I tend to be a positive person who believes that we should focus on the positive attributes of someone. No matter who I am dealing with, I try to always give the benefit of the doubt and believe that people are being truthful unless they prove me otherwise in their actions or in their words.
No matter how hard I try, my positive attitude has been put to the test lately. Here's why:
I've been working with a specific Buyer for the last two months. This particular couple is very nice, have only owned one home in their adult life and have asked me to represent them in the purchase of a new home. With more than 25,000 homes on the market in Central Florida, one would think this task would be an easy one.
The challenge that I have been having is that these Buyer are looking to purchase a home that is bank owned. The listing agent has been less than forthcoming with information and although I have explained the challenges in purchasing a home that's been vacant for a year, has extensive repairs needed, doesn't have power or water on and is being represented by a less-than-cooperative agent, they still decided they wanted to pursue an offer.
And so we did. We wrote an offer 10 days ago on a home that was listed at $175,000. We wrote an offer for $165,000 and acknowledged in the offer that the purchase was being made AS-IS, as stated was required in the MLS.
With that being said, the offer was submitted last Saturday with a time period for acceptance to be this past Friday at 5:00pm, as the agent indicated that the bank could turn around an answer within a few days.
And so we waited. Each day, I would call or email the agent to ask if he had heard anything or if other offers had been submitted. The responses I got were always the same, "no", there were no other offers and "yes", I should have an answer by the deadline.
The day before our offer was to expire, I received a call from the listing agent's office manager saying that there were now two offers and the bank is asking for both Buyer's Agents to submit their "highest and best offer." Of course, I communicated this to the Buyer, who opted to keep their offer the same.
On Friday, I contacted the listing agent via email and inquired as to the bank's decision.
I still have not heard anything and the property is still active in MLS today.
So, to find out what the scoop was, I had the Buyer call the listing agent directly to see if he would reveal more information to them (as a potential customer, rather than a competing customer with another agent) and low and behold, the agent informed them that the property was still available and that there have not been any offers submitted to the bank for their review.
Odd, don't you think?
So, here is my dilemma...do I now contact the Broker to see what the issue is in getting our offer submitted for review by the bank? Or, do I have the Buyers go through the listing agent and have the listing agent write an offer (since the listing agent won't respond to me, but will to them), or do I ask for the contact information for a representative at the bank so that I can submit the offer directly?
It is my opinion that the listing agent has not submitted the offer I wrote in hopes of securing a Buyer himself. Since there is no guarantee that the offer was ever submitted, we are scratching our heads wondering what to do next.
As I am sure you would agree, I think I am dealing with "one bad apple."
As much as I want to help the Buyers to secure the home (they really want to buy it), I am very concerned that if this listing agent is willing to be this unethical with me, how well do you think he will protect the Buyer's interests if they were to go to him directly?
What do you think of this situation and what are your suggestions in how I can be assured that the offer I wrote has actually been presented to the bank?
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