Well this depends on what the buyers signed contract consists of. If there are any contingencies in the contract prolonging the sale of the property the sellers may be looking at trying to get a secondary offer on it in order to cause a bump. I'll explain. If the offer was contingent on the sale of the buyers house and a "bump clause" was added, then if a secondary offer comes in (and is accepted as a secondary offer) the 1st buyer with the accepted offer has the right to remove the contingency and buy the property without the contingency. If the 1st buyer chooses not to do so, then the secondary offer can be bumped up to the primary (if of course it is more "closeable" then the last. The seller may be reducing the price if the 1st accepted offer isn't (what we call) "closeable" in the amount of time they would like. Does this sound right?

They may be acccepting back up offers in case the deal falls through or to use as leverage in case of a home inspection or other issue.

None that i can think off, it doesn't make sense if the contract was already signed by both parties. The house is not taken off mls, the status will change from active to under contract (uc).

There may have been a time constraint & in the event that the first offer did not go through a reduction in price would increase interest in the property & may bring in other offers in the event that the one and only offer did not materialize.

I am not sure I am 100% clear on the situation, but if the sale goes through and the broker has lowered the price, the % of difference between asking price and selling price, if smaller, makes the broker look good.

This is not a short sale and I believe the only contingency was getting a commitment letter within 45 days. The price was agreed between the buyer and seller and the contract was being drafted/revised between the lawyers. A week before the house was taken off the market the selling broker lowered the asking price by 20K. It did not make a difference in the sale as the agreed price was still undet the new asking price. Just want to know what the seller gains by lowering the price after a price has been agrred upon and subsequently the house was taken off MLS.

Have you asked your agent the question....and are you in a fully executed contract, signed by all parties and was money exchanged...

Is this a short sale? ......