What recourse do Sellers have when Broker does not notify of all offers? (sale, real estate)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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We recently accepted an offer for our home for the asking price. After signing the offer sheet, we received a call from another potential buyer saying they had offered 5k more for the house and were curious why this offer was not accepted.
We informed them we were never presented with this offer. According to this buyer, their bid was sent in prior to our signing of the offer sheet. Now, I don't mean to be greedy but doesn't the broker work for me?
Thinking back, I remember a conversation with the broker just prior to signing the offer sheet. The broker talked how lower appraisal values have forced the loan to value (LTV) percentage to creep above 80%. This was forcing buyers to re-negotiate since they did not want to pay PMI.
Now, my home is probably on the high-end of the other 3 br comparable homes in the area. Is it possible the broker is concerned about the home selling for too much since the appraisal value may come in low? Maybe, it is a coincidence but my gut tells me otherwise. Either way, shouldn't this be the problem of the buyer and seller and not the broker?
So, the bottom line is we are a little upset but not sure what we can do about it.
Have you talked to your agent? I am a little confused by what you described. How did a potential buyer manage to contact you? Are you certain they actually submitted an offer to your agent? You need to be able to trust your broker. It is unlcear whether they did anything wrong since you are olny getting one side of the story. Again, a conversation is in order to get everything out on the table for clear understanding of the situation. Good luck.
I agree w/ NRG. Perhaps the "buyer" gave an offer to their agent and by the time their agent called yours you'd already signed the previously received offer.
I haven't talked to my agent directly yet. This all just happened in the last hour. I was just hoping to get some feedback first.
I must admit that I'm still suspicious. The broker seemed nervous during the signing. Also, when I asked about any other offers, I got a lame answer. It was like...."I haven't checked. Let's just deal with this offer since they were the first".
Was your broker related/working for the buyer you sold your house to? I know when I sold my house, my agent told me the opposite of what you were told. She told me, "Let's make sure we don't select the first offer presented, but we can't wait too long for other offers to come in." She was very good about presenting all offers to me immediately, so I could make a decision on who to pay more attention to. She also would try to "feel" out other agents who expressed interest in my home, to make sure their client didn't want to present a written offer (almost all of them had presented oral offers). I'd speak with the broker to make sure she's not working both sides without telling you. It seems to me she'd want you to take the best offer for you.
Did the offer tha you accepted come from a broker from the same real estate firm/ office as your broker? If so I would have some serious questions to the broker in charge at that office.
If the realtor is being paid on commission (i.e. 3% of the sale price), why would (s)he not want you to accept an offer for 5K more? That's $150 less for the realtor. I guess if the buyer and realtor are friends, I could see the higher offer not being presented.
I guess you'll have to talk to your realtor and find out.
If the realtor is being paid on commission (i.e. 3% of the sale price), why would (s)he not want you to accept an offer for 5K more?
Because the buyer's agent also gets 3%. If the buyer's agent is in the same office as the seller's agent, then the office gets an extra 3% instead of it going somewhere else. That's much better than a piddly 150 bucks.
I'm curious about the people who made the offer you accepted. Did they have their own realtor representing them? If not, there is a chance that you are in a dual agency situation - your realtor is representing both you and the buyer. This would be beneficial to the realtor because, although you would receive less money than with the bigger offer, he would receive a larger commission.
Note that what PDXMom and NewUser describes is another form of dual agency.
How do you know that the caller is telling the truth?
How did they know what you accepted?
Time to call your agent and have an open conversation about the proceedings.
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