Offers

[casper222]

My husband and I ended up going to see a house with the listing agent, which I realize many people have a problem with but we went into it knowing there could be problems and we would just deal with them as we ran into them. We really liked the house and decided to put in an offer. We went back to the office with the agent and wrote up an offer. It was completed by 10am and he told us it would be presented to the sellers at 5:30pm. We went home to wait. Later that night we get a phone call from the agent saying the sellers were impressed with our offer but they were still waiting for another offer to come in. The other agent had said it would be in by that same night, but it hadn't shown up yet. So he said we would have to wait for an answer until after the open house on the house which was schedule for two days later. So we waited some more. We went to the open house just to be sure we were still interested in the house and the agent let us know that the other offer finally surfaced but that agent wanted to present it personally and they wouldn't be doing that until after the open house and then we would have an answer. After this second offer was presented we were called by the listing agent and told that a peripheral subject, not related to either offer, came up and it wouldn't be resolved until the next morning, which is right now, and he would give us a call to let us know the decision.
Does any of this sound fishy to anyone else? I spoke with a friend of my family who happens to be a mortgage broker and he implied that he isn't sure if what this realtor has done is actually legal. Any advise would help, we are still waiting on pins and needles.

[thataway61]

I realize many people have a problem with but we went into it knowing there could be problems and we would just deal with them as we ran into them.

Why head into something knowing there could be problems without being prepared? Buying a home is a substantial undertaking and winging it is not a very wise thing to do when entering into a contractual obligation.

If the agent is representing the seller, she is trying to get the highest and best offer.

Note the time period your offer was good for, the seller can wait until it expires to decide and doesn't have to tell you anything. You can withdraw your offer in writing if you want as long as it has not been accepted. However, if you want the house, wait and see if it gets accepted.

You would be wise to have had a buyers agent representing you. If you did, you would probably have been advised to put in a very tight time period for an acceptance so that the seller would not have time to shop around for better offers, in other words your offer would have forced the seller to fish or cut bait.

I would recommend you get a buyers agent, but if you obtain this particular home, the agent would have no compensation because he would not be the procuring cause. Essentially, there is no incentive for a buyers agent to help you on that deal.

If the deal falls through, go ahead and engage a buyers agent. Since you weren't represented, you may not have known that you could make the offer contingent on an inspection and if the inspection found defects you could negotiate for the defects to be repaired or walk with your earnest money intact. It is the seller that pays the commission on the sale and it just doesn't make sense not to engage a knowledgeable person to represent you, especially when the seller will be paying for it. Many people believe that they can negotiate a better deal if there is only one agent, but somehow I think that the listing agent is not going to be so generous in giving up a commission just so you can get a better deal when the listing agent has already negotiated what the compensation will be if a buyer is brought forward.

My colleagues may want to correct me if my wordy sentences came out wrong.

Disclaimer: This is an opinion and should not be taken as advice due to the fact we have no agent client relationship.

[judyo]

I agree with Cal. Although sellers do have a right to view all contracts, making a buyer wait days because there is a rumor another contract is coming in is pretty bad. Illegal? No.

Even though putting a review/acceptance date might help get some kind of answer, if the seller wants to wait for that other offer then you still have to make the decision to wait or to move on after your time period is up without negotiation or acceptance.

IOW, you put in a time contingency of 48 hours for the offer to be presented. 48 hours have passed and you have no acceptance or rejection. You are told the seller will not do so until all promised offers are in front of them. It doesn't necessarily mean the offer wasn't presented, but the seller is not ready to respond. It will still be up to you to wait around or go find another house (and an agent that will be working exclusively in your best interests).

Good luck & let us know how it turns out.

[u2man]

Judy and Cal both gave you good answers. Just another reason dual agency isn't beneficial to the consumer. It seems like it's fairly obvious who side of the fence this sellers agent is on and this only the beginning of the transaction. Get a buyers agent and move on because even if you acquire this property you possibly might have issues down the road. Either way good luck!

[Fort Lauderdale]

I too agree with all the responses here. In addition, we do not have any information on the offer you presented, ie, offer price versus listed price and any contingencies you may have put on the offer. These could very well be why the seller has waited to see if there is a "better offer" before responding.
john

[kciprize]

This should be a blatant glimpse of the obvious...The agent is trying to buy more time in hopes that increased traffic/exposure will generate more offers.
While you didn't provide details, I would assume that you either made an early, pre-emptive offer OR a weak offer.

Apparently the agent, seller or possibly both either conciously or sub-conciously don't feel that your offer is strong enough to ratify and want to continue to market the home in search of stronger offers.

[u2man]

Maybe or maybe not. Could be the property is overpriced? Bottom line is a "good" buyers agent would have put a expiration time on that offer. This would have forced the seller to reject,counter etc. Instead they have a offer on the table and the sellers are doing open houses etc looking for more $$. Without putting an expiration time on offers you will lose alot of deals and not to mention time.

[thataway61]

Exactly, force the seller to make up his mind. If you don't get it, move on to the next one.

If the offer dies, apparantly they either would have had or were expecting a better offer or your offer was less than what they wanted and they were willing to sit tight.

If the offer dies from a tight time constraint, there is nothing preventing you from making another run unless a competing offer was accepted, in that event you would know the seller had a better offer than yours anyway. But never leave the seller an extended time to shop for competing offers.

[Barry]

IOW, you put in a time contingency of 48 hours for the offer to be presented. 48 hours have passed and you have no acceptance or rejection. You are told the seller will not do so until all promised offers are in front of them. It doesn't necessarily mean the offer wasn't presented, but the seller is not ready to respond.

If this is the case, is not the original offer considered "dead". If so, a whole new offer would have to be drawn up and the whole process would have to start from scratch. Correct?

If I was the buyer, and unless I was completely in love with the home, I would submit a new offer for at least $1000 less than the original to any seller who pulled that.

[judyo]

I don't know what it is but whenever I put an offer in on a home I do love it. I've been up against other buyers more than once in the past. I've had to pay more than asking price for my last home (purchased 3 yrs. ago).

So I have never felt the option of "playing games" with a seller. IOW, if the seller was being picky or was waiting for a second offer & didn't abide by my original time frame I am assuming my original offer wasn't good enough to make him bite. By reducing my offer another $1,000 do I anticipate a good response? Nope! Might as well move on if I can't make an offer that is at least negotiable to the seller.

BTW, I've seen a buyer do something similar to this & the seller was so angry at this tactic that they would not negotiate & came back at full price. It was actually a deal where my buyer's bid was not chosen over another one that supposedly was non-contingent (my buyer's were COS). The original deal fell apart. My buyers loved the home but were somewhat spiteful that their offer was not chosen the first time around and reduced their original offer price. The seller was furious and was ready to kick me out of his house but the other agent & I calmed him down. We did get the contract accepted (after some negotiations) but it sure wasn't pleasant.