Broker Should Submit All Purchase Offers

Question: We listed our Gilbert home for sale for $650,000. After two months we received a cash offer for $638,000. We reluctantly accepted this cash offer for $12,000 less than our listing price. We have now learned from another Realtor that, before we accepted this $638,000 offer, this Realtor’s buyer had made a $650,000 offer to our listing broker contingent on qualifying for a new loan. When we confronted the listing broker about this other $650,000 offer, the listing broker said that she didn’t think that this $650,000 buyer could qualify for a new loan, so she didn’t bother to present the $650,000 offer to us. We are very upset, because we feel that we should have been presented with both offers so that we could make the decision as to which offer to accept. Are we right?

Answer:  Yes. The Arizona Department of Real Estate requires that the listing broker, unless instructed otherwise in writing by the seller, has a duty to promptly present to a seller all offers for a home. Therefore, your listing broker could be liable to you for any damages suffered by you for the $12,000 reduced sales price, and she could also be subject to sanctions by the Arizona Department of Real Estate.