house sold eventhough an offer was made

Put an offer for a property in Brisbane, agent advised me he will get back to me after presenting my offer to the seller. Waited for a week, no answer called the agent and he advised me that the property has been sold. He never got back to me and give me a feedback, he advised me that because my offer was conditional and the other offer was unconditional the sellers accepted the offer. But he did not contact me to allow or give me another change to put another offer.

Can I take any action on the agent or the agency? What are the laws around this?

any suggestions appreciated. thank you.
 
Decision rests completely with the vendor.

Agent is contracted to the vendor. Usually the agent must pass all offers to the vendor. Up to the vendor what to do with it (which may be ignoring offers, perfectly OK).
 
The vendor is under no obligation to negotiate with you no matter what the circumstances. Yes it may be frustrating if you were prepared to offer more money and/or more favourable terms, but you had an opportunity to do so at the outset and you didn't take it.

On the face of it, the agent has done nothing wrong at all.
 
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yes there is a signed contract. And, no he did not get back to me wanting to find out if I wanted to place another offer. It just sounds unfair, that i dont get another chance to make my best offer. So, according to you guys, its perfectly ok for the actions by the agent?
 
yes there is a signed contract. And, no he did not get back to me wanting to find out if I wanted to place another offer. It just sounds unfair, that i dont get another chance to make my best offer. So, according to you guys, its perfectly ok for the actions by the agent?

Presumably YOU signed the contract, and the vendor didn't.

Unfair? Maybe. Legal? Yes. 'Ok' is a meaningless term.
 
It just sounds unfair, that i dont get another chance to make my best offer. So, according to you guys, its perfectly ok for the actions by the agent?

The reality is, you already had a chance to make your best offer and instead you chose to make an inferior offer. Sometimes that works for you, sometimes it doesn't. One of the risks in not making your best offer is that the vendor will decide to sell if it meets their needs to do so.

The agent took your offer in good faith and (presumably) presented it to the vendor. The agent then (presumably) acted on the vendor's instructions to sell the property to someone else. The agent is acting on behalf of the vendor, so their actions sound perfectly ok to me.

Whilst it sucks to be in this situation you can mitigate the chances of this happening by either putting your best foot forward or recognising that there's more deals out there and working hard to find the next one.
 
Can I take any action on the agent or the agency?
Not really. The agent has done nothing wrong except fail to give good, potential future customer service, to you. But bear in mind, the agent is not working for you - he is working for the vendor.

If you want to have someone working for you, then hire a Buyers Agent in your area.

"Waiting for a week" was not a good strategy. Lesson learned? :(

What are the laws around this?
In Queensland it is the Property Agents and Motor Dealers’ Act
http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/CURRENT/P/PropAgMoDA00.pdf
 
Obviously the vendor received a contract he/she was happy with so accepted. The vendor had no way of knowing the thoughts behind the contracts and could only go on the written evidence in front of them.

Agent probably held off contacting you in case the first contract fell through on the 5 day cooling off period.

Sometimes you only get one chance to buy a property.
Marg
 
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cheers for all the replies guys, keep it coming. I have put another offer for a property and with this agent I had to sign a declaration "acknowledgment of Multiple offers", which states to place your best offer as you mite have only 1 opportunity to make an offer. Which I think is fair enough, as I was made aware and I did place my best offer.
But, wouldn’t the agent want to get back to me so that if I am really interest in the property I will place a higher offer, thus more commission for them.
 
But, wouldn’t the agent want to get back to me so that if I am really interest in the property I will place a higher offer, thus more commission for them.

In an ideal world - Yes. But in the lazy world of some REAs getting an extra $10K from a buyer represents only $300 commission (max) more. Easier to take a sale now and stop working than to work longer, with more OFIs, for an unknown outcome for a measly $300.:cool:
 
But, wouldn’t the agent want to get back to me so that if I am really interest in the property I will place a higher offer, thus more commission for them.

The honest answer is... not always. There may be a variety of reasons not to.

  • The vendor may be working to their own timetable that simply doesn't allow them to to and fro between competing buyers.
  • The 'other' offer may be 'unconditional but exploding' (ie it had a deadline on it) in which case the vendor may be forced to make a decision to accept the other offer or negotiate with you exclusively and may decide that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
  • The terms of the other offer may be more attractive than what the agent has assessed you'll be in a position to make (and it may not be purely in terms of $s).
  • The terms of the other offer may be exactly what the vendor is after and hence is happy to settle on, even if they could do better.
  • The vendor may be sick of the whole thing and just want to get it over and done with and be prepared to take the other offer to finish it all.
  • The vendor may have been negotiating with the other potential buyer for a long time and have a sense of "obligation" towards honouring the other drafted contract.
  • The agent may simply be lazy and advise his vendor to take the other bid since it may not be worth his while for a very marginal improvement in his commission.
  • The agent may be doing the right thing by the vendor in arguing against your offer even if it means less commission for them if the other offer is more appropriate in light of other terms.

Ultimately, when presented with multiple offers the power belongs with the vendor. They have the right to decide to negotiate with one potential buyer or both or neither. They are under no obligation to negotiate for a higher price or more favourable settlement date or fewer conditions.

It's obviously disappointing missing out on a place that you are interested in, but the reality is that the other offer was presented on terms acceptable to the vendor and your offer was less appealing.
 
yes there is a signed contract. And, no he did not get back to me wanting to find out if I wanted to place another offer. It just sounds unfair, that i dont get another chance to make my best offer. So, according to you guys, its perfectly ok for the actions by the agent?

Yep.

It's one of those cake and eat it scenarios - we want to pay bugger all, and the Vendors want a squillion.

Can't blame them for going with an unconditional versus conditional.

I would too.

If it's a PPoR, offer your best price if you really want it.

If it's an IP, offer what you think it's worth, and if they don't accept, move on to the next deal of the century.
 
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Good post Gremlin, but you forgot one point:
  • The agent may think your a tire kicker or one of those people who attends a seminar and/or reads a book and goes out and makes offers first and then worries about obtaining finance.
With ~40% of sales falling through due to finance the REA may (rightly) point out to the vendor that the "unknown" offer will take till settlement to prove itself.
The other offer, which maybe same more or even less, could be from a "know" buyer who is known to be cashed up and "in the market" and very slim chance of hassle.

The negotiation starts at the first contact, and perception is all art of it.
 
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