Seller's Realtor Contacting My Bank ? (buyer's agent, contracts, Realtors, foreclosure)

[Three Man]

Placed an offer on a house 96% of asking price.

I recieve an e-mail and a call from my banker, that the seller's realtor contacted her trying to get info on the amount that I've been approved for.

My banker states that the seller's realtor was notified to work with my realtor.

Called my realtor to asks questions about the complaint.

My realtor states that it figures the seller's realtor is high strung.
Then my realtor informs me that the seller's realtor asked for my top end.
The seller's realtor asked for another approval letter from my realtor. (Original letter 1 month old)
So my realtor gets a new letter from my banker with todays date and same information that I'm pre-approved bonafied buyer.
My banker does not write in approved amount.
My realtor does not know my top end and we've been looking in the price range where my realtor and I feel comfortable.

My realtor nor my banker disclosed the information and informed me about it.

Seller's realtor is Associate Vice President and a National Sales Award Recipient.

Is this a breach of ethical conduct?
My top end is well above asking price, What buisness is it of the seller's realtor on my top end?

I'm thinking on filing a complaint.
Am I wrong in thinking that somehow the sellers realtor is wrong.

I'm debating on pulling my offer for what I feel is misconduct of the seller's realtor.

I do understand the trying to get inside information to better judge the situation but I feel this was too far in this current market.
Maybe why so many people have forclosed?

Should I file a complaint or just walk away?

[palmcoasting]

I think you should just go forward and buy the house. You want it, you can afford it, so...? Why worry about the fact that the other Realtor® is concerned for her customer that you can't afford it? Would I call the bank/mortgage broker directly? If I couldn't get the information from your Realtor®, yes, I would. Is it unethical? No. Why would you think it is? If your mortgage broker or Realtor® gave out information you did not authorize them to give, yes, that would be unethical. But for someone to ask? No.
Buy the house. Leave the drama out of it. On her part, nice try, but no cigar.

[TexasHorseLady]

I always ask my buyer to get a pre-approval letter for the amount of the offer they're making, even if they're pre-approved for much more. Most lenders who have pre-approved a buyer are happy to provide such a letter.

The only time I would even consider contacting a buyer's lender, as the listing agent, would be after all negotiations were done and the contract was moving forward to closing, and that only with permission and if there was concern regarding getting everything done (by the lender) by the closing date and if the buyer's agent wasn't doing their end of the job (or if there was no buyer's agent). And I wouldn't be asking about the amount the buyer is preapproved for, but, then, I'd already have a pre-approval letter in my client seller's hands long before that point, anyway.

[pghquest]

You can, and should file a complaint, but dont expect any outcome from it. The sellers realtor is obligated to get as much money for his seller as possible.

Him coming back and asking for your best and final offer is reasonable.. (although at 96% asking price, thats very reasonable I'd tell him thats it, unless its one heck of a deal).

Its not unusual to ask for a bank approval letter, to see your top end, but it is unusual for them to call the bank, this is where I would have the issue. I dont even think a bank by law can give that out.. (I could be wrong here).

You want to get their goat, cancel your offer, and give them another one at 95% of the asking price... tell them that the 1% is for your "extra" work that he's asking you to do, let him cancel the deal, not you... haha..

Seriously, if the house is a good deal, you like it, live with the issues but a realtor like that sounds like trouble...
p.s. the "award that he received" means absolutely nothing other then the fact that he had a good year of sales..

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by pghquest

You can, and should file a complaint, but dont expect any outcome from it. The sellers realtor is obligated to get as much money for his seller as possible.

Him coming back and asking for your best and final offer is reasonable.. (although at 96% asking price, thats very reasonable I'd tell him thats it, unless its one heck of a deal).

Its not unusual to ask for a bank approval letter, to see your top end, but it is unusual for them to call the bank, this is where I would have the issue. I dont even think a bank by law can give that out.. (I could be wrong here).

You want to get their goat, cancel your offer, and give them another one at 95% of the asking price... tell them that the 1% is for your "extra" work that he's asking you to do, let him cancel the deal, not you... haha..

Seriously, if the house is a good deal, you like it, live with the issues but a realtor like that sounds like trouble...
p.s. the "award that he received" means absolutely nothing other then the fact that he had a good year of sales..

I'm not a realtor, but think this is going to far. If you really want the home than close on it otherwise what pghquest is writing is a good idea. There are privacy laws and to me all these awards are not telling me much because they give to many too easy away. Look how many awards were giving out in in the sub prime mess. The more people you give wrong info and send them into foreclosure the more awards the person got. That was recently on CNN mentioned that the shop selling these awards are in financial trouble because of the sub prime mess.

[Brandon Hoffman]

Nothing wrong with any body's conduct in the scenario.

Sellers agent trying to get best sale for seller. Nothing wrong or unethical with calling a lender to make sure you are a solid buyer ant trying to get info to help his client.

Lender did right by not giving up your information and instructing seller agent to go through buyer agent.

Buyer agent did right by getting updated pq letter still w/o pq amount on it.

Everyone followed the proper course to protect their client. You don't have anything you can file a complaint about based on the information provided. The state of the market has no impact on what is ethical or not. Nobody has done anything unethical based on the info provided. If you want the house you should buy it and be happy you have 2 apparently good quality Realtors in the transaction because it increases your chances of closing.

[Silverfall]

There is nothing wrong with the agent's conduct. I require that a pre-approval amount be listed on the letter. How is the seller to know that you are preapproved for the purchase price? Most letters have the purchase price as the preapproval amount. I don't care what your max is, I just want to know you can afford what you said you can.

I call the buyer's lenders all of the time to find out how solid the buyer is ALL of the time. Preapproval letters are only as good as an ethical mortgage broker. Some mortgage brokers write "preapproval letters" without having run a credit report. I want to know exactly where they are in the process.

I call to get a feel for the ethics of the broker. It helps me to avoid financing failures along the way.

And yes...I call the mortgage broker once a week as a listing agent to get an update on the status and process. Our contracts out here have a written release for the lender to give us status and basic updates (no confidential info like FICO scores, etc).

Sounds to me like the seller's agent is doing their job.

[middle-aged mom]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

Sounds to me like the seller's agent is doing their job.

I do the same thing. Financing contingencies too often go right up to the point of closing, meaning there is no certainty of closing, if the buyer does not do X,Y and Z. My seller has a right to know what X,Y and Z are and the timetable for remediation. It's the seller taking the risk of loss of opportunity because the house is not being shown while under contract.

There is nothing unethical about due dilligence.

[2bindenver]

Let me change hats...

As a seller's agent it is my obligation to do fact finding and share the information gleaned with my client. Do I call the lender? Absolutely. I want to know is the buyer good, do you expect any issues, have they been thru underwriting, have verifications in - are their ratios in-line?????

As a buyer's agent, my lender calls the listing broker and tells them, the buyers are approved, I have read the offer, I anticipate no issues, yes it's been thru underwriting...

[TexasHorseLady]

It's the buyer's agent's job to try to get the longest financing contingency possible, and the listing agent's responsibility to get the shortest reasonable one (banks being what they are). But the deal can, indeed, fall through at the closing table, even. That's noe reason that I always list my listings with pending contracts as pending taking backup offers, and thus sometimes have backups waiting in the wings "just in case".

As far as keeping track of the status of things in getting the deal through to closing (the "herding cats" part of a real estate agent's job), I try to work with the buyer's agent on doing that, as they should be keeping in touch with the lender for the same reason. It's only if they're not doing that part of their job that contacting the lender directly should be necessary.