I'm sure most of the agents here have, at some point, made a verbal offer or counter-offer. I my experience it never seems to work out the way we plan. I don't want to say that we use the verbal offer because of laziness, but in some instances it can save some time. The amount of time saved never seems to equate the frustration that inevitably follows.
Last Tuesday my client and I made a verbal offer on a property. We had written an offer the week before, which was countered, but due to the financing at that time wouldn't work. My client and I did some homework talking to a few lenders including AR's Jason Sardi. We decided that an FHA 203k loan would be a viable option and was something we were going to pursue if we could negotiate the RIGHT price. We were getting pretty close to our preapproved maximum (once repairs were added to the sale price) My client is also a first time buyer, so the sledding is getting tough. We have a loan product that typically takes 60 days to close, we have roughly (at the time) 50 or so days to close to get the current 8000.00 tax credit.
Our first verbal was countered at a price that we found agreeable. The other Agent said write it up. Friday night I met my client at one of my favorite spots in Gettysburg, The Blue Parrot Bistro. I had the paperwork prepared and he signed. We had a semi-celebratory beer. I emailed the offer out in the morning, with a contract accepted date of the following day. It's now Wednesday and we still don't have a signed contract. They are waffling over our inspections. At this point the contract is Null and Void. My client still wants the place but we still don't have a contract.
So to recap. The verbal offer was agreed upon. We put it on paper, it didn't get signed. We are losing precious time to receive the tax credit, and the agent can't seem to make contact with the seller.
Verbal Offers Forgot about them. It is not worth the time. Our effort to keep the ball rolling quickly probably lost us 3-4 days. Everyone is ready to get cranking on this deal, but we don't have a contract.
Frustrated. I have more stories of verbal offers, but we'll save that for another day.
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