I accepted an offer on my house, my broker still wants to have showings of the house, is it ok?
Reported for forum change.
Moving to General Questions … though you probably need to talk to your attorney. (You do have an attorney for this, right?)
It likely depends on the offer. In Ontario, it is common to make an offer conditional on financing and a home inspection. Until these conditions are waived, the offer is not firm. If the agent is concerned the deal won’t close, the will continue to show the house. You are still committed to accepting the first offer as long as the buyer waives the conditions by the deadline.
I would keep showing. The deal is not closed.
Yeah, the deal isn’t closed until money and keys change hands. It is not uncommon at all here for an initial offer to fall through, for various reasons.
Exactly - the house ain’t sold til the fat lady signs (or whoever agreed to buy it). Until then, why turn away potential customers, on the chance the deal does not get sealed?
I don’t know about Canada. (Why did that come up, anyway? I see no indication that the OP is asking about Canada.)
Here in California it would be considered unethical to have an open house once you have a signed purchase agreement, EVEN IF that purchase agreement has contingencies. Even showings of the house are questionable. As the owner, I wouldn’t want yet more people traipsing through my house.
Of course all Real Estate rules are different in different places. To the OP: where is the property?
J.
We need an attorney now to switch forums? 
I guess it depends on how often in your home market that offers fall through, or your agent’s estimation of the odds of the offer satisfying the conditions (mainly the ability to secure financing). Anyone can sign, make an offer. Does the buyer’s agnt discourage them from offering if they probably can’t follow through?
If you have to start the process all over again, add another month or two? It does not hurt to see who else is interested in case you have to call them…
My neighbor had this exact situation. He accepted an offer but an agent came by and showed it to another, different prospective customer - who wound up offering $1,000 bucks more! They took the higher offer.
Do you ask the broker why? In California houses are getting multiple offers, so I could see the broker advising you to not sign an agreement until more come through, but since you have signed, the only reason I can see is that the potential buyer is having cold feet or being a pain in some way.
If the property is still in attorney review, agents will still show it. The deal isn’t done untill all the attorneys involved agree, and that can take weeks.
If the attorneys think the deal is weak, the house will still be show for “seconds.” That way, if the original deal falls through, you have a backup.
I have 26 years of real estate experience in New Jersey. Talk to your attorney, as your state laws may be different.
How did you accept the offer? Verbally? Did the buyer submit to you a written offer which you signed, accepting the offer? If so, that is a valid contract, contingent upon the terms of the offer (financing, etc,). If there was nothing in writing, there was no enforceable contract due to the Statute of Frauds.
I’ve bought in both NJ and California. In California attorneys do not get involved, and the mortgage broker runs the closing. I don’t know what it is where she lives.
What is the recourse in various states when one side reneges. Someone did this to us in Louisiana, and we found that we could get the amount in escrow but it would involve keeping the house off the market until it was resolved, and so was not practical. In my experience there are several stages where one party or the other could kibosh the deal, like not granting access for inspections perhaps. Anyone know?
Then a serious lawsuit is in order, based upon what you said here. Once there is an accepted offer, this is a legal contract binding on both parties. If one party decides to breach it (the seller in this case), the other (the first buyer in this case) has good grounds to sue for performance.
But back to the OP…what can happen is governed by the listing contract. Read it, perhaps for the first time. Talk to the listing broker. He/she works for you.
Disclaimer: Realtor here, but my broker license is valid only in the state of Wisconsin; you are not my client and this is not legal advice.
Not sure the details, but from what I know about Canada -
Offer to purchase is just that - usually with conditions, “pass home inspection”, “get financing for mortgage”, maybe even “sell current home”…(Who the hell wants to wait for that). Usually it includes “…by X date.” If they fail to satisfy the conditions by then, the deal falls through.
Agreeing to an offer to purchase is just that “I accent your offer (and the conditions)”. That is a contract.
Of course, the buyer could renege and back out by telling the bank, “turn me down for this mortgage or I’ll make no payments…” Or, by making outrageous repair demands based on the home inspection, depending on the wording. But presumably, the buyer entered into the offer in good faith (If you caught them actually pulling the tricks above that would be grounds for a “bad faith” lawsuit, I imagine). So they really do want to buy.
You’ve agreed to their offer. Assuming they meet the terms of the offer, i.e. get the financing, no serious inspection problems, etc. then they are legally entitled to buy at the offered price.
A clever seller’s agent might say in the offer, “if a much better offer comes along before X we can take it instead”, but I don’t know if they do or if it’s allowed. Never heard of it.
(My neighbour had something similar, a lady signed an offer to buy and then changed her mind a week or two later. Meanwhile, the daughter and son-in-law had fund their own place and moved out, various other expenses incurred, etc. The buyer’s sons left threatening messages, “If you sue you’ll be sorry”. I believe in the end, they settled for some sort of damages over out-of-pocket expenses. )
When I was last looking to buy a house, I looked at properties where there was an accepted offer in place. It was made clear to me that the house was in escrow, but a backup offer would be welcome, which would become effective only if the original offer fell through.
As long as nobody is misrepresenting the situation, I really don’t see any problem.
ETA: I’m in California.
Happens all the time. It’s all part of negotiation. If such a clause is inserted, it may or may not be acceptable to all parties. If accepted, it takes effect and is totally legal.
What typically happens is a buyer makes an offer contingent upon a prior sale (like selling his house in order to get funds to buy the new one). This is such an open-ended offer that the Seller may turn around and say, “Sure, I accept your offer, but if someone comes along with a better one, I’ll give you 72 hours to cough up the cash or I’ll take the better offer.” This is known as a “bump clause,” because it allows the seller to bump the buyer unless cash replaces the contingency.