Full Asking Price Means Guaranteed Sale…Right?
Buyers often ask about the rights and remedies available to them when making an offer on a home. The most common of these questions revolves around whether or not a seller must accept an offer under specific circumstances, most often being if the buyer offers full asking price (or more).
The answer is no, a seller does not have to accept an offer of full asking price. Although a buyer may offer full price, their offer could be full of other conditions the seller finds unacceptable. Examples of this could include seller paid closing costs, requested repairs, who will pay for things like title insurance or surveys, and unacceptable terms such as closing date or conditions.
Listing agents have even run into cases where the seller was just testing the water to see if they could get any offers at the full asking price. While this isn’t a great option for sellers, it has been done before. In these cases, you could offer the seller much more than asking price and they still wouldn’t sell you their home (or be required to). There are even instances where the listing agent has taken the seller to court claiming damages as they had brought a ready, willing, and able buyer to the table at full asking price (without other conditions that would affect the seller’s net proceeds), but because the seller refused to sell, the listing agent felt they should be compensated. While this may be true, it’s obviously not a good practice for real estate agents as suing your clients is not going to get you the sort of reputation around town that fosters more business.
image courtesy of johnnytakespictures
