Dishonest RE Agents? How common is it?

[Kel S]

We put in an offer on a house this morning. The house had little activity on the RE sign in sheet on the counter and no offers as of this morning and has been on the market 11 days (not long, I know). But I find it ironic that we put in our offer this morning and the listing agent contacts our agent saying that at 4pm they received another offer so he's sending over a multiple offer sheet to sign.

This has happened to us a number of times and there is a part of me that wonders if RE agents do this to try and get a higher price? Now, I'm not trying to offend any RE agents on this board so please don't take it that way but in the world in general there are dishonest people and I'm sure that includes people in various professions, including RE.

Has anyone else suspected that an agent might be trying to up the offer by doing this kind of thing?

By the way, we aren't budging on our offer, that is our final and best offer as it's just not worth more than that. If there is a real, viable offer from someone else and they are an investor since the bank requires cash only, they might have an advantage over us of either a higher price and/or not asking for an inspection. I guess we'll see what happens...

[J Scott]

Just to ensure that we're all talking the same language here, I think a lot of people here are focusing on what they believe is ethical and unethical and are assuming that "unethical" is synonymous with "illegal." That's not necessarily the case...

There are lies that an agent could tell that would clearly be illegal based on specific license laws and then there are lies an agent could tell that would clearly be legally within the license laws (I would argue that "multiple offers" is perfectly legal given my reading of the license laws in my state). The former I would never, ever recommend or endorse, regardless of the situation. The latter I would recommend under certain negotiating situations, and would argue are in no way unethical.

Confusing "ethics" with "legality" can really muddle this discussion. *Hopefully*, we can all agree that doing illegal things is wrong -- no ifs, ands or buts -- so I'd suggest we focus on those things a agent might do that are legal, but where we have different definitions of whether they are ethical.

[Bryan Hancock]

Nice thread. I tend to agree with J that there are subtle lies that both sides play in a negotiation. The black and white arguments don't really seem to hold up under scrutiny.

However, I don't see why any of this really matters. Figure out your numbers and what you will do. Make an offer and stick to it. If you can afford to pay more from your analysis consider how much you trust the bluffs from the other side. If you don't trust them then don't budge. If you do and you need the project to keep your capital at work consider moving your offer north. Never exceed your range though and stick to your guns.

This seems pretty simple to me. You just have to have enough confidence to pass and look at the next deal. There will be more deals next week to look at.

[Jeff S.]

Had a sociology teacher who said ethics are rules made up by people who have full stomaches that want to keep things that way.

Sales tactics are just that, tactics. Like they say, it is easy to part a fool of his money. We need to worry about our own behaviors and not sweat what some poor starving agent feels he needs to do to feed his family. You can be smart with your money or you can be naive, it is up to you. If you are a minnow, don't swim with sharks.

It makes no difference what you are told verbally. Do your own work. Don't be a victim, the world already has its share.

[Nick J.]

Originally posted by Bryan Hancock:

However, I don't see why any of this really matters.

I don't think it matters enough to call for such a large either but it always seems like this topic is one of those that somehow demands multiple pages of conversation that easily gets steered off course a lot.

[Account Closed]

uhh, of course it's common. does a realtor even need to have a high school diploma to get a license? i am actually surprised no one blames realtors for the housing bubble. where i invested they routinely walked up resale values on property 5-10% a month for several years like clockwork. and buyers kept on paying.

[Nick J.]

Thanks MIke for easily proving my point of getting steered off course.

I won't give my input on your remarks on "who's fault" anything is as there are many threads debating that exact topic.

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Mike B:

uhh, of course it's common. does a realtor even need to have a high school diploma to get a license?

In my state, yes...

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by Nick J.:

Thanks MIke for easily proving my point of getting steered off course.

I won't give my input on your remarks on "who's fault" anything is as there are many threads debating that exact topic.

Where can I buy a pair of those eyeglasses?

[Nick J.]

Peter piper pizza.

[Bienes Raices]

Originally posted by Bryan Hancock:

However, I don't see why any of this really matters. Figure out your numbers and what you will do. Make an offer and stick to it. If you can afford to pay more from your analysis consider how much you trust the bluffs from the other side. If you don't trust them then don't budge. If you do and you need the project to keep your capital at work consider moving your offer north. Never exceed your range though and stick to your guns.

I agree--it doesn't seem worth it to get emotionally involved in any of these deals.

[Kel S]

Update: Got word this morning that the bank accepted our offer! So I'm pretty happy right now. It sounds like they are also open to closing at any time, so that is also great!

[Rusty Thompson]

Congratulations... its a great feeling

[Lynn Harrison]

I think it's unethical too. People lie all the time, it's a pain when you have to do business with a liar. But I don't want to take the time to get upset about it for too long, it's not worth the energy.

There may be a work around and perhaps some here could chime in. I read a thread here a while back where someone sent in an offer (B&H??) and also had in there that they would pay $500 over and above any legitimate offer. They had to show/prove it to him before he'd pay additional.

What about offering a B&H +$500 additional on legitimate offers up to a certain amount? Could this be called a B&H? Or what would it be called? How would one do this?

I no idea if the REO agent here is doing that or not, but we may go this route just because it doesn't hurt and may help.

[Lynn Harrison]

oh, didn't see that post, congratulations!!

[Bienes Raices]

Originally posted by Kel S:

Update: Got word this morning that the bank accepted our offer! So I'm pretty happy right now. It sounds like they are also open to closing at any time, so that is also great!

that's great--it's always an awesome feeling when you've been trying hard but things haven't been working out and then something finally does when you're not expecting it (I hope to experience that too in the near future).