Is it legal/ethical to make seller aware of your offer if you suspect bad faith from the seller’s agent? (contingencies, appraised)
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Hello - I had a situation come up where I made an offer on a home (generously high, waived contingencies, etc.), but lost to another buyer. I was told at the time I actually had a higher offer but the other buyer had “better terms”, despite both offers being financed. I found out several months later that the property finally sold for significantly less than my offer ($35K under). Throughout the process, the seller’s agent was very dodgy, gave conflicting information, and wouldn’t return calls to my agent. I have the seller’s name from the offer letter and found them on Facebook. Should I reach out to let them know I submitted an offer and what it was, in case it was never presented or was misrepresented? Obviously the home is sold now, but I’m thinking they’d want to be aware if their agent didn’t act in their best interests. Thanks!
It's possible that the first offer was already accepted and at the point where the agent couldn't get out of it when he took your offer. You also don't know what inspections showed and whether or not concessions were made on the price at that point.
There are a lot of bad agents out there. Some years ago an elderly widowed neighbor spent 10's of thousands of dollars in improvements on her home at the behest of her agent, a guy who I spoke with and would compare him to the most over the top smarmy used car salesman you've ever met. She was a housewife of her 1950's generation, husband handled all the bills and money and never showed her anything so she did not have the knowledge to handle some types of people and situations after he passed.
After she did all this work he convinced her to list it for a price no one would ever pay, all you had to do was look at available comps to see he was way out of line. Of course few people came to look and she got very discouraged and kept dropping the price. I suspected he may have been keeping buyers and other agents away as she told me "he so nice he said if it did not sell he would buy it from me".
Surprise. Eventually he did offer her a deal just under what similar houses were going for in the neighborhood with all the improvements and of course he said his company would not allow him to wave his portion of the real estates agents fee. Fortunately her out of state kids finally got wind of what was going on and they had her take it off the market as soon as his listing was up. She lived in it for a few more years and eventually sold it for a price a little above average for the neighborhood. She did not recoup her investment.
I don't know if the kids filed a complaint but they should have. If you have an elderly relative who plans to sell, do them a favor, offer help them with a little research and look out for them
Beyond making the seller feel stupid and like s$it, what would be the point?
Well I guess first and foremost, it may lead to repercussions for the seller’s agent from the state licensing board and stop her from doing it again. Isn’t that the point of having a regulatory agency?
I don't think I'd have a problem with a potential buyer contacting me directly with a concern like this. I get it, it's calling out the integrity of the agent you probably just paid a lot of money to. And hopefully have a good relationship with. So not a great communication to be getting. But either way it's good for the truth to come out.
If there's a reasonable explanation I'd be fine telling the buyer as much. No, not go into the minutiae of the offers and my motivations for choosing one. But more yes the agent did present your offer and it was considered. Hopefully this will assuage the buyer's concerns and protect the agents reputation.
And if something fishy was going on I'd definitely want to know. Report to regulatory commission, cut ties with the agent. Figure out if legal action is worth the time and expense to pursue.
Pretty sure someone posted an article here awhile back of this exact thing happening. Potential buyers offer got ignored or rejected, house sold for much lower amount, they felt something fishy was going on. Contacted seller directly and turns out they were right. Seller's agent never presented the offer. Instead steering them to a lower offer, but from a buyer they also represented and would get both commissions.
I expect that your offer was presented and that after inspections there were some big-ticket items that the buyer agreed to take on as-is with a further price drop.
Did you waive inspections?
Out here, we return all offers with the seller's signature so that it is clear it was presented.
The buyer might have had a relationship with the owner--a friend or relative, or had interests in common.
We bid over asking on a property (great gardens, crummy house), but seller chose a lower offer from an avid gardener.
It worked out for us, we bought a better house that needed less work.
I don't see how you can determine what was in the seller's best interest.
And you can't know what the house was appraised or what issues the inspection turned up.
Not sure why you care... sour grapes?
Are you really trying to be a 'helper' or just trying to get the seller's agent in trouble?
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