Posted by john (NC) on April 19, 1999 at 14:03:10:
Why don’t you just write up the letter of intent yourself and give it to the agent to send to the seller? You could put one or several proposals in it for the seller to consider. Since it is not binding, you may even offer cash ot terms that you’d rather not come up with but that you could negotiate around.
Submitting offers - Posted by Jim Beavens
Posted by Jim Beavens on April 19, 1999 at 13:42:42:
So I faxed offers on 4 of the junker properties I’ve been looking at to the listing agent, and he called me back and said that he prefers to not write up contracts for such low cash offers, because usually he writes up all the paperwork and they just get flat-out rejected. So he said that he will talk to the bank rep, convey to her what my offers are, see if they’re negotiable on price, and get back to me with her response. I think the realtor’s basically trying to get a negotiation process started so that we can meet somewhere in the middle. I told him to tell me what the seller says, and then we’ll go from there.
Any advice on how I should handle this? I think I should have asked him to at least write up a 3 or 4-sentence letter of intent outlining my offer (price, all cash, no contingencies, close in 30 days, access to building upon acceptance, etc). This would at least put something in writing in front of the seller instead of them relying on the realtor’s spin on my offer (which will most likely be negative). Oh well, next time. But for now, any tips on handling the realtor if he calls back with counter-offers? Unless they’re within like $3-5K of my offers, I plan on telling him that this is as high as I can go at this time (if they counter within a few thousand, then I’ll have the realtor let me inside so I can see if any of my rough, conservative repair estimates need adjusting).
Any tips on how to handle this in the future would be welcome. I had thought that simply filling in blanks on a contract would take just a few minutes, but apparently this guy doesn’t think so.
Re: Submitting offers - Posted by Zeus
Posted by Zeus on April 19, 1999 at 23:35:01:
remember that a realtorcan only represent one party at a time and this one is on the sellers side. Make all your offers in writing and give them to the realtor to give to his sellers. I believe that it is unlawful for a realtor not to give every written offer to a seller, no matter what the offer is as long as it is in writing. Remember that the higher a property sells for, the bigger the realtors comission will be. Always make written offers to sellers. You never know what will happen. They may decline it, counter offer, or (best case) sign the offer as is. Its been known to happen. Good Luck and never say die!
Zeus