Venice, FL asked in Real Estate Law for Florida

Q: We offer asking price on house $165k and put a $5,000 deposit .

The day the property listed the seller moves abroad. We are now told we have to wait two days to see the highest offer apparently multiple offers are coming in .It appears that the sellers realtor was not in fact looking for the sale price as advertised and that placing on the market the day the seller moved abroad knowing this would inflate the sales price due to the extended wait.

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2 Lawyer Answers
Richard Paul Zaretsky
Richard Paul Zaretsky
Answered
  • West Palm Beach, FL
  • Licensed in Florida

A: There are all sorts of strategies for marketing a home. Offering the asking price does not ensure anything more than the broker is entitled to its commission from the seller at that price for bringing in that contract whether or not the seller accepts the contract. But the seller does not have to accept an asking price contract and can wait for better offers.

Your job as the buyer is to encourage the seller to accept quickly, such as putting in a clause about when the offer expires (this is standard in most Florida forms). Sometimes that is an incentive for an early acceptance and sometimes not. Here, where immediately multiple offers came in (or broker was advised they were coming), the home can go into a bidding war, as you apparently have.

Jonathan A. Klurfeld
Jonathan A. Klurfeld
Answered
  • Boca Raton, FL
  • Licensed in Florida

A: An offer means nothing, seller has no legal duty to even respond to you at all. so if you have to wait 2 days for all other potential offers then you can or can retract your offer before accepted.

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