Presenting an offer

"I can understand that it might be a genuine offer although it isn't worth the owners consideration.
If I submit this offer to them, they will not even give you a counter offer as its so far off the asking price.

Please reconsider your offer and I will consider presenting it to the owners.

Kind regards
(Real Estate agent)"

I thought they had to present an offer?

 

In NSW yes by law they have to. However, if your offer is far too low they may be giving you an opportunity to increase your offer in an attempt to not get the vendor offside. You can always insist if you wish.

 

Not if the vendor has instructed the agent not to bring offers under $x

 

In NSW there still remains an obligation to present the offer.

@Whitecat if the agent is not taking the offer to the vendor, ask for the vendors solicitor to do it.

 

The legislation specifically states below... the vendor can give instruction to not present

3 Vendor to be informed of an offer

(1) The agent must, unless the vendor has instructed to the contrary in writing, inform the vendor of all offers of purchase as soon as practicable after receiving each offer up until exchange of contracts has taken place.
(2) If the agent is not going to inform the vendor of an offer, the agent must inform the person who made the offer that the offer will not be submitted to the vendor.
(3) The agent may inform the vendor of an offer orally or in writing and must identify the party by whom the offer is made. If the vendor is informed orally, the agent must confirm the information in writing.
(4) This clause does not apply to bids made in the course of an auction.

 

Dave is right about this.

In any case, the solicitor will most likely tell the buyer to negotiate with the agent because it isn't their job is not to take offers from buyers.

 

I don't know who the vendors solicitor is

 

I'm in Queensland

 

I would think the owner can say....do not tell me about things under X

Some agents may just say we had 2 offers under x but won't go into details unless you want us too.

If the agent is doing this, not much you can do beside go above them to someone else, but they will be offside from then on.

 

It's all good I didn't have my heart set on the place someone else has come in at in figure closer to what they want and they can have it it was just 1 option there's others but I appreciate people clarifying

 

I have a number of times told agents not to tell me about any offer under an amount, but I also told them exactly what I would take, if your under no pressure to sell, then it is how I would always do it.

As a buyer, I hate it when agents do not want to pass on, yet do not have an acceptable amount and take it on themselves to set the price or play games.

In NSW must be passed on by agent unless instructed otherwise is my understanding.

 

A paper contract with a cheque for the deposit dropped at the RE office does help going passed this roadblock in many cases.

 

How do you mean? Because the principle sees it?

 

TBH I have no problem at all with the agents reply, I instructed my agent recently that I simply don't accept anything over X and anyone who tried tell them it won't be considered.

At the end of the day no agent is going to deny a suitable offer to try and squeeze a few more dollars from you. The difference in commission to them would be lucky to pass a couple of hundred dollars.

If you are being told that then simply your offer is not in the realms of being what they will agree to accept. I am sure you know within yourself whether or not your just lowballing.

 

What i mean is that many agents will react differently between an 'informal' offer over the phone or by email compared to a signed contract and a cheque in front of their eyes. This gives them also a lot more bargaining power when discussing with the owner. Keep in mind an agent primary wants to make a quick sale to get his commission, and only secondly wants to get the best outcome for his customer because another couple thousands dollars in the sale price won't make much of a difference in their commission. If you drop a contract, make sure to have your solicitor include exit clauses as well as a validity for your offer, I typically do 24h take or leave.

 

That is correct the difference in a couple of thousand doesn't make much difference with the REA however you offer 400k on a 500k comparable property and the agent will not bother unless the market has really turned.

However if you put in an offer of 470k they will be more inclined to take it as you are near where the property should be.

OP if you are being turned away it will most likely mean you are lowballing to hard and you either stay firm or become reasonable.

 

I think this came up in another thread recently however I see no problem with verbally negotiating no matter what the agent wants. If I'm property hunting and want to make offers on a few, I find it very time consuming to put together multiple contracts when I don't even know what sort of vendor it is and how reasonable they are going to be in negotiations. It's also your job as the buyer to convince the agent that you're serious and just because it's verbal, doesn't make it any less serious. I usually state that if my offer is accepted it'll be on a contract within 24 hours.

Of course there will always be 'best practice' but in the end, if a buyers wants to buy and a seller wants to sell, there are any number of ways to get the deal done. It just comes down to the comfort zone of all parties.

- Andrew

 

If the vendor has a good relationship with the agent (as I do with mine) they will tell the purchaser that the vendor won't even consider it and come back with a decent offer - but they will mention the offer to the vendor and they'll have a good laugh about it

 

I have had to wait over 3 weeks for the vendors solicitor to do contract front page and exchange......some people are hopeless.