Buying with multiple listing agents

Hi all.
So we have found a rural property, (Western Australia) sought pre-approval finance and are ready to put in an offer.
The property is marketed by three agencies.

I made contact through one agent, initially, and went to inspect the property - being a rural block of land, the agent did not attend but just told me to have a look. Over the following two week period, I've tried to get in touch repeatedly via phone and email, they've not returned calls, not answered emails, and when I did manage to speak to them on the phone one time could not answer simple questions, such as what is the zoning, and did they have any further information about the property, and got short with me for asking. They've never got back to me on the zoning question (or anything!) either.

So I made contact with a second agent, as I want to proceed with an offer. Second agent has been helpful and able to answer my questions. Somehow first agent has heard about this, and has contacted me, angrily, saying I can't deal with another agent since I made contact with them first.
No way I want to deal with this first agent given their complete lack of interest and response (nor would I be pleased if I was the vendor and knew about their efforts!).

I call BS, but are they right?

Cheers.

 

You talk to whomever you like, there was no agreement you made with the REA to inspect the property.

You could in theory go talk to the third agent and put your offer in.

 

That's what I'd be telling agent number 1.

Cheers

Jamie

 

Agreed with the above sentiment.

 

You can talk to whomever you like. If the property is sold, it's up to the agents and the vendor to figure out between themselves who gets credit for the sale.

A good example of why you shouldn't try to use multiple service providers in the hope of getting a better result. They all know that at some point they'll likely get screwed, so they don't give it their full attention.

 

Thanks, as I thought.
The property has been on and off the market for aaages, in excess of 24 months, at first with just one agent (funnily enough the unhelpful one I contacted initially) then recently with multiple, so in this case maybe it was the right thing to do! If it comes to splitting commission I'll let the vendor know of my experience.

 

Exactly right. It is rarely in anyone's best interest to open list. I do not touch them at all.

 

absolutely, bad behaviou is unnacceptable regardless of whether you are a $1 or $1m client

 

I would knock on the door and speak to the owner and proceed with an update on agent 1s conduct. That should glean a phone call from agent 1 to you with a refreshed attitude.

 

On a completely different note, which lender are you using? Even though you have a pre-approval in place I would run the property by them before offering, or put a finance clause in the offer, as many lenders aren't overly keen on rural properties. You might find they lower the LVR on you or similar.

 

...and if it is income producing will fall under a commercial application which has very different parameters and requirements than a residential loan.

Get an upfront val done first to see what the zoning and valuers comments are.