Question regarding Countered VA offer - timeframes -
Have a question folks.
I put an offer in on a VA owned reo property a couple of weeks ago.
Was told there were multiple offers (3 total including ours), and also signed a multiple offer acknowledgement.
A couple of days later, we were told "The Seller has decided to negotiate another offer. If that does not go through, I will let you know."
About 9 days pass. My agent follows up. We are then told that the 1st Offer People Declined the Banks Counteroffer, and that the Seller would like to Counter our Offer.
We receive the Counter. Which is consists of; The contract. The 2 page addendum, copy of emd, and financial information, and a printed form from VRMS. It is a screenshot of the offer portal with 3 columns. 4.1 Awaiting Resubmission, 4.2 Submitted, and 4.3 Seller Countered.
On these screenshot pages, it states in the counter offer column an expiration date. We received this last Friday (10.27). The Expiration date was yesterday (10.31). We decided to revist the property and see if we could rework our offer. (Which was super close to initial list price anyway). I just re-read the screenshot. It states the dates of our initial offer, the date of the multiple offer situation, and clearly states Expiration Date (On the Sellers Counteroffer)
On Monday (10.30) our agent contacted the listing agent to let them know that we had a Counter to their Counter. Was then told it was needed to be received Monday. (10.30) Our agent mentioned that we thought we had until 10.31, but we could get it in quickly. Around 5 our agent was called by the listing agent saying they were waiting on our Counteroffer. We had it sent in by 530pm.
Yesterday morning, our agent emailed the listing agent to confirm receipt. They emailed a reply acknowledging receipt. (10.31)
We hear nothing yesterday. (10.31)
This morning @ 9am, our agent inquired with the listing agent to see if they had a response to our couter offer. He was then told that unfortunately they received yet another offer (new offer), and that now we are in a "Highest and Best" bid period against now 4 other parties.
We were operating in good faith, thinking that we were being exclusively negotiated with, had met time frames, and were waiting on a response to our counter, or if we had so chosen, we thought we could have accepted the initial counter offer.
We were told this afternoon, that the new offer triggered a "highest and best", (because we didnt accept prior to the timeframe) and that the new offer would have negated the validity of the initial counter.
Is that true? The new offer would negate the counter?
Is the date mentioned in the screenshot for the benefit of the Seller only? (Expiration Date)
Sorry for being long winded, but, am I wrong to think that we were in an exclusive negotiation period? (knowing that they had done so prior with the first party)
What good is the dates on that screenshot, and what does it really mean? (Our agent was told today that the expiration date is for the seller only... I would think it would say something like "Respond by" or similar , Not "Expiration Date".)
I smell something fishy, and want to get opinions. Are we being gamed? By listing agent? Or?
I could be off base, and this may now be s.o.p. I just don't know.
Thoughts?