My wife and I just looked at a house last week. We loved the house and went to the bank first thing the next morning to be preapproved. We put an offer on the house and the seller accepted the agreement and signed off on it. The only catch was my wife asked for an old table and chair that was in the kitchen and the seller wanted to keep it. So we still had the house but for some reason another person showed the house and someone else was able to put an offer on the house because we didn't intial the line that said we would accept the house without the chair and table. My wife and I feel like we are being cheated and I am wondering what happened behind close doors that we don't know about. The home was being sold by a different realtor and the buyers were from another realtor as well. So we have 3 realtors in the final meeting to discuss what happened. Here is what I think happened. We were suppose to have the home and for some reason our realtor went behind our backs and the middle lady selliing the house said he could have a cut. So the home went for full value. We offered 3000 dollars under. If anyone has advice on if this is legal or not I would appreciate it. Thanks you for your time. We are seeking to have a real estate lawyer right now?

It's not a legally binding contract until all terms are agreed upon. The only time you have an effective contract is, if an offer is presented that is not altered in any way, and signed the seller, you have a contract. If the seller makes any change at all, it is a counter-offer, which is not a contract. You said, "because we didn't intial the line that said we would accept the house without the chair and table", so don't bother with a lawyer, unless you want to waste some money.

I agree with Kyle. This contract was not accepted because an item was not agreed to. You added an item that the seller would not accept. This change needed to be initialled by buyer & seller in order to have a binding, accepted contract. It wasn't.

Because this contract was not accepted this seller had every reason to continue viewing other offers. An offer came in that was better than yours. The seller has no responsibility to come back with a different counter to you.

I don't know how you could have come to the conclusion you did about the agents making some kind of a deal. I've been in real estate for 22 yrs. & nothing like that has ever happened or been suggested. There is no reason for your agent to make a deal where a full commission would not be paid to him/her. Not worth it to "step aside." This is not how we earn money. I do not think this happened & I'm sure your attorney will agree.

Another buyer figured this home was worth full price, you didn't. They probably didn't ask for anything extra; you did. Why wouldn't the seller accept a better offer? Sounds like you're a first-time buyer that is miffed that you lost out on a home you wanted. Once you do find a home & go to sell it yourself down the road you'll understand much better.

Over the past few years full price offers have been turned down because buyers were offering over asking price. There are still areas that if you don't offer full price you won't get the property. Sometimes buyers have to learn this fact after losing a property, just like you did.

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