do realtors HAVE to submit your offer? - Posted by mark

Posted by Ed Wachsman on December 07, 1998 at 04:32:18:

To the best of my knowledge, most if not all states require the agent to do so.

As a practical matter, if they don’t like the offer, there are tons of ways they can kill it even if they do present it. If you really feel the offer has merit, you must contractually require that you be present when the offer is presented and, almost without exception, you can present it in much more favorable light than the agent could even conceive of doing. But in truth, unless you speak directly with the seller BEFORE the offer is written, your chances of coming up with a solution that truly solves their problem are remote. I’d much rather arange a meeting with the seller and agent to learn about the seller’s circumstnances and motivation and be prepared to present a previously undrafted offer immediately after the conversation or, perhaps, a day later if I need to do some thinking. Bear in mind, I am going to have some idea that there is something very worthwhile to pursue before I go through all of this.

If the seller lives out of town, that presents a much greater challenge. The ideal is that they have a fax and that you (and the agent) fax the offer and then you immediately present via phone the advantages to the seller - that is, preferably, after you have had an initial conversation with the seller to learn about their motivation.

Unless the agent has told you and you have confirmed that this is a below market transaction and the seller has authorized him/her to share with you that they have compelling reasons to sell in a way that assures you a fair profit, you are spinning your wheels 99%(OK, maybe only 98% :slight_smile: ) of the time by just handing below market offers to agents and letting them run with it.

do realtors HAVE to submit your offer? - Posted by mark

Posted by mark on December 07, 1998 at 24:01:33:

if i want to submit an offer on a property i’ve looked at, is the seller’s realtor (who is showing me the property) REQUIRED to submit the offer? even if it’s far below the asking price on the property?

Re: do realtors HAVE to submit your offer? - Posted by Carol

Posted by Carol on December 07, 1998 at 05:46:17:

One of our FL licenced brokers may correct me, but here (as I understand it) a realtor is REQUIRED to present all offers, unless he has specific insturctions from the seller not to present offers , say, below “x” figure.

Of course, I had a broker IGNORE that statement in my offer ( contract) that required that I be present when the offer was presented … and the deal ultimately fell thru - by MY volition, not the Seller’s.
Ed’s advice is right on as far as motivation … and BTW, as I understand the rules of the game, another broker may not contact the seller directly, but YOU as a potential buyer certainly can. The seller may refer you to the broker, but that is their choice.

I have an acquaintance who contacted a seller directly (there was no sign up, but the property was listed), negotiated a 100% financing deal with him, got everything put together nicely, THEN the seller called the broker to let her know that she had ‘earned’ a commission on a sale they were soon to close!
Carol
PS the seller was a very successful business person / investor, and was entirely capable of structuring a deal with the buyer!