Here’s a frustrating circumstance: I get an offer on one of my listings but one of the two seller clients has seemingly gone out of town without telling anyone and is not picking up his messages! It’s a perfectly good offer, by which I mean it is counter-able, and the one seller I’ve been able to reach is ready to sign. But without his partner, we are dead in the water! I’ve asked the buyers to be patient and that I do expect to give them a formal response. I just can’t say when.

This is very off-putting to the buyer because it reminds him of what happened on the last offer he made on a property: the seller’s agent stalled giving the buyer a response while “shopping” their offer around to other prospective buyers, i.e. telling other buyers how much the received offer was for, with the idea of getting even higher bids. The buyer got wind of this activity (which is perfectly legal but not particularly nice) and decided to pull his offer altogether.

In this case, no such thing is happening. One of my sellers is simply AWOL. But I can understand the buyer’s frustration and realize that unless we respond soon, he may very well move on to another property. All I can do is ask for his patience.

Of course, I hope that everything is ok with my client. Ah, just another day in the life of a real estate broker.

Brett Weinstein