The banks may have asked the agent to present several offers until they found the "one they liked best". They want the best offer and often want more than one offer. If that were the case, the seller (bank) would ask for "Best and Final" offer from each interested buyer and decide from those offers. The purchase for a bank owned home generally does not follow normal guidelines. The best you can do, is give your best and final, and await the bank response to your offer. There are many other homes on the market that are not bank owned,Good Luck!

In regard to showing or not showing a home after the conclusion of the attorney review period, I would think your MLS dictates what happens next. My MLS, the Garden State MLS, says properties must be reported as "under contract" upon completion of the attorney review. At that point, the listing no longer shows as active in a search, so showing it is no longer an option. It is not up to the discretion of the agent or the seller to decide to keep it "active". The rules of your MLS override what your seller might want to do.
If, due to a poor home inspection or failure to obtain financing, the sale falls through - it is then reported as "back on market", and once again becomes "active". It may not seem "fair" in this turbulent market, but we must abide by the rules of our MLS.

Short sales are tough but the final answer comes down to the seller (or lein holder). If there is a binding contract signed by the seller (current home owner) and the buyer any other offers are considered back up offers only and you cannot enter into another contract.

In my experience, once I have a buyer interested and has gone under contract - all other showings are told up front that the property is under contract, is a short sale and we will only consider back up offers!

If she thought that there was an opportunity to "trump" the other offer before attorney review ended or contracts were signed than she did the thing that was in your best interest.

Talk to your agent!

I respect your opinion, but I stick to mine. If a contract is in place, bank has approved the sale with a particular buyer, and it is past the 3 day atty review period. showings should stop. There would have been plenty of time to get back-up offers in place during the 3-4 weeks of showings that would have occurred after contracts were issued but prior to the bank's approval. I have stipulated that in my offers and have been successful in winning contracts for my buyers on short sales, with that stipulation in place. In terms of Realtor ethics, this is the way to handle this. Once that 3rd party (the bank) agrees to the sale and the 3-day attorney review period is met, the agreement of sale should be administered just as in any other sale in NJ.
Kim
Ps -correction to my earlier post "in this economic client" should read " in this economic climate"

Kim Thomas, Broker-Salesperson
Realty Executives, Brown & Pope
856-308-5989 http://www.KimCanHelp.com http://www.NJHomesNearPhilly.com

Sorry Kim but I couldnt disagree more with comment re showings to stop after out of review. In this time of bank collapses, under appraisals and inspection night mares a seller would be crazy to stop showings before all contingencies have been met. (If a cash deal, the seller should require the assets to be used either frozen or placed in attorney trust account,) after all, a significant drop in the market as happened recently could wipe out a buyers ability to close. I do agree that all consequest offers should be back up though, there is a contract in place.

The procedure should be that once an offer is made and accepted, any subsequent offers are for back up only. Once contracts are signed by both parties and the 3-say Atty review period is over, there should be no more showings of the property in question. Period.

Unfortunately when dealing with Short sales, banks sometimes take a while (weeks) to accept an offer so the listing agent keeps it available for showings so as not to hurt the sellers chances of getting the home sold. However, even in this case, once there are contracts, and the bank has approved the sale, any subsequent offers must be in line as back-up offers only.

If you don't want to keep running into this, you may want to steer clear of short sales, but in this economic client, with so many sellers under water (owing more on their homes than what the home can sell for) it's going to be a difficult task to stay away from them.

Finally - it sounds as though you allowed the listing agent to show you the home. In this market especially, you need the guidance of a buyer's agent dedicated only to your good outcome.
Kim Thomas, Broker-Salesperson http://www.NJHomesNearPhilly.com http://www.KimCanHelp.com
856-308-5989

It happens all the time. My clients had an offer on a house and was "accepted".......... supposedly three weeks of the attorney and everybody yeah, yeah it is almost there.. then one day I see the house undercontract with the Realtors friend.. who was also on a local board with the attorney ( found out after research) and guess what.. my people lost out and the attorney and realtor cut all lines of communication with me, my attorney and just stopped answering.

This was in Little Silver on a great house... but it looks like someone got a deal bassed on who they knew....
There is no control, it is crazy.. just make your offer and call your agent every single day amd make sure tehy are calling too.

Good Luck.

Nothing decided until contract exists, without a contract any/all offers can be submitted.

Anna

Short sales normally take a long time to obtain lender approval, so it is very likely that the first buyer that "wins" will have purchased another home during the time everyone waits for lender approval.

It is not uncommon for short sales to have four or five buyers lined up waiting for the approval. Once the approval from the lender is received, the listing agent will check back with each buyer's agent to see if they are still interested. Most listing agents want a number of back up offers, so they will keep showing the property until they receive that approval.

until contracts are signed and review concluded, sellers are not bound and so will continue to entertain offers. I advise my sellers to continue showings and solicit back up offers until all contingencies have been made. So many deals die due to inspection or appraisal issues sellers should be certain of buyers ability and intent before pulling house from being shown. You could get the house over the other accepted offer for a number of reasons.