I have a listing that had (5) offers, Seller accepted the best one of the bunch and it was NOT the highest offer, but it was all CASH. Buyer cancelled when they decided that there was too much work to do on the property. http://www.16356ElginWay.com. However, a buyer can cancel for ANY REASON within their window of buyer investigation(contingency removal) time. In fact, a buyer does not have to offer a reason at all. You may never know the reason for the cancellation. So my advice is to forget the 'why' of it and if you are interested, submit an offer and hope there is less competition. Presently in Alameda County listing inventory is low, most sellers are seeing multiple offers on their properties. It's tough out there for buyers,especially those using VA/CAl Vet, FHA loans w/ little money down.
Good luck to you!

It's a good life!
Kay Korbel

Hi.

Hard to say but here are some thoughts:

1) all lowball offers that the seller did not accept
2) the property is a short sale and the bank rejected the offers
3) the property is a short sale and the time expired on the contracts for those making the offers
4) the proeprty is a short sale with 2 loans and the seller is on "the hook" for the second and does not want to do this so he rejects all the offers because they do not clear his/her debt.
5) the property had a lot of offers, seller selected one, that buyer did inspections and either walked away or asked for a credit that the seller did not grant him/her.

There are many things that could have singnaled this back on the market situation.
If you pass along the address it is easier for me to try and piece together what could have happened.

Scott
415.225.4593 - cell

Hi Lisa,

Which property are you inquiring about?

If you like, I can make some phone calls on your behalf and find out what happened. Like my associates mentioned below, there are numerous reasons the property could have come back on the market but until you actually do some leg work, you wont really know.

Kamal Randhawa
Broker
510-932-1066
"Straight answers all the time"

Hi Lisa:

Who said there were 30 offers? Allow me to give you a different perspective from all the physical and financial problmes that may have occured. . If with 30 offers the transaction does not close, I would not exclude incomplete service or incorrect advice by the agents involved. As an example mantioned already is the back up offer. Where is it? Maybe taking the highest offer was not the best offer. Terms and conditons are part of the offer. If you need an explanation, email me.
Antoine (aepirson@yahoo.com)

Dear Lisa,
Well, it could be that the seller didn't like any of the offers as well. This does happen!

Several reasons:

(1) The buyer didn't qualify for the loan --- or he got transferred, lost his job, even passed away!
(2) The property didn't appraise for the price the buyer offered to pay, and the seller refused to negotiate or reduce the price down to what the property was appraised at (this happened to me when my stubborn seller didn't believe the appraisal)
(3) The buyer changed his mind for a variety of reasons like another house he liked better came up for sale. If he didn't clear his contingencies, he was free to do so and get his deposit back
(4) The buyer may have ordered inspections and discovered that there are far more repairs that the property needed, and he wasn't willing to shoulder the additional expenses, so the buyer backed out
(5) The listing agent and the seller didn't ask or encourage a back-up buyer in case the first buyer backs out of the agreement
(6) If this is a short sale, the buyer may have gotten tired of waiting for the short sale approval and found something else, and therefore withdrew from the agreement
(7) During buyer investigation, besides the inspections, the buyer finds out other things about the property that he didn't like (like loud neighbors late into the night, recent crime in the neighborhood, wrong school district for his kids) and decides to back out
(8) Seller was unwilling to perform repairs or credit the buyer for cost of repairs, and the buyer felt strongly enough about it and decides to back out

But the most critical factor here is: if there were 30 offers, why didn't they get a single back up offer?

Lisa,

Another possibility to throw onto the table...

Was the house bank-owned? If so, some banks will not take back up offers, even with multiple offers. If the accepted offer falls out of contract (great reasons listed below) the house will automatically come back on the market.

I don't know why some banks won't take back up offers, but I have seen bank-owned houses with multiple offers come back on the market, often with a price reduction, only to get another round of multiple offers. The fact that it fell out doesn't necessarily mean there was anything wrong with the house, loan, appraisal, etc. Buyers sometimes change their mind.

Good luck,
Krista

Lisa, what "went wrong", might be a couple of things that don't adversely affect the value of the property or appeal.. and this property may well be pending again very quickly.

As others have pointed out, this property may not have appraised at the purchase price. Appraisals are conservative these days and the large number of bank-owned property sales have lowered property values, particularly in many neighborhoods of Oakland.

If the appraisal is not the issue, the inspections are likely a problem.. Buyer Investigation, inspections reveal all the issues with a home, from roof to foundation. Bank-owned properties typically do not obtain inspections.. the banks are exempt from MOST disclosures, and certainly do not want to provide any pre-emptive disclosures,ie inspections.

Many buyers are put off by the findings in general inspections as well as in Termite/structural pest reports. These reports commonly look awful and scary! It is crucial to dissect the reports and understand what all the items mean.. and to get other contractors in to give prices for repairs/upgrades/ remediation.

Buyers can often be turned off by the reports.. It is so important that your realtor understand reports and how to get other opinions and contrasts to any obtained reports..

Also..finally last but not least.. there are buyers out there who are making multiple offers on many places.. assuming they will be unscucessful in many of their tries..

I have seen it all! People back out of multiple offer situations all the time, even knowing they have a good chance to get the place.

Good luck!

I can guarantee you it's the financing, but more specifically there must be some major problems that need to be fixed prior to closing and neither the buyers or seller wanted to pay for them.

Lenders are very strict on inspections and appraisals these days and require the home to be habitable and not have any major problems such as foundation, plumbing, roof, and so on.

I can guarantee you it's the financing, but more specifically there must be some major problems that need to be fixed prior to closing and neither the buyers or seller wanted to pay for them.

Lenders are very strict on inspections and appraisals these days and require the home to be habitable and not have any major problems such as foundation, plumbing, roof, and so on.

The best way is the direct approach.

If you were interested in the property, have your agent call the listing agent and ask what happened. They are usually pretty forthcoming. They want to get back into contract ASAP!

Chances are that the house did not appraise for the price that was offered so the buyer could not get the loan to go through. The listing agent did not go back to the old offers when it fell out of escrow and just put it back on the market.

Good question. 30 offers and it's back on the market? Must not have appraised out at whatever price they accepted.

With that may offers I can't imagine that there wasn't a back up offer.