I had submitted an offer on a short sale home and never heard back from the Seller’s Realtor. Once my Realtor finally got an answer from him, he said the Sellers were out of town and accepting all offers during the time they were away and would review them and decide upon return. I submitted another offer (since the first one had expired) and it has been three days since they have been back and still nothing. Both offers were above the “bank approved” amount advertised. Is the Seller’s Realtor required by law to submit all offers to the Seller for review?

Now that I think of it, is there anything in place to prevent a Selling Agent from only submitting offers from his/her own clients in an effort to receive both commissions? How do I know the Seller has even seen my offer? I am a first time home buyer on my second short sale home (the Sellers on the first home decided not to sell – after I was approved by their lender), and becoming very frustrated with the lack of respect towards contract dates, scheduled showing times, etc. Is this normal in the industry and/or normal concerning short sales?

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Realtors are required to present all offers UNLESS their seller has instructed them differently. Depending on what area you are in and how busy the market is it can be frustrating for buyers and their agents as good properties could have a dozen or more offers on them.  The seller is under no obligation to respond to your offer. Lack of response doesn't necessarily mean your offer wasn't presented.  No response is a response. It means it was rejected.

 

As frustrating as it is just keep pushing forward. Diligence and patience are needed in this market. Once you find and close on the house you want it will all be worth it.

The Sellers need to be able to respond ina timely manner or the listing needs to be temporaily withdrawn  until they (sellers) are available - check NAR and your local MLS Rules and Regs for your area.  In a SS - if you rep both sides .. under certain loan types HAFA & HUD - you will get paid only half the negotiated commission - your better off doing a referral for the buyer if your the list agent. 

Offers may be accepted by the seller but it would be smart to counter them as back-ups in the appropriate back-up positions if that is the case.  Sounds lke the listing agent does not know real estate and contract law.  If your an investor - keep in mind that the bank usually has an 80% Net of bank appraised value - therefore you may want to use the listing agent to submitt the offer to reduce the available purchase 3%.  ALL Offers need to be presented but all offeres do not need to be accepted - they can be rejected or countered too.

I was hoping for any kind of response - and still nothing!  No answers to emails, text messages or voice mails.  If the offer is rejected - tell me, so I can move on...  As a common courtesy, there really should be some form of communication in place, perhaps a form letter or notice, letting the potential buyer know where they stand.  Obviously in my case, no news is bad news.


John Ayala said:

The Sellers need to be able to respond ina timely manner or the listing needs to be temporaily withdrawn  until they (sellers) are available - check NAR and your local MLS Rules and Regs for your area.  In a SS - if you rep both sides .. under certain loan types HAFA & HUD - you will get paid only half the negotiated commission - your better off doing a referral for the buyer if your the list agent. 

Offers may be accepted by the seller but it would be smart to counter them as back-ups in the appropriate back-up positions if that is the case.  Sounds lke the listing agent does not know real estate and contract law.  If your an investor - keep in mind that the bank usually has an 80% Net of bank appraised value - therefore you may want to use the listing agent to submitt the offer to reduce the available purchase 3%.  ALL Offers need to be presented but all offeres do not need to be accepted - they can be rejected or countered too.

I failed to mention that the Seller is also a Realtor.


Bryant Tutas said:

Realtors are required to present all offers UNLESS their seller has instructed them differently. Depending on what area you are in and how busy the market is it can be frustrating for buyers and their agents as good properties could have a dozen or more offers on them.  The seller is under no obligation to respond to your offer. Lack of response doesn't necessarily mean your offer wasn't presented.  No response is a response. It means it was rejected.

 

As frustrating as it is just keep pushing forward. Diligence and patience are needed in this market. Once you find and close on the house you want it will all be worth it.

 Check out the Realtors code of ethics - Standard of Practice 1-6 and 1-7

BIG ISSUE - if the agent is a REALTOR and that agent is selling their own property via short sale - wont happen - the bank wont even acknowledge it.  The home must be sold via a licensed real estte agent not related to the seller. Those are Short Sale Basic Rules - the seller gets no proceeds unless it is thru a specific program like HUD or HAFA.

 

Many good responces here already!

