NYC co-op purchase - unethical and potentially illegal practice of the listing agent

[Jenny Ng]

What actions can I take against the unethical and potentially illegal practice of the listing agent?

Hi everyone. The co-op listing price dropped to 390K on Zillow. My agent sent the listing agent an email offering 370K with 10K concession (final sale will be 360K in reality then) which the listing agent verbally agreed to last week. I did an inspection this week for $475. Red flag: During the inspection, the listing agent was in the home and I heard her being argumentative and unprofessional with someone about another sale. Before my inspector came, her tone was loud and aggressive with me asking me why I was getting an inspection on a co-op because no one does it. I did it for my peace of mind since it was my first purchase. Inspector came and she was argumentative with the inspector too about why we were doing this because there was no point. The inspection was completed and we discovered things that I was hoping to use to renegotiate the sale price. 

I sent my lawyer the inspection report. My lawyer said the contract listed 420K sale price with 50K concession (final sale will be 370K then). I was baffled because that was not what we agreed on in my offer. Firstly, my bank will NOT approve a 50K concession. Secondly, this means I will need to take out a bigger loan for a purchase price of 420K instead of 370K as originally agreed. 

My agent called the listing agent to find out what was going on. The listing agent claimed that she did not see the 10K concession in the offer email. She then insisted the co-op would not approve the sale if it was below 400K. Therefore, the sale price on the contract will need to be listed for at least 400K with a concession. We learned that this listing agent had NO intention to ever sell at 390K as listed on Zillow because she knows the co-op will not approve any sales below 400K.

I spoke with my lender. If I buy at 400K, my max concession will be 36K which brings the final sale at 364K. Again, the original agreement was 360K after concession. I was fine with this if I could recoup the extra $4K by asking the seller to fix the list of issues in the apartment per the inspection report. It is unknown if the listing agent ever spoke with the seller but she said it is being sold as is. 

I went back to my lender to see if I could get 40K instead of 36K concession. Lender said I would have to submit documents and provide a letter of explanation and the lender would submit it to the underwriter to see if I am eligible. No guarantees. Before I did that, I went back to my agent to ask if the listing agent and seller would agree to 40K instead of 36K concession. Listing agent had a disgusting attitude with my agent, and said we were wasting their time, take it or leave it at the sale price of 400K with 30K concession. At this point, I refused to go through with the sale because of her unethical, deceiving, and potentially illegal practice. 

In summary, she never had any intentions to sell at the price listed on Zillow because the co-op board would not have approved the sale below 400K. The contract listed a higher selling price than agreed and she claimed ignorance that she did not see the full offer in the email. Although I did not sign anything, I still spent $475 on the inspection with the intention of buying at the original agreed price. 

Thank you.