Do real estate agents really play games? Yes, there are a few who do. I first became a real estate agent 40 years ago, and I have seen real estate agents play all kinds of games. As a real estate attorney I saw some bad behavior among some real estate agents. There’s one game a small percentage of listing agents play that you need to watch out for when you make an offer on a property. Let me prequalify what I share in this article by saying that most real estate agents are honest professionals who practice with integrity. As a full time Realtor now, I love working with those kinds of professionals. But I abhor the games some real estate agents play, especially when those games involve lying to buyers or their agents.
Games Real Estate Agents Play
A buyer makes an offer on a property that has been on the market for a long time. The buyer’s agent submits the offer to the listing agent, and the listing agent says, “Oh what a coincidence. There’s another offer coming in today, too.”
Of course, that could be true, and we would all assume that it is true. You could have a property no one wants for years, and suddenly on the exact same day two offers hit the listing agent’s desk. What a coincidence, right?
Unless it is not a coincidence. Unless there is no other offer. Why would real estate agents play such a deceitful game? You need to hear the rest of the story.
When the buyer’s agent is told by the listing agent that there’s a second offer, that buyer’s agent is obligated to share that with his own buyer. What if his buyer really wants this property? He may raise his offer to full price before the seller can accept the other (non-existant?) offer.
Real Estate Agents Less Than Honest?
What is the game real estate agents are playing if they do this? They are getting the buyer (you) to bid against yourself. That is unethical, and it is against the law. It’s called fraud. Apart from all that, it can cost you a lot of money if you get caught up in the games that real estate agents sometimes play. Granted, not all agents play such games. In fact, very few agents would be so dishonest, but does it happen? Yes, unfortunately it does.
And here’s the kicker. You will never be able to prove or disprove there ever was a second offer. The listing agent is not obligated to prove it to you when you make an offer, or even later after you close on the purchase. In other words, a listing agent could lie with no apparent repercussions, getting you to bid against yourself. [If an agent ever got caught, she could lose her license and be sued for fraud in civil court as well as under the criminal code.]
Please don’t get caught in games some real estate agents play. Be discerning. Be wise. And be certain you are represented by a buyer’s agent who wasn’t born yesterday.
Last Updated on September 6, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
We put a bid in on a house and our realtor came back and said they took the other offer, which was only $1100.00 more. Our realtor never even asked us if we wanted to bid more. We went to the asking price, we pay the closing costs. We are pre approved. Our realtor can’t understand why we are upset. Every single house that we have bid on, we never hear back WHY our bid isn’t accepted. Realtors not wanting to let us see certain properties. We just moved to this state, and we both have good jobs/ credit history and we can’t find a house here at all. We are done, and we tell our friends and family that want to move here too, not to waste their time or money!!
Donna Rose, I feel your pain. Seriously, I do, because one of my pet peeves as a life long real estate lawyer and real estate broker is the incompetence of real estate agents and brokers. I started in real estate as a young 21 year old agent over 40 years ago, and guess what? There were incompetent, unprofessional, and dishonest agents back then, and in all these years I have not seen that change. The biggest stress factor I have to deal with these days is not my clients or negotiating difficult transactions or the uncertainties of marketing myself and managing a successful brokerage–it is dealing with incompetent and narcissistic agents on the other end of the transactions.
Such agents kill transactions out of ignorance and incompetence, but many do so without a care in the world about how they just screwed a buyer (or a seller). That’s narcissism! I could give you a hundred stories of bad real estate agents, but I won’t do that here.
Here’s what I would leave you with Donna Rose–2 pieces of advice from the school of hard knocks:
1. It is absolutely critical that a buyer retain a truly good buyer’s agent, one who is knowledgeable, experienced, competent, professional, honest with integrity, and who puts his client’s interest above all else, even his own commission. Now, I’ve learned that for some inexplicable reason, the vast majority of buyers assume the buyer’s agent they retain is all those things and will take good care of them, even though they have not intelligently interviewed that agent, nor have they bothered to do any online research on that agent. Sounds kind of dumb when I make the case that way, doesn’t it? Well, it is dumb. Forgive me Donna Rose, but I’m most certainly not calling you dumb. I’m simply pointing out that the “vast majority” of buyers, like you, make a mistake that is dumb, and obviously you and the vast majority don’t realize until you’ve been burned. A little online research plus a personal telephone interview do not take very much time and effort. I could do all that in less than 30 minutes. Wouldn’t that be the best time you ever spent when it comes to making one of the biggest investments of your life?
2. If you’ve been burned by a bad Realtor or a bad agent (called “brokers” in the State of Washington), do not automatically conclude that the State of Washington is a bad state and no one should ever live here. You might be surprised to learn that grown up adults will often conclude that, even though it is obviously not a rational conclusion. If you had one bad experience with a dentist in the State of California, would you assume California is a place no one should live? If you discovered your pastor in a Southern Baptist Church in Alabama was convicted of child molestation 10 years ago, would you decide never to live in Alabama? If one stupid incompetent real estate broker stabs you in the back, are you going to conclude Washington is a place no one should move to, that they should “not waste their time or money!!”?
Okay, I know I’ve not held back with this answer, and please understand Donna Rose, I’m not disparaging you, only how you approached retaining an agent and your conclusion afterward. It’s all wrong! But that doesn’t mean anything negative about your character. You sound like a wonderfully honest and good person. The bad culprit in this story is the broker you retained. He’s a bad person, and that is a character issue, but you also bear responsibility for hiring an incompetent broker. The decision as to whom you would hire was totally in your hands, and you hired the wrong one. It’s not a matter of bad luck. I have many articles out of the 2,200 plus articles on this blog that explain the importance and the specifics of how to find and retain the best buyer’s agent out there in your market.
If I sound a little perturbed by this story, I am. I’m tired of hearing how people get screwed by their brokers. But I’m also tired of hearing how they hired incompetent brokers without doing their due diligence on him or her. I’m here 24/7 as a buyer’s agent. “Pick me,” is what I’d like to shout from the mountain tops. I’m one of the most visible buyer’s agents on the Internet in the State of Washington and particularly for the Sequim area. I’m not hard to find. Do a search during your due diligence with hundreds of search phrases, and you’ll keep finding my articles and videos, as you obviously did Donna Rose when you searched for answers to your question now.
Ladies and gentlemen, let this tragic story be another real life lesson of the importance of finding and retaining the right real estate buyer’s agent. Had Donna Rose done that, she would have been taken care of with integrity from the beginning to the closing.
Ann, you make a most excellent point. You’re right about some car salesman. I guess we have less-than-completely-honest people in every profession. Too bad. I was a lawyer for 20 years, and I can count the lawyers who conducted themselves with honesty and integrity without lying in the courtroom on one hand. No wonder our judicial system is broke!
Interesting that you say this Other-Offer Fake Out is fraud and could have real consequences for the listing agent. When purchasing a car, salesmen will lie, deceive, try to get you to pay more for a car than it is worth or add items you don’t want (and say they cannot be removed). Once in the Finance Office, they try to make you accept a higher interest rate loan, when your excellent credit record qualifies you for a low one, and then frighten you into buying an extended warranty based on horror stories they tell you. Amazingly, this is not considered fraud or being dishonest and unprofessional. Dealerships just think of it as Salesmanship.