavior?
3) Is there a place to lodge a complaint for said behavior?