Verbal offer lower than other rejected offer but agent asked for a formal offer anywa

[Daniel Vroman Rusteen]

Price: $1.2M

Offer: $900k

I had my agent call to see if the seller would accept this price because it's been on the market for a year.

The seller's agent said the owner had rejected a $1M offer in the past, but it's been awhile so maybe and asked for a formal offer with proof of funds and pre-approval.

Why?

Why not just ask the seller since they'd already declined a $1M offer instead of having us do more work.

From my perspective, if they want to sell, they have a verbal offer they can accept, and if they don't want to present a verbal offer, the seller probably isn't very motivated.

What would be the point of sending a formal offer in this scenario?