There’s a little-known fact in real estate that as a buyer, you can demand that the seller signs an acknowledgement saying that they have received and reviewed your offer.

Don’t always assume that just because you make an offer, the seller has seen it!

Here are a few examples of when this document comes into play…

“The dog ate my homework.”

That’s the greatest and most famous excuse ever made, and the meaning and use goes well beyond its literal interpretation.

There are certainly times when you’re given an excuse and you don’t believe it, and often you have no way to remedy the situation.  You might simply have to take the other party at their word, and if it’s a business transaction, it’s even harder to swallow.

I’ve encountered situations in real estate where I’ve shouted out loud, “I wonder if the seller even saw the damn offer!”

You might wonder why a seller would never see an offer as it seems to reason that it’s in their best interest to do so.

I’m not necessarily claiming any wrong-doing on the part of the listing agent, although it’s been known to happen.

But rather, there are times when the seller only hears of the offer and its conditions and never actually sits down at a table and reads through it, and THAT is something I have a serious problem with!

Technology has changed the way we do business, no matter what the industry.

From watching the TV show Mad Men, I’m reminded that before photocopiers, people had to actually type out the same letter over and over and over!

In real estate, agents used to meet in person, present the offer, and then sign four copies of the Agreement.

Nowadays, we settle for one copy of the Agreement and just photocopy it, and we’ll send it back-and-forth via fax or through scanning and emailing.

But this can create an issue in terms of presenting the offer and subsequently negotiating it, because it means that the seller is often kept at arm’s length.

Case in point: negotiating verbally.

When a seller sits down and reviews an offer on paper, they go through a completely different set of emotions than if they were simply told of the terms of the offer over the phone.  It also changes how they deal with things logistically.

It’s much easier to make decisions over the phone when you don’t actually see the paper sitting in front of you!

It bothers me to no end when I suspect that a listing agent hasn’t actually “presented” an offer to his clients, but rather simply called or emailed them to let them know of the terms.

It’s a complete game-changer, in my opinion.

Thankfully, we have something called “OREA Form 109” which enables us, as buyer-agents, to ensure that the seller does view the offer up close and personal.

Have a look at this document:

The document is called “Offer Presentation Acknowledgement” and it’s signed by the seller of the property once they’ve seen the offer.

Let me give you an example…

Last month, I was working on a very tedious, frustrating offer for a condo where the listing agent kept calling me back and trying to negotiate on the phone.

Sometimes, negotiating on the phone makes things easier.  But often I find that it’s just a function of laziness on the listing agent’s part, and it can make it much easier for the seller to just say “no.”

We submitted an offer, via PDF over email, and the listing agent called me back that to tell me the changes that his seller wanted to make.

Every time we sent a sign-back through fax or email, we were given a verbal counter.

I soon realized that perhaps his seller hadn’t actually sat down in front of the offer and had a chance to review it, and since I later found that that the seller was a spoiled 24-year-old brat whose parents bought her a condo and who stood to make $120,000 in profit, I decided that we were making it far too easy on her.

So I submitted one final offer and I attached OREA Form 109 and told the listing agent, “I want to see this form, returned tonight, with your seller’s signature.”

The listing agent was not impressed.

He told me, “David I’ve been in this business for 25 years and you’re only the second agent who has ever asked me to get that form signed.”

Of course, I answered, “I guess that means that me and the other guy are the only two intelligent agents you’ve ever dealt with.  Get the form signed.”

I sent it to the listing agent via email, and I CC’d my broker.  I stopped short of CC’ing the listing agent’s broker, but I made sure to mention this in the email.

Sure enough, we received a sign-back later that night and the seller had made all kinds of changes!

She made a change to every single clause in the Agreement, even if it was just scratching out the word “good” in the clause reading, “The Seller represents and warrants that the fixtures and chattels included in the purchase price are now, and on the completion date, will be in good working order.”

She changed our number of visitations from (3) to (2).

She made changes all over the offer, and this is how I knew that she had never actually seen the offer before.

How come she didn’t make any of these changes before?  How come just now?

I guess this time around, the listing agent did his job and went and met with the seller, sat her down at a table, and read through the terms and conditions of the offer.

Previously, I’m sure all they discussed on the phone was the purchase price and the closing date.  But there’s so much more to an offer than that!  And it’s not fair to the buyer for the seller to just yell “four-hundred-forty-thousand” into the phone to her listing agent and never actually view the offer that the buyer took the time to put together.

I’m not sure how agents view the use of OREA Form 109, but I don’t really care.

Maybe it’s like police officers and they’re “Blue Wall;” always having eachother’s backs and never speaking out on eachother.

I certainly don’t think our industry is like that.

As I explained to a seller who subsequently listed his property with another agent last week, “There are a lot of sharks in our business.  Just make sure you don’t get bit by one.”

Likewise, there are certainly more than a handful of agents who won’t bother to present your offer to their seller, and using OREA Form 109 to ensure that they do so is fair game…