Michael

Not all realtors are as forward-thinking as the first few respondents to your posting here. If you'd like to make the request a little more palatable, find a friend or co-worker who is in a home-search mode and invite that person along. Yes, it is in the realtor's best interest to show a house to as many potential - even long-shot - buyers as possible. But these are hard times for many realtors, and a little consideration might be welcomed and could get you to have a more rewarding Q&A with the realtor during your tour of the property. - Thu Jun 19 2008, 16:09

Just as a matter of personal preference, I'd much rather buy the carpet (and padding) myself. While not a trivial expense, I know how much life I'll want to get out of the carpet, what kind of traffic it will have to survive, how deep the pile should be, and what quality of padding makes the most sense. The seller would have to guess at all these things, a tricky issue even if they were feeling generous. It seems, from your description, that they are not feeling particularly generous. I'd therefore be reluctant to push them to provide the carpet, as they could leave you worse off than you are without carpet in those two rooms.

Keep in mind that carpeting is not a significant "problem" with a home. Provided that they are not selling you a house that needs actual repairs, the carpeting allowance may seem petty at this point and invites animosity from people who presumably still have keys to your recently-bought house.

The key to this negotiation is that the carpet is not included in the written contract, and you probably don't want to try convincing a small-claims court that the seller is in breach of an oral contract. I recommend taking the money you would have put into closing costs and using some of it to select carpeting that you'll really enjoy, and waste no more angst over this unwinnable disagreement with the seller. - Thu Jun 19 2008, 15:49

Don, your are correct that not working with a buyer's agent creates more room for miscommunication, and that presents another challenge for me to overcome. As I said, however, I will not be working through a buyer's agent at this time, and I am working to learn how I can more effectively communicate with listing agents. Hopefully, other Trulia readers can also benefit from your advice here.

As you can see from Agent's comment - who is the listing agent in this case as you surmised - my communication with her convinced her that I was not, in fact, serious about the property, but was merely taking up a LOT of her time with lengthy email requests. Guilty as charged.

So, to draw from Elv!s's suggestion, I should have been more explicit about my willingness to prepare a bid. To draw from your suggestion, I should have considered placing a bid contingent on inspections, one of which would have been conducted by my proxy (who is not a real estate professional, but lives in the area and whose opinions I trust implicitly). Both appear to be excellent suggestions, and will decidedly inform the way I communicate interest in the future.

The listing agent (Agent) "spent a great amount of time answering [my] many, many questions" thinking that this was an investment in a bid that would be forthcoming, and then I never bid and simultaneously failed to communicate to the listing agent that I was serious about the property. Definitely another problem I'll hopefully be able to use Don's and Elv!s's advice to remedy. In this case, I had mistakenly thought that the volume and specificity of my questions would have indicated that I was getting close to bidding (I do not normally ask such questions unless I think a property appears worthy of a bid, in no small part out of respect for the amount of time listing agents must spend responding to them). Now I know that I need to tell the listing agent that I am, in fact, preparing a bid in my own slow way. My apologies to Agent for taking up so much of her time and never sending her a bid to work with; that was not my intention, and I do not expect to repeat that particular mistake. Chalk this up as a lesson learned. - Wed Jun 18 2008, 16:24

Thanks to all for your time and responses. The consensus appears to be that my "mistake," is that I do not have a buyer's agent. For many reasons, I am not convinced that I would be happy with a buyer's agent. My reasoning for that decision would best be addressed under a different thread. My intent here is to better understand how to communicate my needs as a buyer to a listing agent to help that listing agent get the best possible bid for the seller to consider.

It seems to me that there must be a polite way I could have informed the listing agent that I'm considering a bid and would like to submit a bid before the seller makes a decision. What are the pros and cons of saying I'm "considering a bid" before I'm certain that I will really offer a bid? In this case, I had been waiting until my proxy could view the property in my stead and tell me what she learned. What she was able to tell me and show me (through copious photos) convinced me that I could comfortably assess how much the property is worth TO ME (which is information I feel I need to have before submitting an actual bid). Unfortunately, the seller had already accepted another bid by this point, without ever knowing that another bid was a few days away. Thoughts? - Tue Jun 17 2008, 07:04