Misleading Real Estate Agent - Any Advise ?? (Sarasota: bank owned, for sale) - Fort Myers - Cape Coral area - Florida (FL) -Lee County - City-Data Forum

mikeandaija2009 · 03-16-2010, 05:47 AM

Hello All,

My wife and I are from Connecticut and have been wanting to move to SW Florida for some time know. We have family in the area and have been on a home search for a while. My sister is a former RE agent and has always instructed us to try to avoid short sales. On our last trip in January, we did find the home of our dreams. We fell in love with this house. It was however, a short sale. The home had been recently been re-introduced in to the market due to a previous buyers inability to wait it out. The listing agent, who we dealt with, told us it was unfortunate the buyer backed out because it was within a few weeks of being a done deal. He also assured us a full price offer would "seal the deal" because the bank had said that was the amount they were looking for. After only a day or two of consideration and pressure from the real estate agent, we made our offer and signed the sales agreement. We were told by the agent there was another buyer/agency wanting to also submit an offer. He said he would only submit the first offer to come through so we needed to move quickly. I remember the evening we sent the offer over, had to venture out in a snowstorm to find a fax machine at 8:00 pm!! We were first and best, so I was told.

We were extremely patient. I had contacted him every week or so to see if we had any news. Each time he was polite and said we are very close, your offer is what they are looking for and it should be any day. LIE!!!! After some help and investigation by my sister talking to the short sale mitigator from their office, we weren't close at all not to mention we were A BACK-UP TO A BACK-UP OFFER!!!! The agents tune sure changed now. What he says now is this; he never said we were close at all, he told me from the beginning there was a couple offers on the table already but if we wanted to give it a try go ahead. MORE LIES!! He also said he cant help what order our name is in when the seller submits the offer to the bank. Papers get shuffled when they are in a pile.

Yes I know about short sales, but this seems like we were used for an offer. I was told by my sister he did not follow proper procedure with paperwork. No transaction broker agreement, no writing on contract of a back-up offer to a short sale. Does anyone know if this is true? Looking for some advise as if we should file complaints against this agent or just let it go, it's a short sale!

Thanks, Mike

Angelala · 03-16-2010, 07:19 AM

I would find a different agent immediately and move on to something else. If you are the backup of a backup offer that's not a good position to be in. When we were looking for a house we found that the best way to get the house we wanted was to NOT stick with one agent. Your chances of getting the house are much better to find a house you like and go with the listing agent of that house. The agents want the whole commission and will push their buyer through before one with a higher offer. We found this out the hard way when we made a cash offer on a house and a person who bid 20,000 less got it. And it was a bank owned property! You have to play their game to get the house you want. No offense to the agents that have integrity and don't to this.

pool_ready · 03-16-2010, 07:30 AM

Yep...we are dealing with similar stuff on a short sale. Got no advice for you. Just support.

Best of luck!

adner · 03-16-2010, 10:51 AM

I am a real estate broker and by that realtor stating he would only submit the first offer is a violation!!!!!!!!!!!

We HAVE to submit ALL offers. Being the first offer submitted does not really mean anything, they can accept ANY offer that they want. I have people that get angry sometimes because they feel they made a better offer because they offered more money. Sometimes this is not the case either. As a realtor if someone were to offer me a smaller amount of money with no contengencies and a faster closing, I would think really hard and probably go with them rather then an offer that had a bunch of contengencies and a bank loan and inspections to muddle thru. I have seen way to many people try and be greedy and the two thousand dollars more they thought they would get ended up costing them in the long run, so thats just my schooling of hard knocks opinion.

A back up offer is a whole new ball game. Is the realtor new to the business????????

A back up offer means the house is already under contract with an accepted contract and you are just there in case that one does not go thru. I would certainly not encourage or pressure anyone to do a back up offer unless I had some insight that it was a shaky deal unless my client just wanted to make one. Then I happily would. I've written many back up offers and found most of them to be a waste of everyone's time, however some of them have went thru. You just never know. If you really really really want the house do one and pray the first offer falls thru.

Transaction brokerage dislosure. I'm from Missouri and we have to disclose to our clients whom we are working for. There is a pamphlet that we HAVE to give you that states all the different ways we can work such as sellers agent/buyers agent/trans. broker/etc. Before I take a client out for the first time I sit them down and go over this pamphlet in detail so they know whom I am working for in the transaction. It is also in our contract for sale that you sign when you make an offer where we have to sign and disclose whom we are working for. There is also a seperate Transaction broker agreement. Disclosure is a HUGE deal here in Missouri and if you don't do it, you are in violation.

It sounds like your agent is new or uninformed.

???????????? I would atleast call his broker and let him or her know what their agent is doing. If he is being creepy that is just unfortunate and he will get into trouble one day. If he or she are just uninformed, as a broker, I would really want to know one of my agents was out there doing this so I could correct or dismiss them. Hope this helps. I've got 14 years under my belt so let me know if you have any other questions.

There are some really good realtors from Florida on here and I hope they give you their two cents on this matter. I hope to be one soon as I am planning on moving there after school gets out. Have a great day and I am so sorry for your troubles. I would also like to say this and I hope you appreciate it for what it is. Maybe the house your suppose to have is still waiting on you and this stump in the road is just that, a road block saying, hey....I've got something way better for you just be patient.

rikoshaprl · 03-16-2010, 02:27 PM

I think the best way to deal with short sales is to have more than one iron in the fire. You can back out if one of your other shorts comes through first.

hiknapster · 03-16-2010, 03:11 PM

The way I read this post, he didn't have a buyer's agent and was dealing directly with the listing agent.

In TN, we must submit all offers until closing. Literally, until the final signature. And it is the law and we can lose our license if we don't submit all the offers.

However, all states are different. I have been giving someone on here some moral support while going through a short sale, and I can't seem to find an answer regarding offers in Florida.

I know that we had a poster, not that long ago, that said he put in a bid on a short sale and then had his agent not take any more offers. I didn't challenge him on that because, hey, I'm not a Florida agent. But it really has me wondering.

The best agent that we have on this forum is SoFLGal, but she hangs out in the Sarasota forum. I'll go ask her and let you all know.

hiknapster · 03-16-2010, 05:58 PM

Hmmm. I'm not sure. I'll look into it more for you. I'm going to try and download the laws. I did it once before but I had to leave and I never did get the answer.

Donna-501 · 03-16-2010, 08:04 PM

At the very least I would call that agents broker. If it is a backup offer you are suppose to know that it is a back up and what a backup offer is.

Find yourself a different agent.

Yes, in FL you are suppose to be told who the agent is working for.

suzuki gsxr · 06-12-2010, 05:52 AM

Me and my wife put an offer on a house we became the back up offer the other deal fell thru now the seller's realator is trying to submit another offer over mines. what should i do? is there any laws about blowing away my back up offer to submit her own?

Donna-501 · 06-12-2010, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suzuki gsxr

Me and my wife put an offer on a house we became the back up offer the other deal fell thru now the seller's realator is trying to submit another offer over mines. what should i do? is there any laws about blowing away my back up offer to submit her own?

Was your offer accepted? If so I would call that realtors broker.