Posted by Rob FL on June 14, 2000 at 16:30:31:
It is probably better not to cry over spilt milk. Even if someone else knocked it out of your hand.
If you do want to pursue things file a complaint with both the state real estate commission and the local board of REALTORS.
Dept of RE or an attorney? - Posted by Carey1950
Posted by Carey1950 on June 14, 2000 at 15:52:01:
Last year I made an offer on a house for sale through a Realtor. It had been on the market over 12 months with No offers. It was an assumable at 6.5%. Another offer was accepted, and I just now learned that the buyer was an agent from the SAME office as both the selling agent and my (buyer’s) agent. The offer came in after my Realtor had written mine up. OK, would it be better to persue this through the Dept of RE, or get an attorney. I’m so mad I can’t see straight. Thank you very much for any input.
Things like this happen to agents too! - Posted by Vic
Posted by Vic on June 15, 2000 at 13:44:43:
Carey,
Don’t think you’re alone with something like this. It happens everyday. I’d bet it’s happened to everyone on this board at one time or antoher.
I’ll give you an example of something that just recently happened to me. I found a property that I wanted to flip. I called the agent on a Fri. & told her I was making an offer on the property (I’m licensed). She said that the sellers were out of town & wouldn’t be back til Mon. Supposedly they were at a convention somewhere. Now these sellers are in their 80’s, so I can’t imagine what kind of convention they were at :).
Anyway, I knew right away that the agent was stalling. On Mon. the agent called me wanting to know where my offer was. So I wrote it & gave it to her. (no sense writing it on Fri. if she couldn’t get an answer til Mon.) Anyway, she calls me back Mon. nite & says the sellers are still out of town. They should be back Tues. though. So I told her just to let me know Tues. nite. Well, Tues nite comes & still they’re not back (I guess the agent needed more time). So I gave her til Wed. Well Wed. she calls & says the sellers rejected the offer & didn’t want to counter. I check the computer 2 days later & guess what - it’s under contract.
Now isn’t this odd. I suppose that it really could be that someone just happened to come in with an offer the next day & it got accepted, but chances are, that wasn’t the case at all. What this agent did was drag me along, probably because she had her own buyer & wanted to get the whole commission herself instead of splitting it with me. So what could I do, other than be mad? Not much, because I have no proof of anything.
My point in tellin you all this though, is that stuff like this happens all the time. When it does there’s not much you can do about it.
In this business, there are all kinds of games that are played from every angle. The longer you’re in it the more you will see.
I don’t think any games were played in your situation though. If they were played though, it would have been with the listing agent & the agent who bought the house. Seems to me that if nothing else, the listing agent could have at least said there was another offer & asked you if you wanted to change your offer any. But since they didn’t do this there’s not much you can do about it. Your agent did nothing wrong as far as I can tell.
As far as reporting the agents, I totally agree with Eduardo, it would be a waste of your time. If anything wrong was indeed done, it would be very difficult to prove. Best just to forget about it & chalk it up to experience.
Vic
Neither one - Posted by Eduardo (OR)
Posted by Eduardo (OR) on June 14, 2000 at 19:02:43:
Carey–
Who are you mad at? Here are the rules: A seller can sell to anyone he/she chooses. Did the agent offer more than you did? Even if the agent offered the same amount or less, even if the agent’s offer was written after yours was, the seller makes the decisions and can legally accept any offer he/she wants. No way of getting around that. Second, the winning offer was not from your agent or the seller’s agent. Although it may seem unethical to you, there is nothing illegal about a person with a real estate license, even if that person works in the same office, making an offer on any listed property that office has. The general view of the courts is that the more offers obtained for the seller to review, the better a job the listing agent is doing, regardless of where those offers are coming from. Third, if the listing agent or your (buyer’s) agent had offered on the property, you may have a cause for action, but they didn’t. If they had, and proper disclosure’s were made, you might still lose in court. Fourth, contacting the local Board of Realtors with a complaint is usually useless. Complaints with merit should go to the state licensing authority. This will scare the heck out of the agent’s broker. But you have no real cause for complaint here. Finally, you say the property had been on the market 12 months with no offers. Where were you during those 12 months? He/she who moves fastest with the best offer wins. Why not take responsibility for your own actions in not submitting a good enough offer in a timely enough fashion instead of blaming someone else for the property having been sold out from under you? This happens to real estate investors all the time. Don’t get mad, it’s a waste of energy. Go out and buy another property instead.