2,684,769
A few years ago, my buyer was upset when his offer was turned down. He called the Seller directly to ask why it was not countered. Seller had never seen it! The Listing Agent had shown his own offer to get both sides of the commission.
It's not just unethical. That Seller filed a civil suit against the Brokerage, and reported the LA and the Broker to the Florida Real Estate Commission.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Eve Alexander
Tampa, FL
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Pete Xavier
Pacific Palisades, CA
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Candice A. Donofrio
Fort Mohave, AZ
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Beth Atalay
Clermont, FL
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John Juarez
Fremont, CA
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
1,712,030
Praful Thakkar, just a couple of months ago, my buyer's offer was rejected, it was over asking, cash, no contingencies. It closed less than list price with financing and listing agent was also the buyer's agent. My buyer found and contacted the seller directly, his offer was never presented. There's really no way to find out till it's too late unless we contact the seller directly.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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John Juarez
Fremont, CA
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Pete Xavier
Pacific Palisades, CA
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Olga Simoncelli
New Fairfield, CT
613,494
In the early days of buyer agency (the 90's) a buyer agent offer NEVER got presented, so we always presented our own contract to the seller ( LA present).
What we would do is call the seller or leave a note on their door that we have submitted an offer to their agent.
The BA can call the seller direct to see if they received the offer. In fact if you are a true buyers agent it is your job to make sure that the offer is presented. What you cannot do is try to negotiate directly with the seller.
Calling the agents broker is a joke...like what, they will not lie to cover up getting both ends of the deal?
Eve
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Michael Setunsky
Woodbridge, VA
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Candice A. Donofrio
Fort Mohave, AZ
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Barbara Todaro
Franklin, MA
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Pete Xavier
Pacific Palisades, CA
1,506,803
Realistically, there is no way to know. It's often difficult to impossible to contact the seller directly and if the agent never acknowledged receipt of your offer, they could claim it was never received and got lost in the spam folder. Plus, while you are allowed out here to present your offer directly to the seller, doing an end-run around the agent to contact the seller directly is not ok.
Yes you can ask for the presentation/rejection sections to be initialed, but those can be forged. I've seen an agent forge every signature and intial for a seller's ex-wife once.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Eve Alexander
Tampa, FL
1,057,544
I have told this story before:
Agent receives two offers. Agent does not present one of the offers. Buyer of the offer that was not presented calls office, and in agent's absence, another agent tells buyer that their offer was accepted. Buyer believes their offer is accepted. Buyer then finds out that offer was not accepted. Buyer files complaint against agent and it comes out that the offer was never presented. Agent loses license for one year.
I realize that despite that cautionary tale, agents still try to and get away with it.To answer your question, the best thing to do is to apply pressure to the broker. If the broker is the problem, demand proof of submittal. If they refuse, file a complaint, hold their feet to the fire and get them to show it was submitted or own up to the fact that it wasn't.
A huge PITA. Our contracts have a place where the seller signs that they rejected the offer. I can't recall in recent memory receiving one.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Eve Alexander
Tampa, FL
5,116,258
Very hard to prove. You could ask for the listing agent to have her sellers initial the first page of the offer confirming receipt when you submit the listing, although I don't know that you could make then sign.
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Peter Testa
Danbury, CT
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
913,968
Not easy. Just have to rely on trust. There is no requirement for the listing agent to verify that they presented an offer, but many agents, as a professional courtesy will ask the sellers to intitial and date first page of an offer and send it back to the buyers agents as verification that sellers saw the offer.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
6,424,232
Very hard to do since you cannot approach the seller, but Fred has a solution.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Bob Crane
Stevens Point, WI
759,785
I'd just ask the Listing Agent. If you do anymore then you're treading in the the Seller's Agent's territory. If you really feel like the offer is not being presented then you do have the right to ask to present the offer IN PERSON... but rest assured, that request is seldom welcomed warmly by sellers or agent.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
5,583,328
I think Fred Griffin has the answer to this one, Praful Thakkar ....I'd follow that guidance....
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
1,325,789
Unless you present your offer in person, there is no way to know for sure that an offer was presented to the seller. We hope that we work with honorable people, but we also know not everyone is trustworthy. Money sometimes makes people do bad things.
I have heard of buyers contacting sellers directly when there is a suspicion that an offer was not presented by it is probably too late by the time that occurs.
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Pete Xavier
Pacific Palisades, CA
400,356
In the California purchase agreement, there's a spot to specify when the offer was presented and another for the seller to sign if the offer was rejected. Unfortunately, most listing agents fail to return that page, even (or especially) when pressed.
The buyer can send their offer directly to the seller if the agent fails to respond, but at that point, it's probably too late.
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Candice A. Donofrio
Fort Mohave, AZ
4,583,990
Lots of "trust". There is a line in our state purchase agreement to confirm presentation. A broker- to- broker call is rarely needed I have found.
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Peter Testa
Danbury, CT
1,300,587
In PA we have a form the seller signs if you want to present it. Never had anyone in our area use it, but it is there.
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
679,404
All offers are supposed to be presented to the Seller in a "timely fashion" and the seller is supposed to either accept, reject or counter your offer with date, time and initials. If I never receive anything from the listing agent I have no way of knowing if my offer was really ever presented.
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
7,870,267
You hope the offer will be presented and that you will receive a call. However, there is no shortage of unethical agents.
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Jeff Pearl
Lovettsville, VA
902,398
I call and ask! I have even asked to present my own offer, in the presence of the listing agent, to make sure it was presented properly. Surprisingly, I got permission to do that and we got the deal. The listing agent had her own offer on the table, but the buyers chose mine.
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
5,773,014
Praful,
No control, but eventually people find out. A
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
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Candice A. Donofrio
Fort Mohave, AZ
3,350,439
If there is one Praful Thakkar I do not know of a way to make a listing agent comply with a request to "prove it". If there is a way to connect with the seller directly, that may work.
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
5,245,227
Not really much you can do! The owner has no obligation to respond, so the best you get is to ask the listing agent!
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
4,906,649
No not really.
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Nina Hollander, Broker
Charlotte, NC
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
509,449
There's no way of finding out with 100% accuracy. You can call the listing agent to follow up.
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
921,504
Right here on Active Rain is a vendor who offers an OPEN CONCEPT transaction management/CRM system that DOES present ALL offers directly to the seller and the sellers agent.
Transparency IS available.
Are you willing to pay for it?
What is the other-side of unfiltered offers getting to the seller who has hired you to represent him/her?
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
2,785,406
an agent is bound by their fiduciary thus their word means something
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Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
5,879,125
In CO it is mandatory for every offer, written or verbal to be presented, but our commission says there is no way to find out if they actually did.
4,800,132
4,434,177
54,940
I understand in AZ you can present the offer personally to the seller with the seller's agent present. I have never heard of anyone doing this, but understand it used to be done with much greater frequency than it is today.
1,625,153
There is no way to prove that, unless the seller signed last page of offer ( optional).
57,072
With new technology, there is absolutely a way for the seller and the buyer to know if offer was presented.We wrote an algorithm that solves this issue.
1,466,257
Praful Thakkar Ask for the first page of the contract with "REJECTED" written on it and signed by the seller.
4,272,934
250,053
3,988,013
So much of this is based on trust. I do not ask for proof but mostly know when I see seller's signature on a counteroffer, rejection or acceptance.
1,847,621
On our contract you can ask the seller to sign when it was presented. Date & time field.