Has this ever happened to you guys before?

[Stephen N.]

Ok, i am a newbie so I'm sure I made some mistakes which are pretty stupid, but I don't know what else I could have done.

Here is the scenario. On April 21 I put a cash offer on a REO that was just marked down to $39k. I submitted a full price all cash offer. What happened next is still something I don't understand.

The day i put in the offer the property was marked "pending" on the MLS. The listing agent told my realtor that my offer was accepted. I was extremely excited as this was going to be my first deal and it had the potential to be very profitable.

A few days later I get an email from my realtor telling me to sign an addendum. it seemed pretty harmless. none of the terms of the orignal offer changed so I just signed it.

I was told by my realtor after I sent in the addendum that everything was fine. My offer was accepted and the only thing left to do was close. The title company was notified and they started working on prepping for the closing.

Well a few days ago i get a call from my realtor telling me that the bank had pulled the listing from the original listing agent and was going to put it on the MLS again. I was speechless. He said the bank never signed any of the documents and we never had a deal. He said the original listing agent kept telling him all the paperwork was fine and that we had a deal. I realize now how stupid it was for him to let it go so far without requiring them to produce a signed contract, but that's water under the bridge now.

So what in the world is going on here? Has this ever happened to anyone? Do I have any recourse?

[Timothy W.]

This isn't the agents faults. This is the asset manager at the bank who pulled the deal. They probably got a new BPO in or a new set of corporate directives and pulled the deal. If you read the addendum closely, the bank has every right to do it.

Be cool, let it go. Let them get all cocky and think they can get more and when they come back to you offer less. I've done this a couple times. No joke, I got one for 40% less than my original offer this way. Don't fight their game, learn to play it, but play hardball right back at them.