Verify what?
Caramel wrote:
"I wish someone would come up with an offer verification process that somehow reveals the existence of an offer without compromising the privacy of the party offering."
Carmel, you can verify "offer in hand" claims, but only after the fact. I don’t think there is a way to verify in real time that would not compromise the seller’s confidential position. Can anyone think of a way to do this?
The presence or absence of a competing purchase contract is a material fact. But what is in the offer is confidential until it no longer matters to the seller. There may be a way to verify the fact of an offer, but some will be too weak to be competition.
After the fact, you could get an attorney to write a letter to the broker of the listing agent who said three offers were in on March 27 (and that house is still for sale on April 27th.) Send a copy of the letter, along with your complaint, to the Commonwealth. By involving the boss of the possible liar, you will either get three dead offers, with identifying information whited-out, or you will have uncovered a stinker. I hope some stinkers will get run out of the business. They give people like me a bad name. If every buyer did this, the bluffing behavior would go away.
In my experience, there are few “offer in hand” liars. I have gone through the effort to get offers verified when it was important to my buyers. In every case, the other offer(s) existed. They did, but some were bad offers.
Before offer-in-hand, it is impossible to really verify anything.
The bluffing starts way before any actual offers come in. This is totally unverifiable because it is so subjective. Understand the agent-speak:
Statement: “We have had a lot of traffic/interest”
Real meaning: Many people have come through the door and seen the house.
Interpretation: You have no data about who liked the place. It could mean 50 people walked in, turned up their nose, and walked out. Or it could mean several offers will be coming in this weekend.
Statement: “I am expecting three offers”
Real meaning: Three buyers told some agent that they are thinking about making an offer.
Interpretation: The buyers could be frivolous; they could change their minds; they could make an offer. Everything is still up in the air.
Statement: “I have three offers in hand”
Real meaning: Three offers are electronically or physically in the procession of the agent. These offers are from real buyers, not the person at the next desk.
Interpretation: Some of these offers may be very low priced, have weak financing, a contingency to sell another house, or something else that makes them unacceptable. Or the offers are good and one will be accepted.
Don’t be naive enough to think real estate isn’t marketing. It’s about inciting fear of loss to get buyers to part with their money. Buyers, the trick to successful buying is to know when you are being sold. You need to judge whether the hurry-up is warranted. The way to protect yourselves is to evaluate the purchase as if you have no competition. Set your top price and negotiate accordingly. Base it on how nice the house is for the price and your desire to buy this house.
