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Updated over 7 years ago, 04/15/2017
Selling agent signed the counter offer, is it legal
Hi, I am in the process of negotiating a contract to buy a house. I live in California. Today, the counter offer was back with signature said "per phone conversation with seller", signed by seller's agent. I wonder if this counter offer is valid. If I signed the counter offer, is it a legal, enforceable contract?
I worried if seller comes back and said he/she didn't say that, what will happen?
Thank you.
Unless he has power of attorney from his clients, I can't imagine it being legal. I would tell your agent that you want the sellers to sign off on it. Until then, you have nothing.
I don't understand this, in this day and age. With online signature software (Dotloop, etc), it is odd for anyone who has an email address to not be able to sign documents over the internet. Definitely, ask for the seller himself to sign the counter.
Most agents use Dotloop now to get signatures. Are you using a buyers agent as well or negotiating by yourself? If you have your own agent, have the agent carify why the seller didn't sign by him/herself.
Goodluck,
Tracey
@Jo
@Jo Zhou We both live in California. Technically, it's not legal, I don't think but it's done here, it's lazy. But basically, the agent makes a phone call, says "I think I can get this sucker for higher" and they say OK. You can tell him you want them to sign it but he'll just get it signed. If you think there's fraud involved you can ask to give your counter in person or on a conference call.
But to be honest, unless you really think it's fraud involved, this is not worth the fight.
I hope this helps.
Thank you for your response. I have an agent, I am a regular buyer (interested in real estate). My agent said that it was very common in real estate transaction. Is it true? My agent said that the escrow will make sure it has seller's signature on file before we go into the escrow. However, I am afraid that the seller comes back to us saying he didn't say the term and didn't let the seller's agent sign the counter offer. Then, maybe we could complaint about the seller's agent, but we will loose the deal.
The seller is out of country, he didn't sign power attorney, maybe he didn't trust anybody. And my agent didn't know when the seller will come back.
Or the seller is saying that in hopes you don't check into it to verify, to drive the sales price up so they make a higher commission..
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You Don't sign the counter offer....you submit a new offer at that price, if you want, and when the Owner signs it, you have a contract.
@George
@George Taylor: could you explain a little bit, in this way, how the seller agent gets higher commission? I didn't get it. Just I am not experienced in real estate transaction, didn't know those tricks. Thank you!
Hi, thank you for every' s response. After I got your opinions, I called my agent to find out why the seller cannot sign the counter offer, which country the seller went, where will no internet access. How come they can make phone calls but not internet.? In this age, phone and Internet are the same thing, right?
It turns out that the sellers were not out of country, but in the rural area in CA without the signal. They don't want to wait until they can come back to a city. Also the seller-father is too old to use any digital technology, but the son is ok to sign electronically. Finally, the seller agrees to sign themselves.
I feel, in this case, seller's agent wants to risk his license to sign it, to me ,it is weried. And my agent just tells me it is common practice in real estate field, which I feel is not prudent, too.
Also, I encounter a weired thing in the process of buying this house. I will open another discussion. Hope you could give me some advice. Thank you.
I see you already rectified your situation but what I meant was, if the agent thought they could get away with telling you that your "$150k" offer wasn't accepted and the counter was "$175k" then they would drive up your offer price, therefor making more money in the commission of the sale. I have no idea if those numbers are correct or not but if they are making 3% of $150k they make $4,500 but if they drive your offer up to $175k then they make $5,250. It is non ethical for them to do something like this but the higher the sales price the more money the agent makes and the better they look in front of the seller. That would also help them with referrals showing that the agent gets closer to the sellers asking price and is more efficient. Hope that helps some. Feel free to tag me in your new discussion.
@George Taylor: thank you for your explaintion. Now I got how it would work. In San Diego, nothing is at $150k, a 440 sqft studio would cost $162k. It has been crazy in here. The house I am offering is listed at $730k. Using this method, the seller does get much higher commissions. Learned a trick from you, thank you.
I opened another discussion to detail this house transaction. If you are interested, it is about the zoning and land use type. I feel the building record is a mess for older house. My own house didn't have any original building permit, I think the city just lost it.
Originally posted by @Jo Zhou:
Hi, thank you for every' s response. After I got your opinions, I called my agent to find out why the seller cannot sign the counter offer, which country the seller went, where will no internet access. How come they can make phone calls but not internet.? In this age, phone and Internet are the same thing, right?
It turns out that the sellers were not out of country, but in the rural area in CA without the signal. They don't want to wait until they can come back to a city. Also the seller-father is too old to use any digital technology, but the son is ok to sign electronically. Finally, the seller agrees to sign themselves.
I feel, in this case, seller's agent wants to risk his license to sign it, to me ,it is weried. And my agent just tells me it is common practice in real estate field, which I feel is not prudent, too.
If the Seller's Agent DID find out from the Seller that your original Offer was not high enough, but would accept the mentioned counter-offer price (doesn't matter who suggested it), then the Agent DIDN'T "risk his license to sign it" himself. It's really only the SELLER who should worry about this being used as a tactic without their knowledge, not the Buyer!
Because as @Wayne Brooks mentioned, you as the Buyer are free to put in your OWN counter-offer! (Why not LOWER your subsequent Offer/s!? That'll send the Agent/s into a spin)...