Did you ask your agent to call the other realtor?

What do you want to happen or are you just venting?

I'm kind of just venting. I never asked my agent to call but I guess that's my question. Isn't that their job? They knew that all of our motivation was to get THAT house....and if the house was gone then it's possible we didn't want to sell.

Without a firm offer in hand, you weren't going to make an offer, and you didn't have a firm offer in hand.

So, how do you know your realtor didn't inform the other realtor? And they just said, "tough luck, we've got an all cash sale, no contingencies" or somethign that would be impossible for you to compete with. You weren't in a position of strength on your offer, even with an accepted offer on your home. You were still contingent on that sale actually going through.

You just lost the crapshoot is all.

"I never asked my agent to call but I guess that's my question. Isn't that their job?"

YES, that was most definitely your realtor's job. He/she should have been in daily contact with the other realtor to confirm your interest in the home, to ask for any updates on other potential buyers, and, later, to inform the other realtor that you have an offer on your house and that an offer is imminent.

A realtor who didn't do this is, frankly, stupid because it would (and did) lose them a second commission and would (and did) torque off the client.

If your realtor DID do this and the other offer was just head-and-shoulders above yours, that's one thing but you didn't even get out of the starting gate -- apparently because your realtor couldn't get off her hands long enough to follow-up phone call to the other seller's realtor.

That said, none of this is "actionable". All you can do now is hope your buyer will decide to activate a contingency in order to walk away from the deal. If they don't do so, you're obligated to sell. So sorry.

This post was edited by Jewel654 on Fri, Nov 21, 14 at 17:22

I guess I'm a bit confused. You somehow knew that someone else was interested in the house, and that the interested party was about to put an offer in. That tells me that your realtor was I contact with the other realtor, right? Or was this just gossip you heard down at the corner store? So - Why didn't you put an offer in right then and there? You could a have put in an offer contingent on the sale of your existing house.

Why do you expect the other sellers to wait until you are ready to put an offer on their house? Even though you have your house under agreement, I'm still assuming you would have to put in a contingent offer - since what if something happens before closing and your buyer backs out?

I'm not sure why this is your realtors fault.

Your realtor could have been in contact with the other agent you don't know. But, in this case, it may have also lost you negotiating power if they knew this was the only house you wanted. Instead of looking to cast blame, why not put in a backup offer. If your offer is better than their current offer, they may just find a way to take it.

I have a question too. Why didn't you put an offer on the house runnrxc? 'Their' job is to do what you ask - So no, the realtor did not screw up.

'Without a firm offer in hand, you weren't going to make an offer, and you didn't have a firm offer in hand.'

No seller is going to sit on an in-hand offer to see what kind of offer they may or may not get from someone who must sell a house & whose buyers may or may not be able to close.

Love the comments, thanks everyone. Lots of opinions as I figured there would be. It's a pretty crappy situation overall but it will all work out one way or another.
I think sylviatexas brings up what I was trying to get at...had the seller known we were going to be putting an offer in on Monday afternoon, would they have sat on the offer they got Monday morning?? I'm pretty sure my realtor just assumed everything would be OK and we would get our offer in. That house was on the market for 6 months as it was....just bad timing.
I'm disappointed but I guess learned a valuable lesson...don't assume your realtor is going to be as aggressive as you, make sure they will be.

This post was edited by runnerxc on Sat, Nov 22, 14 at 0:47

No matter how 'aggressive' your Realtor had been, no seller is going to sit on an in-hand offer to wait on a possible contingent offer, & if you had been 'aggressive', you'd have written a contingent offer when you put your own house on the market.

This post was edited by sylviatexas on Sat, Nov 22, 14 at 1:34

IMO, your agent should have been more aggressive, but I believe it would not have changed the outcome. A contingent offer still in the early stages, is not as strong as an offer that is not contingent on the buyers selling their home. The outcome would have more than likely, been the same anyhow.
I suppose if your agent spoke with the other side on that Fri. and found out that you were in a multiple offer situation, then you could have had the option to walk away from your sale and not have gone through with it.
On a positive note, there is always more than one perfect home out there, sooner or later.
Another thing I hear all the time from buyers that I try to explain to them... when a property has been on the market for a length of time that is nearing the average days on the market, or is over this time frame, statistically speaking, the home will be going under contract SOONER than LATER. I hear buyers rationalize all the time that "Since the home has been on the market for some time, then we have a while to think it over".
Actually, just the opposite.

