is an agent's word worth anything?

[hotproperty123]

a couple of weeks ago at a sunday open home i saw a property that matched everything my son was looking for. Unfortunately he was in Oz and would be back late on tuesday night. i told the agent i wanted to inform him of an expression of interest and asked if i could be notified if an offer was to be presented. The agent promised me he would and would show my son on wednesday. i wrote my email details on the viewing form. I emailed my son and he was very excited as it was exactly what he wanted and he asked me to put an offer in. i told him not to worry he could wait til he saw it on wed as the agent promised to let me know if an offer was coming in. when he and his wife went to see it on wed he found an offer had already been presented and accepted on tuesday night. There was a cashout clause so my son put in a completely unconditional offer immediately but the buyers went unconditional and we lost the house. is this ethical?

[Kirwee]

I think the lack of response here tells you everything.
A RE agent is contracted and has a duty to sell the property for the vendor, who is after all paying for that service.
An expression of interest is of no value to the vendor and if the agent has a written offer he is bound by law to present it to the vendor.
Nothing unethical about that.
If your son wanted that property so much you could have put an offer on it with your name as "agent" on behalf of your son.

[sidinz]

Usually in a case like this the agent would contact you and a multi-offer situation would occur. I don't know why that didn't happen in this case. I would have thought that it would have been beneficial to do so, as people have to put in their top figure under this scenario so more $ for the vendor and commission for the agent.

So on that basis you might argue that it was unethical as the agent didn't try harder to get top dollar for his vendor.

Have you asked him why?

[Kirwee]

No need to.
If the offer was ready for presentation to the vendor while the son was in Aussie why would he wait.
The RE agent has a legal obligation to present any offer.
What if the son had arrived and didn't like the property and the first offer was rescinded because the purchaser found something better?

[sidinz]

But the son had asked the parents to put in an offer, so there could have been a multiple offer situation while the son was still in Aussie - no need to wait.

A multi-offer situation is better for the vendor because it preempts low-ball offers.

[Frezzinghot]

You have to move fast if you really want the property, yes the multi offer might have been beneficial to the vendor then again maybe not. So many circumstances come into play, the agents buyer may have been dead keen, you on the other hand had a son overseas who may or may not have placed as offer. In a hot market you just don't have the time to wait, especially in Auckland.

A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush!

FH

[Davo36]

It's always first in first served in real estate.

Having said that, the agent shouldn't have said he'd wait when he didn't. He should have also advised the vendors (and he may have done so) that there was another potentially interested party.

You never know, the person who got the house may have said "this offer is good till tomorrow morning and will be withdrawn after that." and the vendors decided to take the 'bird in the hand'.

[spaceman]

Was this all verbal???

Unfortunately unless it's written down somewhere for a lot of people their word isn't worth anything......and often even when things are in writing as well.

A REA is a salesperson .......how do you tell if a salesperson is lying??????.......their lips are moving

Cheers
Spaceman

[Bobsyouruncle]

Yes quite legal and normal. Whether it's "ethical" is dependent on ones ethics. if you wanted it you needed to give them an offer as soon as you could. Just part of the current market.

[snobilo]

a couple of weeks ago at a sunday open home i saw a property that matched everything my son was looking for. Unfortunately he was in Oz and would be back late on tuesday night. i told the agent i wanted to inform him of an expression of interest and asked if i could be notified if an offer was to be presented. The agent promised me he would and would show my son on wednesday. i wrote my email details on the viewing form. I emailed my son and he was very excited as it was exactly what he wanted and he asked me to put an offer in. i told him not to worry he could wait til he saw it on wed as the agent promised to let me know if an offer was coming in. when he and his wife went to see it on wed he found an offer had already been presented and accepted on tuesday night. There was a cashout clause so my son put in a completely unconditional offer immediately but the buyers went unconditional and we lost the house. is this ethical?

Pays to study the elements necessary for a contract in New zealand too, while it is obvious this is a question based on ethics not law I find them very helpful, especially if you intent to have a verbal contract.

To prove that a binding contract has been formed under New Zealand law, the parties must establish the following elements:

• the parties intended to create legal relations when they entered into the agreement;
• one party to the contract made an offer;
• the other party or parties accepted that offer;
• the promises contained in the contract were made for valuable consideration;and
• the terms of the contract must be certain.