 

I would add that in my MLS area, a buyer's agent can request to present their offers themselves, the listing agent has to either agree to this (which could be a 3 way conference call, or a face to face presentation) or they have to produce a written/signed statement from the seller that they don't want this kind of presentation within 24 hours. You may want to have your agent look into their local association rules and see if there is something similar.

John,

 

Point of clarification - the bank won't have any problem that the seller is an agent - they just won't pay them a commission.  I would guess however that this is why there is another agent involved.  Last fall I handled a short sale where both the husband and wife were licensed real estate agents.  None of the three liens was willing to pay them a commission - hence the reason I listed the property.

 

Cameron Piper

Coldwell Banker Burnet

John Ayala said:

BIG ISSUE - if the agent is a REALTOR and that agent is selling their own property via short sale - wont happen - the bank wont even acknowledge it.  The home must be sold via a licensed real estte agent not related to the seller. Those are Short Sale Basic Rules - the seller gets no proceeds unless it is thru a specific program like HUD or HAFA.

 

Hi Susan,

Remember that there is a difference between submitting an offer to the seller and submitting an offer to the bank.  In New Jersey, we are required to submit all written offers to the seller.  The seller is the person who owns the home, not the bank.  The seller can choose what offer to submit to the the bank, though you would think that they would be happy to submit any offer they get to the bank so they can avoid a foreclosure.  Unfortunately, there are still many realtors who don't understand short sales and/or are trying to be greedy and get both sides of the commission.  You can always request a written response from the seller or, if you feel the realtors are not presenting the offer to the seller, request that the realtor's broker get involved.

Susan, your Realtor should be able to answer your questions.  I will address your first question.  "Are Realtors required to submit all offers to the Sellers?"  I am going to assume that you are asking if the short sale lender requires Realtors to submit all offers.  The short answer is no.  The Seller/Borrowers are still the owners.  All of the traditional rules and laws of a residential real estate transaction apply.  The short sale lender's involvement in the short sale is simply to agree to accept a short payoff on the seller's loan based on their review of the seller's hardship and the property's appraised value.  That is it.  There are no other factors.

 

If you submit an offer on a property, it should be negotiated like any other offer.  There will be a contingency in the contract for lienholder's consent to accept a short payoff in exchange for releasing the lien against the property.

 

Please remember that, in a short sale, contract dates are moving targets because you are waiting for a short sale lender to complete their process of review and approval.  Most recently, depending on the lender and the type of loan the seller has, it can take anywhere from 10 days to 4 months to obtain lender's short sale approval.  As long as you have an executed contract, signed by all parties, placed in escrow at title, you are the only buyer who is being considered by the short sale lender.  As a matter of fact, short sale lenders will review only one offer/contract at a time.  This is information you can take to the bank!

Bryant, I beg to differ.  Please see my response to the original question.  Realtors are NOT required to present all offers to the lender.  The Seller/Borrwer is the client, not the short sale lender.

Bryant Tutas said:

Realtors are required to present all offers UNLESS their seller has instructed them differently. Depending on what area you are in and how busy the market is it can be frustrating for buyers and their agents as good properties could have a dozen or more offers on them.  The seller is under no obligation to respond to your offer. Lack of response doesn't necessarily mean your offer wasn't presented.  No response is a response. It means it was rejected.

 

As frustrating as it is just keep pushing forward. Diligence and patience are needed in this market. Once you find and close on the house you want it will all be worth it.

Let me clear things. 

The Seller is a Realtor, the Seller's Realtor and the Seller work for the same company and the tenant (<-- very nice) is also a Realtor but for another company...  I emailed the Seller myself through the company website - maybe that helped?  I finally heard back through my own Realtor late yesterday that my offer wasn't the one the Seller selected but that if I want, I "could keep it as backup after inspection period (7 days)".  At least now I know something - I would rather hear bad news than no news!

John Ayala said:

BIG ISSUE - if the agent is a REALTOR and that agent is selling their own property via short sale - wont happen - the bank wont even acknowledge it.  The home must be sold via a licensed real estte agent not related to the seller. Those are Short Sale Basic Rules - the seller gets no proceeds unless it is thru a specific program like HUD or HAFA.

 

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