REO Agent Won't Respond.....Options ?

[Pamela LEE]

I found an REO my 85 year old Mom wants to buy in lieu of getting a place in FL. It is closer. I finally got in touch with the listing agent and he said he could get me a good deal if I went with him. I was not comfortable with the dual agent thing for conflict of interest, so went with a buyer's agent. We submitted the first offer, no response, he resubmitted it, and got a counter with only a few dollars off, we submitted a 2nd offer, and the counter was higher than the last. At this point, I got confused. My agent tried to get in touch with the listing agent to find out what was going on, and could not reach him. He basically said he could not help me with this and for me to go to the listing agent and call him out on his offer. Talk of ethics was brought up and bypassing the agent to the seller, but he did not want to do anything to stand in the way of getting this house for my Mom. I finally reached the listing agent again, and he basically said there was another offer, and if I were to offer such and such, I would probably get it. I over bid just to be safe, and he was supposed to submit it that day, and call the seller at my request to say we were putting in a bid. I did not hear from him for days and days. He did not submit it that day, but 3 days later, and after my persistence, and more days passing, he emailed that a higher bid got it, and after further persistence, he said it got multiple offers. No more response from him. Found out all of that was untrue, and it has no offers on it right now. My question is how do I buy this house for my Mom ? Can I bypass him and go straight to the seller ? Noone will tell me the sellers name. Do I call his agency ? Since ResNet is a portal for agents, then he has control of the bids, rejecting, and so forth, right ? If the seller gave him directions to just get the highest bidder or whatever terms, then it's up to him, right ? I don't know how to do this. I would of walked a long time ago, but my Mom loves where this is, and I want to do it for her. She needs a peaceful place to enjoy. Please, if anyone has any advice or suggestions, it will be greatly appreciated.