I second putting in a back-up offer if you haven't already. Your realtor may be reluctant, calling it a 'long shot,'. Ours was, but we made sure he communicated with the realtor that we were ready to be uncomplicated buyers if their first offer fell through. Their first buyer began to make unreasonable demands and as they knew we were waiting in the wings they had no reason to capitulate to the 'buyer tantrum' and the buyer walked. We closed one month later.

I agree, your Realtor could have done more.....do you know what office sold it? (Just my paranoia). That said, had I put an offer on it on a Friday, I would have put a 24 hour clock on the offer so that I wasn't forced to compete with weekend offers. As a buyer, I would not have given the seller the opportunity to play offers against each other.

In one word, yes. The realtor did mess up. When we put our offer on the one house we wanted; the sale of our house was contingent upon us getting that house. If it had fallen thru, we would've kept our house.

I'm sorry you are being forced to leave your home. How awful.

(This is my first post. I've been a lurker for quite awhile, & got such great info here, I felt like I had to pay back.)

Why the OP is being forced to leave their home?

Going in, this "sell old and buy new" clearly presents potential risk of "sold the old house, but lose the new house", isn't it OP's responsibilities to map out strategy to mitigate this risk before hand?

"Losing the new house" could be
1. not getting an offer in,
2. the seller asks too high a price that OP could not/does not afford,
3. the new house has unacceptable defectives discovered through inspection even if OP's offer has been accepted.
4. OP or op's buyer could not get mortgage
5. others....

'when a property has been on the market for a length of time that is nearing the average days on the market, or is over this time frame, statistically speaking, the home will be going under contract SOONER than LATER. I hear buyers rationalize all the time that "Since the home has been on the market for some time, then we have a while to think it over".
Actually, just the opposite.'

excellent analysis!

Well, here's my story:
Looked at property late afternoon (4ish), my RA called the LA, was told that there had been no offer yet. My RA told LA that we were going to put in an all cash offer. Got everything ready, submitted first thing in the morning. Reply was that there had been an offer the previous night, which the seller had accepted. LA told my RA that she thought, the "offer came from his client." Apparently, an older lady who was slightly confused.

If you want the house do as others say put in a back up offer. One that is so attractive to the sellers so they will try to find a way out of the other contract if they are given the opportunity. It may not work out, but why not try.

I think there was some shared responsibility here too. You talking to your agent about it, but your agent should also have advice you of other options as well.

The way I see it, the agent did not make a mistake. It seems to me that there was a communication breakdown.

Some people believe it is best to sell their house before they buy the next one and some people think the opposite, and some people think that it depends on which way the market seems to be heading. So, how was the agent to know which category the OP fell into?

I would be tempted to put in an offer on the house - not so that the other person can be gazumped, but so that if their purchase does not proceed for any reason, then you might get the house.

I am a little confused about some of the commentary.

Based upon previous experience, just because someone is "very interested in making an offer" on a house doesn't mean that one will ever materialize. Many people are "very interested" in lots of things, that 1) they are not capable of doing in reality, or 2) are "very interested" in Your ___ only until they are "very interested" in someone else's ____. I know someone who was given the "very interested/excited" treatment all the way up until that interested/excited party neglected to show up at the closing and sign the papers without any explanation or apology at all.

This situation happened to me: I was in the process of making an offer on my current house and my realtor worked on it late Friday, late Saturday and got it in and accepted on Sunday. Another better offer was presented on Monday by a Realtor who had a more relaxed weekend.

That's a scenario where I think the other Realtor was at fault for not working hard enough.

Your Realtor couldn't present an Offer from you that s/he didn't actually have from you.

Here it is quite common for buyers to accept significantly lower offers that are All Cash -- or no mortgage contingency-- to eliminate as many contingencies as possible, because not every negative outcome can be eliminated. (I suppose a cash buyer could die before closing or be willing to lose any cash in escrow as liquid damages rather than complete the transaction .) When I sold a property I ended up hanging because even with preapproval not all the financials of the buyer were completely taken care of when they were at the closing table.

OP yes your RA failed you IMHO. If for nothing else they didn't communicate effectively with you or the other LA.

Obviously a RA can't be expected to read your mind but they can be expected to ask proactive and obvious questions given your situation such as "hey do you want to make an offer on that house you desperately want and are only selling to get?"

Having said that given that the accepted offer was free of contingencies it may not have made any difference to the outcome.

Smart real estate agents that are worth their commissions are few and far between. If you ever find one hold on for dear life. It is a market niche that really should go the way of the dodo.