When making really low offers to realtors, is it OK if I just send them an email with my offer, or do I need to call them? In other words, are realtors required to give my offer to the seller no matter how low? Thanks.
Good question. I would like to know the answer to this too. I believe according to their ethics code they are supposed to but in real life…does that happen?
They’re supposed to present all offers. In order for an offer to be legitimate, you need consideration or a deposit with the offer. If you just make it a verbal offer, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on! Nothing is binding unless there’s some money involved. Send in the offer with the money and he’ll have to present it, otherwise you haven’t made a real offer.
OK, so how much does the deposit/consideration need to be, and is there a formal method of presenting the offer? Bear with me. I’m new to all of this. Thanks.
Actually, unless the seller requires consideration, you can go ahead and make the offer. I was using a RE agent last year to submit 3-4 offers/week. Only HUD and those sellers that required “earnest money” ever got any consideration. I believe in the 20+ non-HUD offers I submitted, only two required me to submit an earnest money check with my offer. My RE agent would simply add the property information to a template with my info in a PDF, print it out, fax it to me, I would look over it, sign it, and fax it back. If it required an earnest money deposit, I would swing by her office after work and drop it off later.
I am a Realtor in the State of Ohio and to answer your question, on a bankowned property, most of the time the banks have you hold all offers and will only allow the realtors to submit highest and best, for privately owned properties, a seller can say do not submit offers under a certain amount. As far as submitting earnest money, I only ask for earnest money upon acceptance of an offer. Bottom line it is not required to submit all offers in Ohio, the seller usually makes that call on what offers they will entertain.