Real Estate Agents not replying to offers...

I've made a couple of written offers on a couple of properties this week and sent them to the RE Agent via email, however in both cases the REA didn't even bother to confirm receipt of the offer within a 3 day time frame. Is this common within the industry?

I'm of the understanding that the REA must present the written offer to the vendor within 48 hours, but it seems that there is no way to verify whether this has been done if the offers/emails are simply ignored.

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

Cheers,
SD

 

Wow! Either you have a super-lazy old-school agent who 'checks their email once a month' (seriously, I delt with an agent in 2011 who said this to me, after three emails I sent, and didnt see any problem in operating in this fashion...), or the area is so damned hot that the agent is getting so many offers, that they dont have time to reply to all of them (highly unlikely).

Or, you could have an agent who went on A/L and forgot to put their OOO on...

 

Some things that I do are:

- Follow up the written offer with a telephone call to the agent
- Issue a copy to the vendors solicitor
- If that still fails, send the offer to the licensee of the business

The problem is that you are in a difficult position because you need the agent on your side so complaining to get a response is not possible.

 

I'm guessing you're low balling and have been identified as a time waster.

 

Yes but even in the case of a low-balled offer... what a terrible assumption to make, that the offer is too low so 'I just wont bother replying'.

If I were a vendor I would expect my agent to engage every person/offer made, and you know what, I'd even want the lowball offers brought to me. Who knows, if you get enough of those it could be an indication that you (or your agent's suggestion) had overpriced the property to begin with.

Above all that, to be a good human, it is simply rude not to respond to a well-thought and detailed formal offer email. Not a good way to do business.

 

Follow up with call to agent, then if needed to principal.

 

The vendor has to know about offers yes but you don't know what is going on in the background.

They may have rang the vendor and said, "some guy just put in this offer, obviously we are not taking it and we will continue with marketing campaign"

If offers are low the agent may not bother. If you have not seen the property nor had any communication with agent they will not take it seriously - but tell the vendor anyway.

I run a real estate office, we get low ball offers emailed all the time by people who have not even seen the property. We cannot take them seriously it would be an injustice to the vendor to do so.

Best to ring agent and tell them, I will be submitting an offer in this range and get their thoughts.

Or - the agent is slack, I'm just speculating on the above as I have no idea what your offers are!

 

You guessed wrong

 

I have this situation on a property I'm currently working on. Property is advertised as "offers over x" and I offer $10k above this amount. 3 days later and a lot of back and forth nonsense with the agent I decide to go straight to the vendor and send my offer contract directly to her. Turns out she hadn't received it. Agent calls me a few hours later quite livid that I went direct blah blah and a few hours after that comes back with a counter $40k above the asking price.

Turns out he is underquoting and fishing for a much higher offer knowing the property is worth a lot more. Moral is, don't be afraid to step on a few toes to get the outcome you want - or at least the truth. Its just business at the end of the day.

 

[QUOTE="Simon L - I decide to go straight to the vendor and send my offer contract directly to her.[/QUOTE] <<<----------- This guy. I love it! The only issue is if you want another property that the agent has on his books then he probably won't even answer you calls anymore.

 

A low ball offer does not make it a wrong offer. Many times a vendor will not tell their agent the real reason for selling a property and all offers whether the agent thinks they are viable or not should be treated seriously.

The agent acts an intermediate between vendor and purchaser so that makes their job ultimately as a communicator between the two.

Any offer that is made on property should be passed on to the vendor and the vendors response passed back to the person making it.

It is poor customer service on the agencies behalf and when times get tough, thankfully its these types of agents that lose their jobs.

 

Question, how did you obtain the vendor's details?

 

Have you been putting an end date/time on your offers?

 

Happy to keep dealing with his vendors directly

In this case the property was tenanted and managed by a separate agency who were more than happy to put me in touch with the owner once I explained the possibility of the agent not acting in their best interest. In this day and age, its really not difficult to find info on anyone. By the way, this is not common practice for me nor do I enjoy doing it - but sometimes necessary

 

Simon L - how do I stay on your good side?

 

Some reporting agencies such as Residex have a paid service (or ask a broker nicely)

Also you can often obtain the information off the contract

 

Love it!!

I love it when people get caught out doing the wrong thing,

I would also love it even more if the vendor decided to accept your offfer and the agent missed out on his comission, obviously exclusive listing rules apply

 

If the agent has an exclusive contract with the vendor, how would the vendor accepted your offer without the risk of being sued by the agent?

 

You put a sunset clause of 24-48hrs on your contract and once you send your offer off you call the agent and advise him over the phone.

Once you approach the time you advised on the contract you ph or message the agent advising of the withdrawal. Once the time lapses you email and formally withdrawl. An agent will call you if they want you to stay in the game.

What market is this? If it's hot then you just need to play their game. Having a good relationship helps if it's hot, if not just put in your offer then walk away

 

@Simon L yes I've seen that behaviour also. I heard an agent point blank say the other day that offers over $x means they expect $x + 10%. Frustrating, but consider it a game that must be played in a certain way.