Quote from @Adam Varone:
I'm looking at a duplex, and decided to reach out to the seller agent to represent me to try to get a better deal. I think the property is about 10% overpriced. The agent said there are other offers, but I think he's just trying to get me to put one in myself. He mentioned they accepted a house sale contingency offer, but are backing out of that one. I don't think this is true because the house never went "under contract" on the MLS.
Is this a common occurrence where agents make up ghost offers? If an offer is accepted with a house sale contingency will it be shown as still available on the MLS?
In Gainesville Alachua County, it's fair to say maybe 2% of Realtors would flat out lie. It's more common for there to potentially be a half truth, or some form of embellishment, but again to flat out lie to a customer is rare. (Not to say it never happens.)
What I find interesting is if there are multiple offers, the only reason to accept the offer with the contingency of selling a home is if all of the other offers were lowball offers. Otherwise, there's no way that offer would have been in first position to begin with. That tells me if you make a fair market value offer, either your offer will get accepted, or maybe if not, the issue is simply the seller has unrealistic expectations.
Also, to address your thought about it never having been marked pending on the MLS: Yes, there is a possibility he or she was lying, but another somewhat common practice is some agents will not mark a listing pending if they do not have high confidence that the accepted offer will be successful. They are supposed to mark it pending regardless, but admittedly, some agents simply don't follow the rules.
