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I made an offer on a short sale. The listing agent told my agent that there was a low offer already and he would present mine to the bank. On the day I am supposed to receive the seller's sign contract, the agent called back that there is a higher offer and mine was trashed. Should I contact the listing agents directly to have better chances in these short sales? Also, I assume a lot of these short sale offers will not be accepted by the banks and if I use the listing agent (he gets buys commission too), then he would have all the incentive to work with me. Does that make sense?
Whether you contact the agent directly or use a competent buyers agent you should be in the same position.
In fact, had you had the assistance of a skilled buyer's agent it is more likely that you could have avoided wasting time submitting an offer on property for which a better offer was already in hand.
Once a property is agreed to a higher sales price those who submitted lower offers can resubmit IF their evaluation suggests a higher price is warranted. This is "bidding war" and generally does not happen except in rapidly appreciating markets...
The listing agent can use all the help that a buyer's agent can provide in convincing the LENDER that the presented offer is as good as the lender is going to get and they should accept it to cut their loss...
First of all, there wasn't a "better offer in hand," when he submitted his. His was better than the first, and AFTER he submitted his, the listing agent called back and said NOW there was a better offer (which is SOOOOOO typical of this kind of transaction).
Your comment "should be in the same position," is wishful thinking and "a perfect world" scenario.
I would contact the seller's agent directly in the future. These short sales take so long and are so involved that involving more people in the transaction just complicates matters. The seller's agent will have more incentive to make the deal work b/c they get the full commission and once accepted, they DO NOT want to have to do it all again so they'll work hard to keep the deal together.
Upon rereading, the sequence involved three offers. I suspect that only a tiny percentage of short sales have anything like that.
Other than that correction I stand by my original point: seller agents operate in an environment where cooperating buyers agents are part of the 'team' and that does not differ for short sales.
Any agent that failed to work well with cooperating agents will not make anywhere as near much income as those that do.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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You should know that the listing agent owes a fiduciary obligation to the seller and only fair and honest dealing to you if he represents both sides. Some states even prohibit representation of both parties by the same agent. If an agent in my office ends up with both sides, I take one of the clients (and pay my agent as if they had represented both sides) and we set up a "chinese wall" so that there won't be any conflict of interest.
Your agent is going to represent you much better than an agent who is trying to represent you and the seller.
Personally I think it is a matter of ethics. If you are dealing with an unethical selling agent your advantage/disadvantage will come from how it is handled. If listing agent is seasoned and trustworthy, while buyers agent is keen to multiple offer dealings and short sales all should be fine - simply the best offer in the eyes of the bank will win - you should be fine as long as listing agent is not opening details of offers in a advantageous way to any party. Disclosing multiple offers is one thing, mentioning higher or lower smells fishy IMO. The highest offer is not always the best for some sellers.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TimidGuy
But we know that the listing agent always favors some (self, friend,etc) buyer's agent to others, right?
They're human beings too and subject to all that entails. I definitely have favorite agents and agents I never want to do another deal with ever again. When it comes time to make a deal, I may not want to deal with the other agent, but I most certainly will because I'm acting for my principals best interest, not mine.
I'm dealing with a listing agent who has insulted me to her principal in an email and then been dumb enough to forward a subsequent email to me with the "can't we just shoot this guy" comment included. I have another client who tried to buy a home listed with this same agent (I thought Oh no!) and we got the bums rush from her. She refused to present an offer (which will be the subject of a later complaint) but I'm not calling her on it until my first transaction closes.
The realtor code of ethics isn't hard to read or understand, but some folks have a hard time applying it on a daily basis.
Say I use my buyer's agent for active houses, but contact the listing agents directly for ones already under review (these will be ready to go if the first round doesn't go throguh?), what do you think of that?
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