The buyer did not accept your counter before showing the house to her father, so there was no contract. Verbal or written would not have made any difference. And the 'custom' in your small town is definitely 19th century, and bound to lead to problems of all sorts.

Thank you. I do agree with you about verbals leading to all sorts of problems. I realize that there was no contract. I should clarify my question. Just speculating that if the buyer would have had to submit a written offer, if they would have even made an offer to begin with. I know if I have to put my name on an offer in writing, I would not be as likely to submit as opposed to just throwing out a verbal. Thanks again!

Yes, I agree with you. It's easy to say something, harder to get it in writing. Which is why verbal agreements of all sorts are worth the paper they are written on.

The problem you might run into if you insist on written offers, when local custom dictates a verbal offer first, is irritating agents and buyers. In a small town I can easily see a seller getting a reputation as difficult because he insists offers are in writing.

Until both parties sign and accept all offers and counteroffers either one can pull out of the deal. I once had a buyer submit a written offer. Seller countered. Buyer wanted to see the house again before signing the counteroffer. After doing so she instructed me to cancel the offer. Same situation, except it was all in writing.

"The problem you might run into if you insist on written offers, when
local custom dictates a verbal offer first, is irritating agents and
buyers. In a small town I can easily see a seller getting a reputation
as difficult because he insists offers are in writing."

Rrah, you worded my thoughts exactly. I don't want that reputation (could lead to less showings, etc.), but at the same time I want everything in writing. Tough situation for sure going forward in this process.

My initial thought is that it requires more intent to go through the process of a written offer so a tire kicker isn't likely to do that - you may have never heard from the one that got away in that case. Is that a good or bad thing? I don't know how you look at that. I'd want my realtor to protect me and let prospective buyers' agents know that I would prefer offers in writing but at the same time let it be known that I will still respond to an initial verbal offer. If that's truly the custom and it's a small town as you say, it's not worth getting anyone's shorts in a knot by demanding only written offers. Good luck - this does not sound easy.

BamaBoy wrote. "In this small market, all the agents know and "trust" the others it seems."

The problem with this thinking is that the agents are not the ones putting in the offers... the buyers are. And neither you nor the buyer's agent know the buyers at all.

Your gut instinct is correct in that you feel you should be dealing with legitimate written offers! An offer is much more than an offer price and a closing date. The entire written offer should be considered in its entirety, before agreeing to a simple, abbreviated verbal offer. You don't want to get into a situation where you agree to the simple verbal offer and then when you do receive the more complicated written offer, there are terms, dates and conditions that were not expressed verbally that you now do not agree with.

I deal with buyers all the time that speak BS. There is an emotional commitment one gets when putting their thoughts into a formal offer and submit to the agent an Earnest Money Deposit check and go through the process of applying for a Pre Qualification Letter.

Don't let any agent waste your time with a verbal. If they approach you with one, politely tell them that you are excited to hear that they have an interested party, and that you would certainly entertain that offer once you see the entire offer's terms and conditions and dates on paper and also submitted with a Pre Qualification Letter.

I've lived in small towns. I wouldn't entertain an offer unless it was in writing. Verbal offers are a bad business practice. Too many terms and conditions that need to be provided. The agents are wasting your time and trying to determine how badly you are willing to bargain. Bless their hearts:)

I'm a Southerner, too. Don't let them string you along like this. You've got some lazy agents in your town. Make them earn their commission.

I would have a friendly chat with my listing agent. Tell the agent that in the future, you will only entertain a written offer. No ones feelings will be hurt. Get it in writing.

I do written offers only for the initial offer, and if we counter, I will counter in writing if we are close, or verbally if they were way too low.

I think that getting the initial offer in writing will give you all of the info needed to make a decision (closing date, price, dn pmt, earnest money, financing contingencies, type of financing, closing cost assistance, etc.)

Plus, if it's a financed deal I don't negotiate without a preapproval letter from lender. So, since I have to have that anyways, they may as well do it in writing.

Generally doing it in writing eliminates non serious buyers.

The verbal offers are really just a way of testing where you will go. The verbal offer will only weed out the people who arent serious about your house any way. If you dont want to get your hopes up for nothing, then I would insist on written offers only. You may lose a few of the "verbals", but they werent hot on your house to begin with. The girl who changed her mind and went with another house sounds as if she put in two verbals at a time to "hold her place i line". (its not binding but it does buy her some time since she would always be told "another offer came in" and give her a chance to get serious. Once her dad took a look at both houses, she made a decision on what was best for her, and lost nothing by getting your hopes up.

Once a written offer is presented here, and everyone understands the offer's details, we do counter back and forth verbally on the couple sticking points. Once agreement has been reached the buyer's agent will type up the final draft for signatures.

Folks, thank you so much for all of your comments. I agree with each piece of advice that has been offered. Some of the comments have been the exact words I have said to myself, so it gives me validation that I have been on the right track with my thoughts on this.

The verbal offers did get our hopes up, and Linda you are right, I do believe two offers were put in at the same time and she let her dad choose. I also agree that it is a lazy practice. NC guy-you summed it all up perfectly, especially about the agents knowing each other but not the buyers. I will push for written offers going forward. Then if either agent or the buyer balks or resists, at least I will know upfront that it is not really a very serious offer. Thanks again for a great discussion. Hopefully this thread will help others that may find themselves in a similar situation.

Worthless.

Go away, Troll.

ncrealestateguy: Your not a lawyer, not an abstracted, not a loan officer, just a salesman. Talk, talk, talk.

You are only a troll. I have never once actively sold my services here.

I never made an ad hominem attack. I just gave my opinion what I thought about verbal offers - on anything.

Sorry you're angry about my opinion. Go call someone else names on your school yard.

Geoffrey, maybe I misunderstood your post... "worthless". I thought it was in response to the OP's comment above that one, where he hoped this thread was helpful to to others. I thought you were calling the thread "Worthless".

My apologies for the misunderstanding.

No problem. I have read your other comments, and they always seemed intelligent. I thought you might be having a bad day.

Thanks for your understanding.

The written offer should also have earnest money attached so that may also make the buyer think once, twice or three times before holding houses for decision making as this lady was able to do with her "verbal offer".

Here in my city, even with a ratified written contract, you will see a house still promoted and available for viewing, right up until the PICRA gets ratified. Nobody gets their hopes up until then. We presently have a seller's market, so sellers tip the small advantages to their favor, and discounts are less common. That also means buyers walk away a lot because they tend to feel like the prices are too high.

We had to approach sellers with $1K deposit, underwriting already done, and no contingencies (other than decent appraisal), just for them to take us seriously. I can't imagine expecting a seller to pull their house off market because I made a verbal offer. That's like ROFL fantasy here.

Interesting to see how diverse the real estate process can be in different cities.

Hope for Best, I hope your no contingency didn't include no inspection. :)

Inspection was one thing we insisted. It found a pretty severe (and expensive) unknown problem. The sellers demanded to know if we were shopping around on them. They were not going to bother scheduling the repair until they heard confirmation that we were still in. We were baffled. Ratified contract and they had our earnest in escrow. Why on earth would we be shopping other houses?? But apparently stuff like that is the norm in my area.

More evidence as to why I can't imagine this process working on verbal deals.