A couple were left outraged after a real estate agent put them through a series of bizarre hoops to make an offer on a house, before brutally rejecting them.
Sydney woman Maddie Langshaw, 25, and her fiancé Ante Jungbluth Miocic, 30, have been looking to buy a house on the New South Wales Central Coast for months.
They found the perfect house online, but were unable to visit the property because they both work long hours and weekend shifts in the marketing industry.
So Langshaw sent her parents, who returned with rave reviews and suggested it would be the perfect purchase for their daughter.
But the real estate agent refused to sell to the couple until they met a series of demands that included driving an hour to inspect the property themselves.
He then had the nerve to ask them to write a ‘love letter’ about the house to the late owner’s daughter explaining how perfect it was and their future plans as a couple.
Maddie Langshaw, 25, and her fiancé Ante Jungbluth Miocic, 30, who live in Sydney, have been searching for a property on the New South Wales Central Coast for months.
The couple made an offer, before it was rejected, sparking a mixed reaction of anger and shock and leaving them feeling they had been “played”.
Langshaw grew up poor and has been saving for a house since she was 14, but says she is now losing hope of ever owning a property.
‘I’ve been pretty defeated since then. “It’s getting really exhausting,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
The couple said they were on the phone with Langshaw’s parents throughout the inspection.
“They said it was good structurally, there was a lot we could do with it and it was under budget,” Ms Langshaw said.
The couple texted the real estate agent their offer the same day before he called them back.
He said the house had belonged to a man who had died and that his daughter was the seller.
“He said he wouldn’t sell us unless we saw the house face to face,” Mrs Langshaw said.
“We fell in love because we knew the woman would have a personal connection if it were her father’s house.”
Maddie had been saving for a house deposit since she started working at age 14, after seeing her parents struggle to buy houses later in life.
The couple was in the middle of shopping, but immediately got into their car and drove an hour north after the real estate agent said he had a dinner to go to and couldn’t meet them later.
“Maybe I’m naive because I thought he was a genuine guy,” Langshaw said.
“He said he was close to the owner, had sold him previous properties and had a personal connection.”
Ms Langshaw broke down in tears at the stories the officer told as they “really tugged at my heartstrings” and reminded her of losing her grandfather at 19.
“At that point I was engaged,” she said.
Langshaw said the real estate agent spoke to the couple as if they already owned the house and told them their offer was the best.
“He said, ‘Guys, you could cut down this tree. They could extend it up there,” he said.
‘As we were leaving, he told us our offer was great. But he told us to write a letter to the owner about what our vision is for the property, about our future and about ourselves.
‘He said the seller wants to know. We thought it was strange, but it was her father’s house and we really loved it.’
The real estate agent insisted that they inspect the property to stay connected to it, had them write a personal letter about what their plans were for the house, their future plans, and who they are. He also told them that his offer was at the “high mark,” but then told them to offer more.
The couple spent an hour reading the letter and said it was so personal that they did not want to make its contents public.
The potential buyers sent the letter with their offer and then the real estate agent was silent.
The couple said they did not receive a confirmation email and decided to call the real estate agent first thing Monday, but he did not answer the phone.
“He finally called and said, ‘I thought you guys would send a higher offer after I saw it on Saturday,'” Ms. Langshaw said.
The agent then gave them an amount and told them to make an offer “north” of that amount, prompting the couple to add an additional $5,000 to their offer.
Langshaw and Miocic were stunned after receiving a call informing them that the house had been sold to another buyer, who had offered $5,000 more.
“We would have offered more, but he didn’t tell us or give us the chance,” Mrs Langshaw said.
The news came as a blow to the couple who are already struggling with high rent payments and will see the cost of their one-bedroom apartment rise by $100 next week.
‘We can’t even enter the market. “We have a deposit, we have approval, but we are being deceived,” Ms Langshaw said.
He said he had been saving since he was a teenager and encouraged his partner to do the same after they met a few years ago.
‘I come from a single-parent family. “I watched my parents struggle to buy a house when they were in their 30s and 40s,” Mrs Langshaw said.
“I wanted to establish myself.”
Originally from the Central Coast, Langshaw moved to Sydney when she was 21 to pursue her career and sacrificed a lot for her deposit, including living in share houses.
But he loves where he grew up.
The couple, who work long hours and weekends in marketing, had their hopes dashed when the agent misled them, only to eventually inform them that the house had been sold to someone else.
“When we recently got engaged I wanted to move back because we started thinking about our future and possible children and we wanted to be close to my parents, surrounded by family and have a garden.”
Ray White Parramatta sales and assets executive Amir Jahan told Daily Mail Australia he suspects the real estate agent was using a delaying tactic with the couple.
‘Some agents want to buy time. The reason is that in case their first offer falls through, they have a backup buyer,” he said.
“It seems that as soon as the first offer was approved, they deceived the second buyer.”
He said he would never tell any buyer to write a letter about themselves or have them come in to inspect it if they were happy.
‘It’s a basic process. Yes to accept. Not to reject. Every offer we receive we respect the buyer.
‘For each buyer, it is a lot of money. It is money they have saved throughout their lives.
“As an agent, it doesn’t matter if it is a high or low offer, agents must inform the owner of all offers or interested parties.”
Jahan suspects that the agent probably had a high offer and was just using the couple.
“I had them informed to wait until they saw what would happen to the first buyer,” he said.
Real Estate Institute of New South Wales chief executive Tim McKibbin told Daily Mail Australia he had never heard of an agent asking a potential buyer to write such a letter.
‘It’s extremely unusual. “I’ve been in the industry for more years than I can remember and I’ve never heard of this,” he stated.
“If it is a condition of the seller, the agent has the obligation to transmit the request (write a letter), but it is very unusual.”
McKibbin said the moral of the story was “you have nothing until you’ve exchanged the contract” and recommends buyers exchange it as soon as possible after doing due diligence.
“And that’s true whether you’re a first-time home buyer or someone purchasing the MLC building in Sydney.”