Here in the Seattle Area it is not unusual for a good home, priced well, to get lots of showings on the first day (my last one had 18 showings the first day) and for an offer to be submitted and accepted pretty quickly. Often within 24 to 72 hours.
I understand that buyers find this to be frustrating and agents are looking for a way to work with this problem, but submitting bogus cash offers is NOT a good "work around" IMO.
At this point it is getting a bit easier to spot this unethical behavior. Agent brings an OVER full price cash offer with a Home Inspection contingency and other legal out clauses within hours of the property being listed. A quick check shows that the agent never showed the property.
The first time it happened on one of my listings the agent swore up and down that the buyers HAD seen the property...even though they lived out of State and were not in this State when I received the offer. The most recent one the agents...there were THREE of these, at least didn't lie about what they were doing. Just trying to tie up the property so it wouldn't be gone by the time they could show the house.
Best I can tell, there really is no law against this activity.
I was wondering if anyone else is seeing this around the Country...or if any of you are doing this yourselves.
I know low inventory is a big problem...but there's gotta be a better way. It really isn't ethical...fair to the seller of the home...but a law against it? I haven't been able to find one...yet. Maybe it's time to make one.
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