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Your announcement said 1 thing to the readers of your site:
I am trying to get a bidding war going, so don't even think I will sell it at that price.
Buyers are going to make offers on other property, as they don't want to play games having no idea of what it is going to take to buy your home. Especially if they are moving to the area, and want to tie up a home real quick so they can get back home.
And that is exactly what you are trying to do, as it is so clear to readers of your post.
You hit a point of concern I had, which was allowing other people to submit offers before they even had an opportunity to see the listing. I had my place posted in the MLS Friday afternoon, and it didn't Zillow and a lot of the other usual buyer sites until Sunday eve. I would like for others to at least have time to see the place, pay a visit, and consider submitting an offer.
I like the clarity of a response-to-offer date as well, so that's why I was scratching my head when the flat fee listing broker told me it was unethical. Just didn't make complete sense to me.
I'll certainly take the advice you've given moving forward regarding immediate acknowledgement of receiving an offer. Thanks!
It isn't unethical just atypical. You can ask for 3 days response, 5 days response, etc. I see it occasionally in my MLS as sometimes estates have attorneys that need to review offers and it takes more time. It is only unethical if you don't inform people upfront that is what you need.
We generally don't write in a "offers will be reviewed by date" until you have multiple offers. It is a good way to get buyers to not look at the home and not write offers. I've seen agents write in a review offers date with no offers, then that date comes and goes.
You hit a point of concern I had, which was allowing other people to submit offers before they even had an opportunity to see the listing. I had my place posted in the MLS Friday afternoon, and it didn't Zillow and a lot of the other usual buyer sites until Sunday eve. I would like for others to at least have time to see the place, pay a visit, and consider submitting an offer.
I like the clarity of a response-to-offer date as well, so that's why I was scratching my head when the flat fee listing broker told me it was unethical. Just didn't make complete sense to me.
I'll certainly take the advice you've given moving forward regarding immediate acknowledgement of receiving an offer. Thanks!
Anyone going to ZTR to be updated on listings is pretty out of the loop. They should be on a local MLS-supported site with quicker updates. Don't tie yourself to their poor choices.
That said, one of the strengths of a properly done "Coming Soon" listing, is that people have notice to stalk the property, to have their agents contact your agent, and, yes, to write an offer sight unseen.
Yeah, the listing broker is wrong. He may have a personal ethic, but that too is misguided if he holds you to it as adhering to NAR COE.
As your fiduciary, he is bound to follow your legitimate, ethical real estate instruction, or to offer to step aside.
I'm in a hot market and it's common for people to say all offers will be reviewed on "day x". I've seen 5-7 days after the listing goes live a few times and that's probably what I'd do. I had to wait 10 days after I made an offer on my current house since the sellers went on vaca right after listing....they planned it that way. And I was on vaca when I got word that my offer was accepted too
OP, you can always ask for your offer to be responded to in a certain amount of time. If we are in a hot market we give 24 hours to respond and withdraw if there is no reply. Sometimes agents will hold offers even if they know a weak one is coming to create a bidding war. Yours could be the best one, and it could have come in first, but the agent might stall in presenting it if they know there will be competition.
I really dislike these "offer games." When we sold our house in the Bay Area where multiple offers are very common we said we were reviewing on a certain date which was 3 days after the first open house. We literally assigned a letter (A, B, C and so on) to the offers we got and looked at the numbers and timelines only. There were two that were almost identical (both over asking) and we ended up flipping a coin. We did not go back and ask for last and best because we just wanted to be under contract. Its stressful on both sides of the equation.
We've had a few sellers who, for one reason or another, needed more time to respond on every offer. One lived out of the country, so there was always a time difference, and unless one of us was up at midnight, everything got done by email, and the back and forth can take a few days. Another was a trust, where 5 siblings had to discuss everything in committee before making any decisions, and most of them worked, so scheduling was tough.
Anyway, we'd put something in the listing along the lines of "Please allow 4 calendar days for response time". Never really had any pushback with that. We still sometimes had people who'd put 12 hours or something, and we'd just respond and let them know that they definitely were not going to have a response in 12 hours, because logistically it just wasn't possible.
We've had a few sellers who, for one reason or another, needed more time to respond on every offer. One lived out of the country, so there was always a time difference, and unless one of us was up at midnight, everything got done by email, and the back and forth can take a few days. Another was a trust, where 5 siblings had to discuss everything in committee before making any decisions, and most of them worked, so scheduling was tough.
Anyway, we'd put something in the listing along the lines of "Please allow 4 calendar days for response time". Never really had any pushback with that. We still sometimes had people who'd put 12 hours or something, and we'd just respond and let them know that they definitely were not going to have a response in 12 hours, because logistically it just wasn't possible.
In case you had t noticed, the buyer is t doing you a favor by putting an offer on your house. I can only think of a few legitimate reasons why a buyer would need nearly a week to respond to my offer.
My question for OP would be.....if buyer took a week to respond to a counter-offer you send them....would you hold out for it?
"...or, even with unqualified acceptance of your offer's price and terms, would you refuse to purchase out of Principle of Pique?"
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