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We had a horrible buying experience this weekend. We matched the seller's asking price (they said they will sell if we offer that price) and faxed them the contract on Saturday morning. Realtor claimed she could not find the sellers to sign. We waited. All of sudden, they called us and said they got a stronger offer that night. We got into a bidding war. We did not win. Seller ended up with $20k higher than the list price. We feel we were taken advantage of. Our realtor said an oral offer is not a contract. It has to be signed by each other. Is it true? I though as long as there is an agreement, the seller can not accept another offer. I just feel so pissed off.
Unfortunately them saying they would take your offer if it was full price, prolly only meant they would take no less then what they were asking...but until on paper it isn't an official offer. Since they did get a high offer in the bidding war and obvisouly took it (who wouldn't?) it is their prerogative to take the higher offer.
Sorry!
Stinks to be in a bidding war over a house in a market like this..sheesh, must have been a nice place or something.
We had a horrible buying experience this weekend. We matched the seller's asking price (they said they will sell if we offer that price) and faxed them the contract on Saturday morning. Realtor claimed she could not find the sellers to sign. We waited. All of sudden, they called us and said they got a stronger offer that night. We got into a bidding war. We did not win. Seller ended up with $20k higher than the list price. We feel we were taken advantage of. Our realtor said an oral offer is not a contract. It has to be signed by each other. Is it true? I though as long as there is an agreement, the seller can not accept another offer. I just feel so pissed off.
If you had paid the seller's asking price in this market (let alone $20K higher), more than likely you would be overpaying. Consider yourself lucky (unless you were already emotionally attached to the house)!
To me this means the market in Connecticut is not as dead as most of the rest of the country. Multiple offers on a house? Selling for $20k over asking? Is this 2006???
To me this means the market in Connecticut is not as dead as most of the rest of the country. Multiple offers on a house? Selling for $20k over asking? Is this 2006???
Maybe the asking price was set too low to begin with...
Our REALTOR® said an oral offer is not a contract. It has to be signed by each other. Is it true? I though as long as there is an agreement, the seller can not accept another offer. I just feel so pissed off.
True. For simplicity's sake, I am excluding Fairfield County in the following explanation since they deal with binders and attorney review.
An offer isn't a fully-executed contract until both parties sign the same offer without making changes. Verbal offers are not enforceable in Connecticut. If changes are made, in essence creating a counter-offer, then the other party has to sign the changes.
Once there is a fully-executed contract, the seller cannot accept another offer. The seller can receive back-up offers but can't do anything with them. The seller has to hope that the buyer cannot meet the contingencies resulting in a dissolution of the contract.
As for the multiple-offer scenario, some offices subscribe to the "Schweppe" notion of pricing a property below market to solicit multiple offers. The goal is to get more than market for the property. Agents from my last office did this.
As mentioned by others, if both parties have not signed, it is not a legally binding contract. Verbal contracts are worth nothing, that's why it is imperative to get the sellers to sign the contract as soon as possible.
Additionally, the listing agent could have "shopped" your offer to get more for the sellers. As infuriating as this may be to a buyer, it is actually legal (as long as you don't have a confidentiality agreement attached to your offer) and it may be in the best interest of the seller, which is the listing agent's job.
The only thing you can do to protect the conditions of your offer is to first submit a confidentiality agreement and get it signed by the seller. However, that does not guarantee the seller will not receive other offers and you won't end up in a bidding war.
Both parties must sign! Oral is nothing! Anyone can say anything they want. It should be in writing. I'm sorry you wound up with the short end of the deal, but maybe that wasn't meant to be. Good will come of it! Good luck.
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