Counter Offers and Verbal Negotiations ...Wrong way of doing business today

WOW!! Submitting offers today to offices representing bank owned properties can sure leave you questioning what is right and wrong.

  Let me explain.  My clients wrote an offer on a bank-owned property, we submitted it on Monday around 12:00 p.m..  At the time of submission there were not any offers on the table.  Towards the end of the day I received a call from the Listing Agent stating that the bank countered but was unclear of the counter so she was going to ask for clarification before proceeding to tell me.  I said no problem and I waited.  The next day around 10:15 I received a call from the agent informing me of the counter.  The bank countered only our conditions and close by date; Not the price.  I said okay let me call my buyers and I will call you back.  (Doesn't this sound like the way we do things normally?)  The buyers said no problem to the changes they accepted the bank's counter. 

 I called the agent back and left a voice mail of the Buyers acceptance approximately 10 minutes later.  Well, the day is ending and it is around 4:00 p.m. and the agent calls me and says that they need highest and best.   I said, "WHY?"  She replied, "We received another offer"  I said, "the bank offered us a counter though and we are in the middle of negotiating.  She said, you know if it isn't in writing by the seller than it isn't accepted.  I said I know that but they offered a counter to this buyer. 

To make a long story short they ended up taking the other offer.   I called the State of Michigan Legal Hotline and was informed that you only have grounds if it is in writing. 

So I asked them, can a normal Seller open verbal negotiations with multiple buyers? The banks can.  Can we demand from the Banks all communications in writing?  Yes, we can. 

Banks and Mortgage Companies for years have tried to dictate how things are done and we allow it.  They do not even adhere to the original purchase agreement we submit or the deadlines.  They make their own rules as they go for the moment and for the dollar.  Of course they had no reply.  So why do we spend so much time and money on procedures, rules, etc. if banks are going to ignore them.  

 Why do we allow it?