When Your Offer Is Not Even Presented

Question

Interesting situation we are in the middle of.

We are working directly with the owner on a potential deal.  The numbers make sense.  500k to buy, 60k to fix, low 700k to sell.

In the middle of us getting the deal under contract, the owner runs across a realtor that convinces her she should use him to represent her.  No issues with that from my side.

When the realtor contacts us he then precedes to tell us what the offer needs to be and the terms.  No issue with that either.

But, when we refuse his terms and make the offer with our terms the realtor lets us know that is unacceptable and he will not be presenting the offer to the seller.  With that I have a big issue.

The terms he wants inserted into our offer is almost 30k non refundable earnest money.

Anyone else have an issue with that?

Russell Brazil · Answer

Sounds like the seller wanted better terms and so they hired someone to represent them.

If you are going to close without issue, then it shouldn't matter what the earnest money amount is. Many real estate pros will use the EMD amount to weed out someone who is simply looking to tie up the property with little intention of closing, such as wholesalers.

Ricardo R. · Answer

@Peter Vekselman maybe, maybe not. If the Seller told the agent that is how they want it... then yes the Agent can just refuse to take your offer unless you meet the requirements given to him/her by their Seller. EMD seems quite high for a residential sale which leads to believe that this is not a residential sale and perhaps commercial or something else??? ... if so, then all bets are off and the agent has much broader leeway.