Does the Lender provide the LOI?

[Jay L.]

I am negotiating with an agent for a lender on an REO 5-unit bldg in Michigan. The bldg was originally listed for 130k with 3 units occupied. After about 4 mos on the market, it was discounted down to 50k with 1 unit occupied. We've told the agent that we are only willing to pay up to 5k per door. Due to our stance, we have been back and forth on pricing now for about 3 mos.

We got an email about 10 days ago from the lenders agent stating that the lender has agreed reluctantly to accept our offer of 23k and that we should sign and return the lenders attached LOI.

We've never had a lender provide a LOI to us. We did not sign the LOI with the terms the bank had provided to us. We did submit to the agent our own LOI, and we questioned the agent as to why we had to use the lender's LOI. He said he would get back with us, but we have yet to hear anything.

I'm not too worried about the deal itself, because there are more where that came from. We just want to be sure that we didn't screw up somehow. Is it normal for the lender to provide the LOI?