The Offer Part 1
By Friday the professional pictures were available, my favorite stager Tim Foley had done his magic and the property went on the market. I posted the property on www.philipleng.com and 26 other websites.
That first Sunday I did an open house. Twelve sets of people through. Good sense of excitement over the property. Five minutes before closing, a man from the former Soviet Union came through. Loved the property. Needed to show his mother and brother. Could I wait?
I waited a half an hour after normal closing time. He came back. They all loved the house. He said he would make an offer today. Could I give him a good deal? I closed the property and found all my open house signs, even though it was now dark outside.
I drove home, expecting to write up the offer for him that evening. Pulling into my driveway, my cell phone rang. It was him.
Where do I send my offer, he wanted to know?
Excuse me? I said.
Where do I send my offer? I am making an offer on the property, and I want to know where to send the offer. YOU are sending ME an offer? Are you an agent?
No, He said his company had a team of lawyers, and they had a standing offer to write up real estate contracts for the employees. The offer would have no selling agent. He would represent himself as buyer.
The offer came in. The price was low. The offer was entirely freeform, written to strongly favor the buyer and slanted against the seller. In addition, it demanded that the commission be cut from 6% to 3%. And of course, the 3% deduction was to go entirely to the buyer!
After consulting with my broker, I presented the offer to the seller. The price was unacceptable to him. I informed him, additionally, that I could not practice law and the forms were not our MLS forms, so either the seller or the buyer would have to pay for attorneys to interpret the contract and change it to protect the seller. The seller rejected the offer but not the buyer.
My next communication with the buyer was that the offer as written would not work. First, the language was not on standard MLS forms. Second, he was attempting to interfere with a contract that he was not a party to. That was the contract between the seller and the brokerage. What he was attempting to do is called "tortious interference". We could move forward as long as no mention was made in the future of the commission, or other parts of the contract he had no involvement in. And all that was prior to getting to the negotiation on price!
He stomped his foot arrogantly and stormed off into the night...
So ended the saga of the offer - part 1.
Phil Leng
206-409-6600
Keller Williams Realty
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