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After a little back and forth, we made a full price offer through our Realtor. The seller accepted the offer, but we didn't hear from him for weeks. Finally, our Realtor had us put in an offer in writing to ensure we'd get the home. The seller (ONLY) acknowledged the offer in writing, but again, didn't hear from him.
Okay...I haven't read your contract and I don't know the true details of your communications...but as I read your story the thing that jumped out to me was the fact that you apparently were relying on a verbal agreement and mistakenly thought that was a "contract". If that, indeed, was the case, I think you and your agent were as much at fault as the Seller. You caused the initial delay by not submitting a valid offer to begin with.
My suggestion would be to move on and to put this behind you. You might also work with a better Buyer's Agent who will work more aggressively at submitting legitimate offers in a timely fashion...and who will do appropriate follow-up to make sure that offers get signed. Until you get a signed agreement, you have no contract.
Last edited by jackmichigan; 06-11-2014 at 06:07 PM..
I am curious, where would the Broker enter into this situation? The owner of the property happens to be an agent, but he is selling the house not his brokerage or at least I didn't see anything in this thread to say it was under the brokerage.
Also the OP approached this guy cold turkey about wanting to buy the house which was not for sale.
I am not saying that nothing was done wrong, just not sure about sanctions in a case like this.
It appears that the seller was acting as their own Agent for the sale. Regardless of whether the Agent's brokerage was directly involved or not when the Agent is acting in the capacity of a licensed Real Estate Sales person then their Broker would be responsible for their actions. Any sane Broker would want to handle this matter properly and satisfy the consumer since they too can be called to the carpet for one of their Agent's actions.
I really haven't thought of being reimbursed for my losses during this process. If that is a possibility, that's great. However, my real concern is that this Realtor has questionable integrity and will do this to the next guy. If someone with deeper pockets than myself chooses to purchase this home and complete all of the updates, then so be it. I just want to ensure this particular Realtor discloses everything that was found in the inspection. Further, it makes me feel better as a consumer to have this guy put on notice that I won't let him easily get away with how I was treated. Again, I'm not mad, but I've utilized many Realtors in my lifetime who went out of their way to assist in buying/selling a property unlike this individual.
See my post above about the Broker being responsible for this Agent.
If you feel strongly about this then you can bypass the seller's controlling Broker and file a complaint with TREC. However TREC would not act as an advocate for you and they do not necessarily perform any action to help you recoup any costs. If you go the Broker route first you might be surprised what the Broker would do with the Agent as they (the Broker) has no desire to be held accountable for something an Agent might be improperly doing. At the same time the Broker admonishes the Agent, and takes any other actions they feel are needed, then you might well recoup your loss at the same time. If the Broker does nothing or you feel they are doing nothing then the problem with this Agent might be systemic and originating with the Broker. At that point you can file a TREC complaint and also advise TREC of the issues being experienced with the Broker. If the Agent and Broker are a problem you can help clear two problems with the TREC complaint.
Maybe you are right, but my Realtor seems to think otherwise. He didn't disclose that he was a Broker/Owner in the contract, he misled us about the gas being on during inspection although the contract states that he would ensure it would be on and before that, after waiting over a month with our offer in hand, he gives us an ultimatum to buy the home with his contract amendments and close ASAP or the house would be placed on MLS.
Business is business, I guess. However, if I were to have purchased this home, I would've had no peace of mind. My understanding was that Realtors were held to a higher standard unlike the cliche "used car salesman."
No, not in my experience with them.
A commissioned sales person is, well, a commissioned sales person so does it really matter what they hawk?
Run from that house and, if you feel the need, contact a qualified real estate lawyer. To me, it sounds like the house has more problems than you need in your life. What is so unique about that house that you have spent so much time dancing with the owner?
Must of been some house for you to wait 6-8 weeks with no response. I would of moved on long ago. As a seller or buyer you can't wait too long. Standard 24-48 hrs stuff maybe 72 but after that were just jacking each other off through boxing gloves while wearing snow suits.
There is not much you can do really.
I had a similar thing with a house. Selling/listing agent was the owner. I put in a bid heard nothing. I was still looking around meanwhile. 4 days later I told my agent to send her a retraction of offer. Lo and behold all of the sudden we got a response. She wanted 40k over my offer. She also wanted my agent to hand me over for a finder fee. The seller wanted to be the seller, listing, selling and buyer agent. She was very rude and condescending in her responses. Not that I would ever agree to such deal. I couldn't walk away fast enough. House sold I think 8-10 months later 20k over my asking price with numerous listed delisted pending for sale. It was a nice house. The only flip I was ever really interested in. I just wasn't willing to go over what my budget was. I just moved on with my life. Its business not conjoined twins
The one to report this to, is the Texas Association Of Realtors, which all Realtors belong to. If it is as bad as you say it is, then they will force the agent and his office to take care of you. They do not like anything like this to happen, as it looks bad for all Realtors. Have gone this route, and got $43,000 to take care of the problem. I was a Realtor at the time handling commercial/investment real estate brokerage. Started in 1971 and remained in the business till I retired. They will act faster and harder than the TREC will, to protect the Realtor name.
Your inspector could have requested a pressure check from gas company reporting your smelling gas. Gas company would have come out and tested and refused to turn on gas until fixed if the owners line. After repair they would have tested again before allow the line to be removed and gas turned on.
Okay...I haven't read your contract and I don't know the true details of your communications...but as I read your story the thing that jumped out to me was the fact that you apparently were relying on a verbal agreement and mistakenly thought that was a "contract". If that, indeed, was the case, I think you and your agent were as much at fault as the Seller. You caused the initial delay by not submitting a valid offer to begin with.
My suggestion would be to move on and to put this behind you. You might also work with a better Buyer's Agent who will work more aggressively at submitting legitimate offers in a timely fashion...and who will do appropriate follow-up to make sure that offers get signed. Until you get a signed agreement, you have no contract.
No, at the beginning, it was just a verbal agreement to sell the home. The home was occupied by renters at the time and wasn't for sale, so there wasn't a need for a contract at the time. I understood that he might not even sell it to me. However, I trusted that the seller would give me first shot at the home, which he did. We put in an offer by e-mail that was rejected, then we resubmitted by e-mail and it was accepted. We were using e-mail because nothing official was occurring just yet.
After weeks went by with no update of the status of the home, I put in an actual written offer, which was accepted "by e-mail." A month later, out fo nowhere and numerous e-mails and calls to the Realtor, he forwarded my Realtor a modified contract with his own amendments, etc. It was agreed to and signed by me, and the purchase began. It was during the home inspection that the issues were found and it was downhill from there.
See my post above about the Broker being responsible for this Agent.
If you feel strongly about this then you can bypass the seller's controlling Broker and file a complaint with TREC. However TREC would not act as an advocate for you and they do not necessarily perform any action to help you recoup any costs. If you go the Broker route first you might be surprised what the Broker would do with the Agent as they (the Broker) has no desire to be held accountable for something an Agent might be improperly doing. At the same time the Broker admonishes the Agent, and takes any other actions they feel are needed, then you might well recoup your loss at the same time. If the Broker does nothing or you feel they are doing nothing then the problem with this Agent might be systemic and originating with the Broker. At that point you can file a TREC complaint and also advise TREC of the issues being experienced with the Broker. If the Agent and Broker are a problem you can help clear two problems with the TREC complaint.
Thank you for the information. I have spoken to the Broker, who was very helpful. I don't know if she cares or not, but I am happy that she knows that one of her agents has questionable business practices. When spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home purchase, getting a fair deal from a trustworthy person is very important to me.
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