Should have signed the buyer up, took their deposit and if they didn't get FIRB approval then tough titties to them.
Funny… I was talking about this on another thread, more specifically the other side of the story.
I would love to see everyone’s reaction if the agent was to willingly take 10% from a buyer when they knew they couldn’t settle. Imagine if you were the buyer. I wonder how you would react if the agent told you “tough titties”.
I think I speak on behalf of all agents when I say we would prefer a settlement then a risky exchange. The vendor gets the deposit not the agent, so there is nothing to gain besides from months of litigation and negative speculation, such, which has already happened on this thread.
If this story is true, and at this point I have no good reason to believe its not; The agent has done the right thing. He has saved an apparent confused buyer $39,000 and dodged months and months of the property being stuck in limbo through litigation. And at the end of the day he achieved a higher price.
The only negative aspect I can say is that the agent didn’t qualify the buyer prior to auction. But, I don’t know the full story. The buyer could have shown up on the day and never contacted the agent directly. The buyer could have lied and there are probably another 10 scenarios in which the agent could not know about the required FIRB approval.