Not buying a house

It's interesting how you buy and sell a house here. In South Africa there is one agent, and he or she acts on behalf of both parties. This is obviously not the ideal situation but it has always seemed to work. My latest experience with selling a property in South Africa made it blatantly clear to me that once the deal is done, the agent is not interested (commission is guaranteed), and he or she will always be acting on behalf of the purchaser.

In Canada there is a buyer's agent and a seller's agent and it's strictly regulated as to how the roles function. We started working with our agent (realtor) in Canada months before we even arrived and Keith and I have been looking at houses since the day that Keith arrived. We've seen lots that we like and one that we love. So we decided to put in an offer. And this is how it went.

An appointment is made to present the offer. The buyer's agent takes the offer to the seller and his or her agent, in this case to their home. We waited outside in the car. They talked, and negotiated, and talked some more and then our realtor came out to the car with the counter-offer. We talked, and negotiated, and talked some more and sent him back inside with our counter-offer. They talked, and negotiated, and talked some more and sent him back to us with their counter-offer. And so it went, buy and seller in anonymous positions and buyer's agent and seller's agent in the line of fire.

We finally gave them 12 hours to make a decision on what was our final offer. They rejected us the next day. So we carried on looking but knowing inside that the house we loved, was the house we wanted. So we went back for round two. And an hour before the talk, negotiate and talk some more, the house was taken off the market.

We're not buying a house - not yet anyway.