An offer was submitted on one of my listings a couple of weeks ago. The showing consisted of the buyers and their entire family. I know this because they didn't make an appointment and just knocked on the door in which my sellers let them in because they were with an agent. They arrived in 3 different cars, that's how many people there were looking through the house!!
I received an offer on the property the next day, YEAH! Along with the offer, I received a pre-approval letter. Great!! I read through it, and it had the terms of the loan, including mentioning that it was a Stated Income loan, and it was on letter head for a company...
We countered the offer and received no response... I called the buyers' agent a couple of days later, and asked about the counter and he said he had not talked with the buyers. "Can you call them?" He says he will.... no call back...
I let a few more days go by. "Have you spoken with them? My sellers and I would like to work this out. We all have the same goal. They want to sell and your buyers want to buy."
His response is that they haven't found a house they like. "But, Angel, they submitted an offer on my sellers' house. They must have liked it, right?" His reply, "Yes, they really liked that house."
"Why have you not talked with the buyers about our counter offer." His reply, "I tell you, these are difficult buyers and I haven't heard from them since we submitted the offer."
So, I decided to go ahead and call the mortgage guy on the approval letter. I typically call the mortgage person on the pre-approval letters before we counter or accept an offer, but decided this approval letter looked more detailed than the typical one and it should be fine... DON'T EVER ASSUME ANYTHING!!
After a couple of calls to the mortgage company today to ask them if they've spoken with the buyer to see if they would like to move forward on this offer they submitted, this is how the last conversation went:
Receptionist- "You're the listing agent?"
Me- "Yes, I'm the listing agent. I'm calling because I received an offer on a listing from this buyer and they attached an approval letter from Bob and I would like to talk with Bob to discuss this approval letter."
Receptionist- "But we don't have a contract for that buyer."
Me- "I know you don't have a contract. They submitted an offer to my sellers, we responded to that offer, and the buyers have not responded back. There is no contract right now, so you would not have a contract."
Receptionist- "I don't understand."
Me- "Can I please speak with Bob? He wrote the letter."
Receptionist- "But that's the problem. He said he didn't write a pre-approval letter for this buyer you mention. What does the letter say?"
Me- I read the letter... "Can I just talk with Bob and try to get this cleared up."
Receptionist- "Can you fax me the letter you have so we can look into this?"
This conversation went on for about 15 minutes. I did fax the letter and they were supposed to call me right back, and I haven't heard a thing from them, but they were also supposed to call me back a couple of times today when I left previous messages...
Bottom-line, even if the approval letter looks really good and is really detailed, don't take it as anything other than paper until it can be verified. I broke my own rule on this one as I've blogged before about calling the mortgage person as soon as an offer comes in. Bad, Donna!! Bad, Donna!!
Then, I had to call the sellers and tell them that even if I get a returned call from the buyers' agent or the mortgage person, that we probably wouldn't want to move forward with this situation as it doesn't sound like there would be enough communication on the other side in order to facilitate an on-time closing...
What do you think? Would you reconsider this buyer if they all of a sudden reappeared??
Renee, People just disappear right and left in Vegas?
Ian, I'm trying to hold it together, but when the mortgage person doesn't even recall writing the letter, I'm not sure if there's a deal to save. By their reaction, I'm thinking the buyer doesn't actually qualify for anything.
Jay, My thoughts exactly!!
Ya gotta check them out!!!
This could go in any direction. Crazy.
Funny thing, though. I almost NEVER get a call from the listing agent. Like I could count them on one hand.
Sharon, Those are my thoughts. It's weird, though, because there is an actual signature on the letter, not just the typed name.
Tom, Yes, we've discussed this before and it amazes me that you never receive calls from listing agents.
Missy, The company knows who this person is, but says they have no record of submitting an approval letter for them. Their notes say the buyer hasn't even been looking at houses yet.
"Would you reconsider this buyer if they all of a sudden reappeared??"
Not a chance!!!
The odds are stacked against you that anything about the transaction will EVER go right. No appointment, drag the whole family through, possible forged preapproval letter, possibly a lender without good record-keeping??, and a fellow Realtor with little ability to oversee his clients.