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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 $$ as well.
Maybe the first offer the Sellers received was an offer they could refuse? Perhaps the first offer was "cleaner" (lack of contingencies, cash offer, etc)
Perhaps the Sellers didn't want to risk loosing the first offer by directing their agent to reject all offers and requesting everyone to send in their final and best offer by a certain time?
It also depends on how hot your market is. In other words, I don't necessarily think that that there was an ethics violation and that there were many factors involved that you may not be aware of from the other offer.
Well it's a hot market on the first day of a listing, within six hours of it being listed, so as far as losing offers, I seriously doubt that would happen. My agent is furious. We only had an inspection contingency.
You could ask for written confirmation from the seller that your offer was presented but, really, as tough as it may be to take, you might as well just accept it and move on. One alternative to this is to have your agent ask that your offer be considered and signed as a backup, just in case the first one blows up.
No, a listing agent does not have to disclose multiple offers. A listing agent must in that case do what his client says to do. The agent is going to advise his client what he thinks is best, then do as the client says.
In most cases it would be in the best interests of Seller to disclose multiple offers and try to get them bumped up. Not always. Sometimes a Seller may choose to counter only one offer.
Bottom line, they can handle it any way they choose. Perhaps it was about more than money. Sometimes wisdom precludes greed.
How is it that you think you know the Seller would have gotten more money from you than from the other?
Isn't this unethical to not disclose. Seller's agent basically cheated them out of extra $$ as well.
It's only unethical and against the Code of Ethics if the listing agent told some agents there were multiple offers but didn't tell every agent. The ethics part is you either tell all or tell none. It's up to the seller how they want to handle it.
The number one reaction I get from buyers when I tell them that there are multiple offers is "Do you think they are playing games?" Number two is "Withdraw our offer. We're not going to play that game." Any smart seller would be prudent to exercise caution in a multiple offer situation. You said you offered full asking so they probably did the smart thing by accepting another, presumably at least full price and probably cleaner offer rather than risk losing both by announcing multiples. They did the smart thing and crossed no ethical or legal boundary.
It isn't unethical as long as the seller was aware that there were multiple offers and chose not to call for highest and best. While it is unusual to not call for highest and best, my cash buyer just had that happen. They just took his offer without calling for highest and best.
It also might be that the other buyer agent told their buyer to go above asking from the get go in order to prevent a call for highest and best.
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