Ever Had An Agent Show You A House? That Was SOLD?
I find a building closed for about 3 yrs...steps from my house...prime location, very good price on a busy avenue. So i call my agent and he arranges to show it to me. After we inspect it we make an offer, only to be told that it was sold early this morning.
It was listed in the morning, and sold in the morning. however we saw it in the afternoon. The other agent whos listing it didnt bother to tell my agent that it was sold. Kinda ticked off. Anything i can do. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Sold? or contracted for?
I don't know how they do it in Toronto, but here, a listing agent may still show a property after a contract has been received. This is based on the premises that something may not work out with the offer, the financing or the contingencies. The agent can even take back up offers.
But, yes, I have heard of a property being available in the morning, and gone by noon. Unless there was something underhanded done, I don't think you have much recourse.
Dear Sir,
You have experienced a rather standard occurance in Real Estate. It is called "The Pocket Listing" The Listing Salesperson gets a goody. He wants to make as much commission as is possible. So he delays the sign, delays the posting to the MLS, delays telling his broker, his mother and close friends. He knows a buyer and goes directly to his house. He does not pass go he does not collect the $200. He just signs up the Buyer and thats it.
What can you do? Complain to the Broker. Write a nasty letter. Become friends with this live wire and give him all of your business. The election of method is yours. I of course would contact him direct just in case the Buyer falls out, or wants to flip/flop whatever.
Contemplative Lucius
I'll give you one better, dare.
I recently bought a house (for personal use) that had been listed on the MLS for a year and a half. A week AFTER we moved in (not counting the 30 days of it being under contract), some RE agent comes knocking on my door, telling me they have an appoint to view the house. The listing agent apparently never took it off the MLS or bothered to tell anyone at his office that he sold it.
Roger
Yeah it was solf conditionally, howver before we went to view it it was apparently free and clear of any offers. This was at 330PM. When we put in our offer it was old in the AM. Im telling you this was an inside job lol.
I was thiiiis close to snagging it.
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hmmm somethings not right here...the property is in a very high demand area...it sold for 215K.
How come the seller wouldnt possibly accept 10K more? We were ready to offer 225K.
I think this agent that had it listed is screwing the family over big time.
This was an estate sale and i cant possibly see how they win with accepting an offer below list in a very high demand area.
Can i do anything to buy this property or just move on?
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Do they have a probate lawyer? Can you call the family directly? any relatives you can contact?
Someone would be glad to know that you will offer 10K more. find that someone.
They have allready signed the offer(apparently).
I would soooo offer them the cash$.
I can do the research, but dont they have a LEGAL contract to purchase the property(whoever bought it).
Or can it be reversed?
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If I made an offer on a property, and it was ACCEPTED, and then someone came along and offered the seller more money for it, you better believe I'd have a serious problem with it. My bet is that their contract is legally binding, unless, as you suggest, there was some really foul play, misrepresentation, fraud, lying, cheating, stealing or otherwise screwing over of the seller into believing something other than what was true. Zach
You got it Zach...now how do i prove it....
I mean this offer was accepted at 15K less than asking price.
Im positive the agent had ALOT to do with it.
My friend the REA suspects she wanted the full comission instead of splitting it.
She blamed her secretary for not telling him that the house was sold BEFORE we went to see it.
This is a load of crap.
Im still hot about this(pissed).
Should i start bitching to the company or what?
oh and by the way i looked up the owner of the property..hes the one who passed away. How do i get relatives numbers??
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This has happened to me too - twice. But, you know, what are you gonna do? And truthfully, for me anyway, I think it had more to do with miscommunication between secretaries, agents, voicmails, etc. , than with shady agents trying to get a bigger slice of the pie. I'm sure it happens, but even when it does, it's just a he said/she said thing that probably can never be proven. I doubt you have much recourse. Sucks, I know, but realistically, I don't know what you could possibly do now that the deal is signed. On the other hand, there are plenty of ways to kill a deal if you're the buyer, so maybe the seller has escape clauses too. Anybody? Zach
Ask your agent to tell the selling agent that you will pay a $10K assignment fee to the potential buyers if they would assign their contract to you.
That's a fantastic idea. Eveyone wins. Good thinking, Dave. Zach
My agent spoke with her(listing agent) and she just said..."oh".
Im going to ask again anyway.
Well i found a nice power of sale house im going to go see tomorrow.
Not nearly as close to my house, but the numbers certainly work.
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I'm a realtor. In our office, there is an individual who is responsible for updating the MLS -- once she receives the information from the agent. So timing is everything. Plus, a seller can accept whichever contract they choose. There is no "rule" that it has to go to the highest bidder, especially since it's quite possible the seller was not even aware that a higher bid was forthcoming. It sounds like the contract was signed that morning - a done deal, but it had yet to be updated. So, of course, when you called, the "clerks" still showed the property as being available, and by the time you submitted your bid, the agent had undoubtedly turned in the contract and the MLS got updated. This timing thing could be even worse during really busy times, where dozens of agents are turning in their paperwork.
Makes sense. Ujnfortunately for me.
Im sure there might be another deal or two out there.
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