A Slick Trick

[palmcoasting]

Originally Posted by Southside Shrek

If a Buyer cannot be presented with some proof, i.e., verification, that another written Offer was in fact submitted as the Buyer was told, then it opens the floodgate for Seller's agents to scam.

It's called buyer beware and the seller is under no obligation to you, at all, what so ever. Should we also be calling it a scam when the buyer insists they can't afford more, that this is their last, final and best offer...and then they come back again with a higher offer? Let's be a little realistic.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by palmcoasting

It's called buyer beware and the seller is under no obligation to you, at all, what so ever. Should we also be calling it a scam when the buyer insists they can't afford more, that this is their last, final and best offer...and then they come back again with a higher offer? Let's be a little realistic.

Hey good one. I always recommend countering last best and final offers. Works a very high percentage of the time.

[mainebrokerman]

a buyer and his/her agent can request that thier offer be confidential,,,,that the listing broker cannot divulge the presence of an offer on the table,
now,,,altho this request can be made, and often does,,its the sellers that determine whether they divulge that info)whether another offer is on the table) (maine law)

ive been on both sides of this,,ive thought the listing broker was b.s.ing me and didnt offer full price,, and my buyer clients lost out on a home they really wanted,,

most buyers brokers can ask,,if other offers are on the table,,but never ever,,can a listing agent divulge the content or price of an offer,,

now a wise buyer,,will want his "offer" be made in the presence of the sellers which is perfectly legal,,,,,that way it may be a bit more difficult to lie in front of you or to your face,,

[KMCopeland]

Originally Posted by Southside Shrek

if what you claim is true that I have no right to see or even be told the amount of the other purported offer, then you open up the door wide for Buyers to be scammed and to have no recourse. I deem that to be fundamentally wrong.

I think it's fundamentally wrong too. I don't know why you think it's possible to somehow ensure everyone in the world has the same standards of integrity you have, but it's not. You have control over yourself, period. Legislating personal honesty has never worked very well. The good news is the vast majority of people have no desire to rip anyone off. Work that to your advantage. You'll be surprised how well it goes.

there should at least be a verification process to confirm whether that other so-called written offer was really made or not on the day and time represented. Even EBay has a system in place to try to catch and prevent phony bidding to jack the price up for a Seller.

But you're not looking for a phony bid. You're just looking for the existence of a bid, or in this case, of another offer on a house. You doubt it was even made, and you want proof that it was. You just aren't entitled to that.

There are good reasons a listing agent isn't supposed to share the details of offers with anyone but his client, who is the seller of the property, but the bottom line is it's basically none of your business. If someone has lied to you they are unethical and unscrupulous and they need to be out of business. But focusing on whether or not you've been lied to and how you can prove it is missing the point. The point is for you to get a house you like, in good shape, for a fair price. Stop worrying about who lied to you and who didn't and re-focus on your original goal.

Here's what you do when you're considering making an offer on a house. First: You make a determination that it's the house you want. Second: You get a shrewd professional's opinion on the market value of the house. Rely on yourself for that at your peril. Third: You then carefully asess your personal financial situation to see how close to the market value you can reasonably come. Depending on how much you want that particular house, at this point you decide to lowball or not. Fourth: You make your offer contingent on the results of an inspection by an inspector of your choice.

You make an offer based on those things alone -- not on what you think someone else might be doing. This is the fundamental flaw in your thinking. You're way too concerned about what someone else is doing, when all you really need to worry about is yourself.

If you go through the above process, and you don't get the house, that most likely means that the price you were willing to pay wasn't enough. Since you carefully determined that your offer was the most you were willing and/or able to pay, you move on. This is how you avoid being scammed. If you have your own needs, and capacity to buy, firmly established in your scheme of priorities, nobody is going to be able to trick you into, or out of, anything.

Another fallacy you're operating under is you have to have a particular house. If you lose one because someone else was willing to pay more, there are always more. If you lose one because someone was unethical during the process, you're better off not being involved in that deal.

And you are wasting your time demanding proof that another offer was made. Sometimes you can prove or disprove that long after the fact. I hate to hear reports of agents lying for any reason, at any time. I always track it down whenever I can, and that's never when you're in the thick of negotiation. Spinning your wheels on that, at this point in the transaction, is guaranteed to be counterproductive.