Here is the scenario:
I received a back-up offer yesterday - one that was knowingly submitted as one - on a new listing of mine. Agents and their clients have been all over it but, after 24 hours, no offers had come in yet.
In the meantime, a prospective buyer contacted me, I showed them the home, and we wrote up an offer. The offer was just what my client, the seller, was looking for and signed it.
And, of course, I made the change on the MLS to reflect that.
Since there were still some "contingencies", it shows up as "back-up" rather than "pending".
It wasn't an hour later when the first call came in and asked if I took "backup" offers, and I assured her that we do.
Well, when it came in it was NOTHING like the one the seller had just accepted. This offer was one that MAYBE might be accepted if the home had been on the market for a long time and no other offers eminent.
That got me to thinking:
Is it this agent's strategy to sneak in this "backup" offer which then would become a fully accepted offer in case the first buyer pulled out for some reason?
Because the seller still has to accept the back-up offer as such, because it would automatically take the place of the original offer.
So here is my advice to my sellers:
Absolutely do not accept a backup offer unless it is everything you want.
Treat a back-up exactly as if it were your FIRST offer.
Comments (9)Subscribe to CommentsComment