It is illegal in the state of Maryland and any other state for that matter to have more than one ratified contract for one single property.
There are a lot of Realtors "attempting" to do short sales with no basic knowledge . . . putting their clients at risk
A sales purchase offer is ratified when both the seller and the buyer accepts it by signing it. . . essentially the third party approval is just a contingency similar to . . . .just a home inspection contingency
I hope this helps

This is what makes people so nuts when trying to purchase a short sale! In my area (Tampa, FL) almost everything is a short sale and it seems like every agent works things differently. The "rules" are evolving as we go along, but it's hard to get everyone to do things the same way when everything is changing so quickly. As a Buyer's Agent, I always call the listing Agent first and see where they're at in the short sale process and ask how they are going to work things. I've had many different responses. Some say they'll submit all offers to the bank, some say they'll work with just one offer at a time.
Personally, I don't think it's fair to anyone to just keep taking offers and many times, by the time the short sale is approved, those offers are out of contract (time wise) anyway and the people have moved on long ago.
I think the fair way to do things is to accept one offer from one Buyer, have the Buyer put a deposit into escrow so they have a vested interest in waiting, and submit that offer to the bank for approval. If someone else wants to put an offer in - they can put in a BACK-UP offer in case the first offer doesn't go through.

Your contract should have had an addendum disclosing their multiple offer setup. In my opinion, it's ok to work these deals in different ways, but it's all about disclosure. As long as everyone knows what's going on, they can base their decisions on the situation, but to accept offers and then just file them away is not ethical.

First of all; Short Sales are a bit of the 'Wild West'. There are many issues surrounding them - one is that agents often do understand how to do them!

Here are a couple of issues I see. In order to have a "Contract"; the sellers would have had to sign it and then send you back a signed a copy. Then you would have a contract. The problem is this: Their can only be 1 contract at a time.

You can only sell a house once. You can't have 2 contracts to buy 1 home. One does not automatically kick out the other. You would be the 1st "Back-up" contract. Basically meaning that if and when the 1st buyer backs out or is unaccepted; then you are next in line.

Many agents do not agree with this - and while I am not a lawyer; I can tell you that most experts agree with this.

While you may in fact have a contract - it is unenforceable; because they already have a legally binding contract with the 1st buyers.

I hope this helps

Yes, what you describe is a binding contract. Do you have a copy that includes the sellers' signatures? Only one offer should have been accepted and sent to the bank. A second offer is not considered unless the first one is declined. These sellers may have committed to sell their home to two different buyers. There is a lot of confusion out there. For over 50 years, the real estate business has run by certain rules. But we've never seen a market like this. It seems that with short sales, all the established practices went out the window.

I suggest that you consider yourself an educated buyer (educated the HARD way!), and move on. Good luck.

Alan
(443) 789-6712