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A house in New York area came to the market - asking price $375k. I unfortunately waited 2 weeks before calling the listing agent and offered $350k...I would've gone upto asking price if it had been shot down. "House has gone into contract", says the agent. I bookmarked the house incase the deal fell through. 4 months later it was still under contract and the agent said it was about to close. I researched the owner - 70+ old guy, wife had just died (obituary in local newspaper). At 5 months the house was removed from mls as sold. Sold for $310k!! I researched the new owner - it was another real estate agent who was waiting to sell her own house for $600k+ before she could close on this house. With the state of the economy and tough time for retirees I really felt sorry the old man got cheated out of serious money.
Patrick
2012 Feb 26, 5:29am
"It's illegal in this state to accept offers after asking has been offered."
Yes, please clarify! Sounds like some state has a wonderful law. Which state?
Slightly offtopic maybe but a general question. How hard is it to work (mostly) without a buyer's agent today? This is what I would like to do
1) Find and visit properties myself. I don't want or need an agent to follow me around. And it wouldn't be fair to them either since I may decide not to buy anything.
2) If I am ready to bid, then maybe hire an agent or lawyer to assist with a few of the steps in the real estate transaction. Pay an hourly rate in cash.
3) Ensure that whatever standard buyer's agent % rate goes directly to the seller (and effectively "added" to my bid if it is compared to others).
Is this possible today? I have heard that sellers have gotten more accepting of buyers without agents - is it true?
SFace
2012 Feb 26, 4:35pm
"It's illegal in this state to accept offers after asking has been offered."
Yes, please clarify! Sounds like some state has a wonderful law. Which state?
Let's put the legal hat on.
First of all, it is never "illegal" to accepts other offers anyway. There may be consideration upon either buyer/seller backing out not protected under a binding agreement. you can't force someone to close an offer, the best you can do is ask for damages and is a standard term in a legally binding offer contract.
Secondly, asking/solication is not a legally binding offer anyway. There is no "consideration", and it violates the "statutes of frauds" and basic common law. No state in America will put in laws so conflicted with the basics of offers and contracts, so you will obviously not find the exception. (There may be something about advertising cars, but that is more for the dealer to not enrage with the customers, not because legally they will lose)
Thirdly, seller does not initiate an offer, the buyer initiates it, in which case the seller can accept, reject or counter, which has to be in writing with consideration.
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We have had a few recent threads where people indicate that realtors are either ignoring their offers, not presenting them to the sellers, or maybe telling the truth that there are multiple bids & they a buyer needs to offer more / all cash. If you suspect that the former two cases are what is occurring, can you go to the county records office and find out who the owners are and write to them (or just take your chances with the listed property's mailbox)? Something like,
"Dear So-and-So,
I am interested in 123 Smellysnatch Pl. and have been speaking with your realtor, Ms. Pendejo. Some of my recent dealings with other sellers' agents have left me with the feeling that reasonable offers may not be presented to sellers in all cases. I was informed that ## offers had been made on your property by Ms. Pendejo, and please forgive my suspicion, but I just wanted to make sure that you had been informed of my offer for $XXX,XXX.
My wife and I are pre-approved to finance this amount, with 30% down, and only need to get the bank an appraisal and have an inspection of the property. If your agent did inform you of my offer, then I apologize for taking up your time with this, and you can toss this letter in the trash. However, if you weren't made aware of my offer and it seems reasonable to you, please don't hesitate to contact me at (###)###-#### or via myemail@address.com. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mr. & Mrs. Buyer"
Obviously, there is nothing to stop you from just plopping a letter like this in the listed property's mailbox and hoping that the seller/owner gets it. However, the realtor could intercept it if the owner isn't living at that property (mmmmmm, could we get them nailed with felonies for tampering with mail???). Also, I imagine that realtors might have a way of "blacklisting" you with other realtors in the area if they found out that you were trying to make sure that there was some transparency in the process (or if they were being honest and your letter was just an insult to their integrity).
Thoughts?
#housing