Does a Seller's Agent Have to Inform a Prospective Buyer About Higher Offers
My question involves real estate located in the State of: Southern California
I spoke with the seller's agent. I asked him if they had any offers yet. He said yes. I asked how much. He said he couldn't disclose. The property was listed for $700K. I said, do you have offers for $800K? He said, oh no, it won't sell for that much, we have offers in the mid 700's. I said ok, we will be putting in a strong offer. We put in an offer for $775K, 3% initial deposit, no loan contingency, no appraisal contingency, $250K down payment. That night I noticed the property was delisted (not set to pending but delisted!). I immediately contacted the seller, he says he delisted it because he was getting too many offers. But that he would be submitting our offer to the seller and getting us a counter the next day. I don't hear back and so I call him mid-day and he says the seller went with another higher offer. Really? So first you say it won't go for anything near $800K, then you delist the property before accepting an offer, then you say you'll send me a counter but don't, and then you end up selling to someone else? Something sounds really fishy here. My question is, is what he did legal? We would have presented an $800K+ offer.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
Not at all. The only two errors he made were not advising the sell to sell the house for more in the first place and not mentioning to the seller that somebody mentioned $800k after you mentioned it.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
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PayrolGuy
Not at all. The only two errors he made were not advising the sell to sell the house for more in the first place and not mentioning to the seller that somebody mentioned $800k after you mentioned it.
What should I do? File a complaint with DRE?
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
It was really the seller that got screwed in the deal not you. And when I said errors I meant errors not illegal acts.
Had you made a formal offer of $800K and it wasn't passed on to the seller it would be different.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
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PayrolGuy
It was really the seller that got screwed in the deal not you. And when I said errors I meant errors not illegal acts.
Had you made a formal offer of $800K and it wasn't passed on to the seller it would be different.
Ah, ok. I feel like he told me that ($800K is too high) because he had another offer that he wanted to accept for some reason (friend, family, or double ending the deal).
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
It is not the agent’s decision to delist a property. It is the sellers decision.
If you wrote an offer and it was recieved by the agent, the agent was legally obligated to submit it to the seller unless the seller gave instructions not to for whatever reason.
The sellers agent has a fiduciary obligation to act in the best interest of the seller. If he failed to do so the seller may have some action against the agent
bottom line; you have no action against anybody.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
You really think the agent is going to give up $3k or more in commissions, risk his licence and risk getting sued for a buddy?
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
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PayrolGuy
You really think the agent is going to give up $3k or more in commissions, risk his licence and risk getting sued for a buddy?
No, but to double end a deal, yes.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
Define double end deal for me.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
I suspect that what is meant by Double End the deal is that the same agent represents the seller and also finds a buyer so they got both the selling agent and buying agent commissions.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
I thought that was what he meant as well.
That would be illegal in most states unless both the buyer and seller was notified. In those state where it is legal or even common practice it would not be illegal if both seller and buyer knew. In no case does such an agreement have to be announced to everyone that looks at or makes an offer on the house.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
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Quoting
PayrolGuy
I thought that was what he meant as well.
That would be illegal in most states unless both the buyer and seller was notified. In those state where it is legal or even common practice it would not be illegal if both seller and buyer knew. In no case does such an agreement have to be announced to everyone that looks at or makes an offer on the house.
it is legal in most states if proper notice is provided and it is standard practice typically to notify the “outsider” the agent has a fiduciary duty to represent whomever they are contracted with. It is also included in most Realtor offer to purchase documents.
It would not affect the ops situation though.
in fact, if an agent is double dipping (the local term for double ended deal), it doesn’t matter who he sells the home to. It’s simply that he is both the listing agent and selling agent. Not sure why the op believes it played a part in this situation.
Re: Does a Seller's Agent Have to Inform a Prospective Buyer About Higher Offers
look, agent probably thought you'd have to be crazy to offer $800K for that property, which is why he said it would never go for that much.
2 hours later, someone offers exactly that. All offers must be presented to seller, and of course the seller took the highest offer. immediately.
If you really wanted the property and would have paid $800K for it, that's what you should have offered. Not at all unusual in CA for property to go for higher - sometimes MUCH higher - than asking price. No need to send you a counter offer.
Re: Is What This Seller's Agent Did Legal
Represent both the seller and the buyer in the transaction. This is legal in California.
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paddywakk
look, agent probably thought you'd have to be crazy to offer $800K for that property, which is why he said it would never go for that much.
2 hours later, someone offers exactly that. All offers must be presented to seller, and of course the seller took the highest offer. immediately.
If you really wanted the property and would have paid $800K for it, that's what you should have offered. Not at all unusual in CA for property to go for higher - sometimes MUCH higher - than asking price. No need to send you a counter offer.
Lesson learned. Thanks.