Expert: Dick Dennis - 4/13/2010

Question
Hello Mr. Dennis,
  I just recently made a offer on a house, and found out that another offer had been accepted in its place. When I submitted my offer, ther where no other offers on the table. Working with Fannie May, we gave them 5days to make a response on my offer. On the fifth day my Realtor called the listing agent, who informed him that 2 other offers had been made that morning and that he would submit all three to the bank by the afternoon, with a best offer takes all type thing.
  This seams like a serious case of mal-practice. Now that someone elses offer has been accepted, is there anything I can do?

Answer
Multiple offers usually present a hassle, Justin. To add to the situation, the offer was presented to no doubt someone who was representing the seller appointed by a government agency.  In most cases such as this, the seller usually accepts the highest priced offer. These days investors ace out someone who wants to live in the house because investors, in most cases, present an all-cash offer and the seller accepts it even if the accepted price was lower than yours. And in this case, the seller obviously took his time in responding. Further, you do not know if the listing agent may have hustled his own buyer, or had another agent in his office to dig up a buyer, especially if he has seen your offer and wanted another one to be presented.

Sellers do not have to respond to ANY OFFERS. In fact, if a seller wanted to he could just ignore any offers . . . even if any of them were right on the asking price or BETTER! The listing agent, if he were to conduct the presentation ethically, should assemble all the offers together and present them all to the seller, reads them one at a time with the seller, then asks the seller his acceptance or not one at a time.

But that is the ethically way to present it. When your offer was presented you were told that yours was the only one AT THAT TIME. You had given the seller five days to answer. That gave the seller's agent plenty of time to gather up any and all other offers. If you had made your offer good only until the next day, say, or even 5 that afternoon, it may have been a different story.

But I am willing to bet that your offer was not what the seller was looking for . . . and waited. He asked the listing agent what is his suggestion about waiting. The agent may have suggested waiting since your offer gave no indication of being expedient. They had nothing to lose by doing so.

The next time you make an offer and you want a more favorable result, try making the offer "response upon presentation." Trouble is, if you're working with a government entity, they would laugh up their sleeve at your offer when they know other offers are in the wings. The government couldn't care less. Yes, it is an education attending an offer presentation, Justin.

It's a good thing this is not a multi-million dollar affair. Then you would really see some shenanigans going on. You may want to have a real estate attorney present your offer next time even if a real estate agent showed you the property. GOOD attorneys know how to dodge and weave in presenting offers and selling properties. They know negotiation. Some real estate agents are crackerjack negotiators, too. I do wish you well.

Dick Dennis
dixiedee13@aol.com