Hi Jay Sizzle,
It is hard for me to trust an agent from now on, after I had put in an offer only to find out later the offer was never presented to the owner and the home sold for 10K less than what I was offering. The agent was pregnant and she may have just wanted to close out a quick transaction.
So from my experience, I think sometime you have every right to get in touch with the owner and address them on a personal level.
Jay, there's no reason why you couldn't ask the Agent to come along to a meeting with you and the Vendor. Seeing you know as you're the only one who has put in an offer, this places you in a more prime position to have contact with the Vendor. Don't discuss or start bargaining price with the Agent around – this will only get everyone's hackles up. Your positioning is to work out the best way you can assist the Vendor to move on and to find out what his needs are, where his head is at, what he's going to do with all that money he gets from the sale (eg: go on holiday, put it in the bank, pay out other debts/ loans/ credit card etc…).
Quite frankly most Agents don't care why a Vendor is selling – they just want their commission. So for you to come in and show that you care should present you in a different light.
I suppose you also want to ascertain if the Agent has been truthful and actually passed back your offer to the Vendor or are they just saying "The Vendor said Blah Blah Blah" to get you to pay more so he gets more commission. Having this meeting together will call him on this. If the Agent won't agree to this meeting, at that point I'd walk, because you're dealing with a shonky RE Agent. You could if you wanted to…..write to the Vendor asking them to give you a call after the Agency listing has expired to discuss further (that's if the Agent hasn't sold the property prior). At least then you don't have to deal with the Agent.
Like I said, if you REALLY want this property, work out a way to get it on Terms. Your negotiation should include an amount of what is reasonable for you to pay now and what you can pay off in installments over time…..and of course this will depend on what the Vendor's requirements are.
Cheers, Tamara
PS: Some Lawyers are very antiquated!
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