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FWIW, Mike's is a noble gesture certainly!... but getting a court to award it, if the OP's agent is less willing or able to give such a gesture voluntarily, will take into consideration the likelihood of that offer to actually close at that price. As in any transaction, there would have been no guarantees of that... the sale could have easily failed, on inspection, or appraisal, or financing, or even second thoughts on the part of those buyers about their generous offer. Just because there is an offer, it was not in the bank yet.
I would not dismiss it as "noble."
If I had a complete bona fide offer in hand, and failed to present it to my client, I would not need a court to tell me to try to make them whole.
I do think your post assumes a lot of bona fides and guarantees we don't have yet from what's been said here... potentially more than what is even known yet by the (second) op...
So I while think it's potentially premature to say what you did as a general edict, it's definitely noble.
I do think your post assumes a lot of bona fides and guarantees we don't have yet from what's been said here... potentially more than what is even known yet by the (second) op...
So I while think it's potentially premature to say what you did as a general edict, it's definitely noble.
I assume nothing.
That is why the first post was clearly qualified with a "Maybe..."
Yes...
MAYBE the OP has it wrong, or there is more detail.
Or...
Maybe the poster has it just right.
I don't at all accept Brandon's concept that not checking email would let the agent off the hook.
Worst advice ever? This buyer has every right to ask and find out what happened to their offer and if they don't get a satisfactory answer from the agent - they can choose to contact the seller. Might be the best advice ever if they call and the seller learns they would have offered more.
Don't forget it is the seller selling and the buyer buying. Agents are in there to make a cut and don't like anyone to upset THEIR "system".
out of curiosity, do you know what state the Buyer is in, and what that Buyer's Agency Agreement says? Do you know what that document says in your state? Do you know the Listing Agreement in that state, and your state?
We all "get" the disappointment of seeing a house right when it hits the market, making a solid offer, and only hearing back "sorry, someone else made an offer we chose".
I can tell you in MY state, the Seller has to allow me to announce the existence of multiple offers. Most do, some don't. And as others have said, nothing requires a seller to take any 1 legal, acceptable, and even expected method.
The OP's agent can do some digging into how they got where they are - which agent sold the house, confirm with the Listing agent that all offers were presented, and if they (you) are seriously in dou.bt if this was handled correctly - involve the Listing Agent's broker (in charge)
Well...
There is a reason I said, "Maybe..." As opposed to saying, "Absolutely..."
Truly, if the agent presents offers next day without checking his overnight email, he is not diligent for his client.
If he presents and gets signatures and forwards a contract to the buyers' agent without checking his email, he is just really inept.
I have little empathy.
Of course, I check my email in my nightie, while my first coffee is perking.
Yes, the buyers' agent should notify, but according to the OP, the offer was delivered and received. Just not read and presented.
Mailbox rule. And, "Present all offers."
The more interesting consideration is whether the offer was complete, was bona fide, and had no onerous conditions or implications that it may not be "close-able."
But, that is discussed and clarified at presentation.
If the poster lawyers up, the attorney may make the agent prove the negative, that it was not bona fide.
Then there is the other side, the offerree and buyers agent, who may also have complaint that the offer wasn't presented.
Ethics complaint, for starters.
Yeah. It could be messy.
Isn't it customary for the buyer's agent to let the seller's agent know an offer is coming?
argh on getting caught responding to a years-old post.
new poster presents quite the conundrum for everyone involved. Surely, when I submit an offer, I check to make sure it was received. The BA has some culpability as well.
We had three offers on one property yesterday. The seller accepted the highest and best and then the middle offer came up $10,000, after we had signed and communicated acceptance. They are now in backup position. Had they called and told us the offer was being revised...
We saw a house the day it went on the market, which was yesterday. We saw it at noon and had an offer written up by 3pm. We were waiting to hear back today. Seller's agent told my agent today at 11am that we should hear soon. Now at 2pm Sellers agent tells us that the buyer accepted another offer, which was the first one they got. We offered asking price 6 hours after it went on the market. Is there something shady going on? Isn't the seller's agent supposed to disclose multiple offers in case we would raise our offer? (Which I would have).
Can we go back and raise our offer to see if they would take it?
Isn't this unethical to not disclose. Seller's agent basically cheated them out of extra $$ as well.
You are making several assumptions here:
1. That your offer was better than the other offer
2. That your terms were more attractive to the seller
don't see anything shady about this. Please remember that the agent does not direct acceptances and rejections -- these circumstances are dictated by the seller. There is nothing that requires a seller to disclose how many offers they have received, and, indeed, the agent may have been working under a confidentiality agreement where they were asked NOT to disclosure that information.
I understand you are disappointed that someone else made a better offer. But this is not an auction, where you keep raising your bid until the other one falls away. In this case, it was more like a sealed bid, and you lost. A seller always takes a chance when they ask for "highest and best offers" -- sometimes it irritates potential buyers and a seller goes from two buyers to NO buyers. They may have decided not to take that chance.
There has been a lot of publicity about "multiple offers', but there's often not a lot of discussion on how those offers are handled. I've had situations where we had 6 offers in 20 hours. A few were over asking price. The seller just picked the one that met his needs -- he liked the closing date, the amount of the earnest money, the lack of special stipulations. Interestingly, it wasn't the highest bid -- but the highest bid was asking for several items that ate up the difference between the second-highest bid.
We had three offers on one property yesterday. The seller accepted the highest and best and then the middle offer came up $10,000, after we had signed and communicated acceptance. They are now in backup position. Had they called and told us the offer was being revised...
Yup.
And, of course, this is not the same as actually having the offer in hand prior to signing and communicating acceptance.
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