“I don’t believe you have multiple offers”, said the Selling Agent.

Nothing irks my soul more than the Realtor who questions my integrity. Yes, it can be argued that our industry is faced with many challenges, of which, personal integrity could be considered at the top however, I am not the one. My integrity and reputation precedes me and of this I am much aware. I pride fully admit I have never been good at humility but, we each have our drawbacks. As I was saying, I am not the one. I got out of my way to ensure everything is on the up and up, not because I am bound by some generic code of ethics or some legal statue but because, that is how I was raised. (cliché I know) So, when I sent out multiple offer notices to all the Selling Agents on a recent property, I was a bit miffed by the oblivious yet gallant response by one Realtor that went something like, “I don’t believe you have multiple offers.” Well, in this situation I could have responded many different ways however, reverting back to those wonderful lessons I learned as a child, of which my mothers favorite came to mind, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. With that in mind, I simply stayed quiet………..(Long Pause) and, then the Selling Agent said, “are you there?” My reply was yes, I am here, I have been here listening to you. I guess he was shocked that I was listening but, I am sure that is the by-product of most likely never being listened to because he obviously never has anything worth while to say but, that is another story for another time. I proceeded to end the conversation by saying, “did you have any other questions I can help with?” I was hoping he would say no and hang up but, I wasn’t that lucky. None the less, the conversation did come to an end, almost just as dramatic as it started. I repeated myself 5 times….I know, 5 times seems a lot but, for some people, that is just the start. For 5 times I said, “I am providing you the opportunity to instruct your client that multiple offers are on the table and they should submit in their final and best offer.” Eventually, the Selling Agent hung up and, I moved on to my next call. I don’t know how this is going to end but, I assure you, as always, I will be a gentleman and scholar……until he pisses me off.

Jessie,

Your post reflects the professional that you are. Unfortunately we are in a business that is a mix of adults and children. We also take multiple back-up offers with short sales (they should really be called long sales) because of buyers backing out. We get threats all the time from agents that are going to take us to the division because we

a. In their minds did not submit their offer.
b. Did not put it in contingent status.

We calmly explain that the seller is not required to accept their offer nor can they be forced to because you and your client wish it. That usually falls on deaf ears because like children they hear what they want to hear. We explain that our fudicuary duty is to OUR client and in the course of a short sale transaction without a skilled agent that prepares their client for the multiple offers and the length of time involved that buyers move on.

We also explain that if the terms are not acceptable then they could find another home to submit an offer on. Adults accept this but children struggle.

As an real life example we closed a short sale last year with countrywide that took 9 months because we went through 4 buyers that fell out and 3 loss mitigators attributed to staff turn over. It was time comsuming to say the least but we closed and helped our client avoid foreclosure. Had we not taken multiple offers as back-ups this would have not have been a happy ending for our client.

To close we recently had another agent threaten us with the real estate division because he wanted his offer submitted even though we had just put the short sale listing in contingent status. We calmly explained that we would be happy to put his in back-up status but the bank had accepted another offer and his offer came in too late. Incredibly he wanted to contest the contingency status. He didn't believe it.

Look, we understand this market is a challenge for all of us and can be frustrating. We are all facing the same challenges. The market is what it is. The professionals will survive and the others will not. This is a fact. Unfortunately in our business some of our biggest challenges are with ourselves. The more educated our agents become the less we will be posting about these experiences.

Thanks for the sounding board Jessie.

Bill & Fran

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Comments

Jesus (Jesse) Gonzalez January 28, 2009 at 10:03am

Yeah, I never got an offer from the agent....so, who knows what happened?
Bill & Fran Jenkins/Team Jenkins January 27, 2009 at 3:38pm

My client rejected his offer and we stated that we were already in escrow with another offer that the bank had accepted. He is long gone.
Stephanie Greenberg, CDPE, e-PRO January 27, 2009 at 1:29pm

So just curious, did the agent submit a best and final?

Stephanie
Bill & Fran Jenkins/Team Jenkins January 16, 2009 at 3:19am

Jessie,

Your post reflects the professional that you are. Unfortunately we are in a business that is a mix of adults and children. We also take multiple back-up offers with short sales (they should really be called long sales) because of buyers backing out. We get threats all the time from agents that are going to take us to the division because we

a. In their minds did not submit their offer.
b. Did not put it in contingent status.

We calmly explain that the seller is not required to accept their offer nor can they be forced to because you and your client wish it. That usually falls on deaf ears because like children they hear what they want to hear. We explain that our fudicuary duty is to OUR client and in the course of a short sale transaction without a skilled agent that prepares their client for the multiple offers and the length of time involved that buyers move on.

We also explain that if the terms are not acceptable then they could find another home to submit an offer on. Adults accept this but children struggle.

As an real life example we closed a short sale last year with countrywide that took 9 months because we went through 4 buyers that fell out and 3 loss mitigators attributed to staff turn over. It was time comsuming to say the least but we closed and helped our client avoid foreclosure. Had we not taken multiple offers as back-ups this would have not have been a happy ending for our client.

To close we recently had another agent threaten us with the real estate division because he wanted his offer submitted even though we had just put the short sale listing in contingent status. We calmly explained that we would be happy to put his in back-up status but the bank had accepted another offer and his offer came in too late. Incredibly he wanted to contest the contingency status. He didn't believe it.

Look, we understand this market is a challenge for all of us and can be frustrating. We are all facing the same challenges. The market is what it is. The professionals will survive and the others will not. This is a fact. Unfortunately in our business some of our biggest challenges are with ourselves. The more educated our agents become the less we will be posting about these experiences.

Thanks for the sounding board Jessie.

Bill & Fran

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