Seller's Broker Will not Respond to my Offer
I made an offer on an coop unit on Tuesday. I did not hear anything for three days. Then I heard from the seller’s broker on Friday that the seller was accepting Best and Final by the end of that day. Though they did not counter (weird?) or even acknowledge my first offer, I came…
I made an offer on an coop unit on Tuesday. I did not hear anything for three days. Then I heard from the seller’s broker on Friday that the seller was accepting Best and Final by the end of that day. Though they did not counter (weird?) or even acknowledge my first offer, I came up by a few thousand. I had my offer in by noon on Friday. It’s Saturday night, and I still have heard nothing. My offer–which was very very close to asking–was contingent upon the seller/broker canceling Sunday’s open house. The open house was posted yesterday morning and has not been taken down. I’m thinking the seller’s broker does not want to co-broke with my broker (who came to the first open house with us and made our first offer for us) and has not even told the seller about our very solid offer. The seller’s broker is not answering his cell or office phone. We have not gotten him on the phone since Wednesday. The rest has been email that we can tell he has read but does not respond to. If I find out the broker never gave the seller our offer, do I have any recourse? Is this at all normal? Any insight will help. Thanks.
It is totally fine to give a deadline or make a request like to cancel an open house. It’s not unheard of. Especially when there are shenanigans. My old broker in CA did huge RE deals the brokers in Brooklyn only dream of doing and though I wasn’t a big spender he took me on as a client because of a mutual friend. This guy uses deadlines. We did it when I bought my house out there because there were multiple offers and mine was the best and I just wasn’t going to go higher. Period.
The other factor here is that you own in the building already. Do the rules for your coop say you have to get first refusal as a fellow coop owner? It might. You should inform the coop board of your offer and tell them you’re having trouble getting any response.
Thanks for all of these insights. The broker who came to the open house with me has said that if him being in the equation is what’s holding things up, he would talk to the broker about taking himself out of the equation. Also, he’s going to be selling my place when the time comes, so I trust him. I do wish I had struck out on my own when making the offer, but this broker has been extremely helpful for several months now and his opinions/insights have been pretty good so far.
I think a deadline is important b/c I don’t want them to be able to say they have an offer at ask. If they come back any later than my deadline of tomorrow night, I plan on lowering my offer. I mean, they told me they were going to try to get more and if they couldn’t they would take my offer. Doesn’t that sound nuts?
Thanks for all of these insights. The broker who came to the open house with me has said that if him being in the equation is what’s holding things up, he would talk to the broker about taking himself out of the equation. Also, he’s going to be selling my place when the time comes, so I trust him. I do wish I had struck out on my own when making the offer, but this broker has been extremely helpful for several months now and his opinions/insights have been pretty good so far.
I think a deadline is important b/c I don’t want them to be able to say they have an offer at ask. If they come back any later than my deadline of tomorrow night, I plan on lowering my offer. I mean, they told me they were going to try to get more and if they couldn’t they would take my offer. Doesn’t that sound nuts?
I will never work with a broker again if I can help it. Since my last broker experiences, I sold twice without a broker and bought once with no broker involvement.
It is hard to buy without a broker since most are listed with someone, but I”ll never bring my own along.
If I were you, I’d make a lower offer without the walk-away day. If you can get it for 10k less by friday, so be it.
My advice is not to make decisions based on the lack of professionalism of the broker, because really it’s annoying but it is immaterial to your goal. Likewise, I would avoid setting hard deadlines because you might be shooting yourself in the foot over a day or two that won’t be important in the long term. Are you really not going to proceed if they accept your offer on wednesday?
Thanks for the feedback. The owners do not live in the unit: they have been renting it, and the tenants have to be out by 11/15. They bought so long along that I can’t find a record of the sale online. So it’s impossible to get word to them. As of Friday, the story was the seller does not want to drag this out, best and final by 5, an answer to me by later that night. Cut to today: the sellers think they can get more than asking. I am prepared to walk away tomorrow at close of business day, so I’m not really concerned if they don’t take me seriously anymore.
I’m just baffled as to why the seller (or broker or both) thinks it’s reasonable to tell us that they will accept my offer if they can’t get a higher one. Does anyone think it’s time to call the seller’s broker’s boss?
PS: Ringo, what do you mean when you say “never again”? You’ll never bring a broker with you again?
I really would go nuts here. I’ve lost two deals where the broker didn’t present my offer — once bcs it turns out they didn’t want to co-broke and once bcs they thought it was too low (20% off ask). In both cases, the properties sold for less than my offer. And not months later, days later. But I guess the broker made more? Ugh, never again.
Unless you LOVE this place and can’t live without it, I’d write a new offer at 10k less your last one and email it the broker and slip a copy under the owners door since broker is on vacation and says he’s not picking up his phone. And because I’m mean, I’d leave them a copy of the full back and forth so they can see this is going in the wrong direction.
I don’t think deadlines work bcs I dont think people take them seriously.
It gets better, or worse actually. I went to the open house. Not only was I one of two people who showed up the whole time, but the seller’s broker didn’t even show up. His assistant who does not work for the real estate agency was there and said she had no information and could answer no questions. On my way out, I ran into the broker who said he never got my offer of asking and would call the seller right away. He also volunteered that there is only one other offer the seller is considering, and my offer is higher. I told him I needed a yes or no by noon today. I got an email from my own broker last night saying that tHe seller’s broker says the sellers think they can get more than asking but if they can’t get it they will take our offer. He said they are basing this on comps from units that are in pre-war buildings, new developments, and brownstones. Let me say, the unit i am trying to buy is in a big coop in fort greene, where the comps are much lower and where sales have been sluggish. The seller’s broker also said he is turning his phone off for two days, as he will be on vacation until Tuesday. I’m baffled! The open house was a ghost town. I offered asking with no sales contingency and 20% down in cash. I’m pre-approved.
My plan is to let the broker know that my offer expires Tuesday at 5pm. I don’t want them shopping my offer.
Any insight or comments would be great.
As for the listing agent: it’s one of the big ones, not a new or small agency.
Who is the listing broker???