I have an agent from another broker put in an offer on a listing of mine. He stated the buyer put in offers on two other homes at the same time. Is this legal in California? What if all three sellers accepted?

Thanks for any help!

Um,
Are there laws in CA against people buying multiple properties at once? Are you only allowed one house per person in CA???

I don't get it. Whats the question here?

If you represent a BUYER can you put offers on three houses at the same time?

I have a verbal from an agent that the buyers put in (very low) offers on two other properties besides the one I have a listing on. Sorry, I know this is confusing.

Watermark, the buyer only wants to buy one but they put in low offers on three different listings at the same time!

In other words the buyers agent sat with buyer and wrote up offer on my listing. Then the same buyer / agent wrote up two more offers on two other homes and submitted all three offers. The buyer only wants to buy one home. Buyer is putting in offers on different homes at the same time. Is this legal in Calfornia?

Um,
I can't imagine how it's illegal but then again, you ARE refering to CA and things rarely follow logic there so probably IS illegal there- hahaha!! It sure isn't in GA though. I'd certainly inform the seller/my client of the situation just so they know what type of person they are dealing with but how could it possibly be illegal?

Though I am not from California, this probably would be analyzed under general contract principles.

Can a Buyer make offers on multiple properties? Yes.

What happens if all are accepted? The Buyer gets to close on all of the properties or face forfieture of earnest money or any other remedy that is available for defaults.

How could the Buyer avoid that scenario? Have language in each contract that provides that the offer will not be binding until the Buyer accepts the Seller's acceptance in writing. Then, the Buyer could sort among options.

Unless there is language in your contract like above, the Buyer could be in a very precarious position. And, the liability, in all likelihood, would end up landing on the Buyer's Agent's head (and, his broker's).

Thank you all for your replies! Steve, I think you hit it on the head. This may be legal, but it sure isn't smart. FWIW the contract does not have any verbage in it to help the buyer if all offers are accepted. If he low balled them all like the offer I got this won't be a problem for him anyways.

Chances are he won't have this problem, but If all three low ball offers got accepted he can keep the one he likes and assign the other two contracts for a fee. (assuming there is no restriction in the contract on assigning). If they are really great deals it shouldn't be difficult finding a replacement buyer.

In Florida you can withdraw a written contract at any point prior to acceptance being communicated (even if it's before the actual time for acceptance). (i.e. I got an acceptance from offer C, so I'm now going to withdraw offers A and B)

And if you have any inspection contingencies or "apon buyers approval of inspection" type clause you can also potentially walk anyway (as-is contracts in FL are notorious for this...buyer can walk for any reason during the inspection period (i call it the "grass isn't green enough" contract)... Would have to see the actual contract to have any real insight, though.

Also - depending on the earnest money put down prior to acceptance, it might be negligable for the buyer to just walk away and leave the deal behind if they get the phenomenal deal they're hoping for on another property.

We get buyers every now and then that think this is a clever way to get a good deal. It is very risky for the buyer and the agent.

This is supposed to make your seller worry about losing this buyer to one of the other offers.

We get buyers every now and then that think this is a clever way to get a good deal. It is very risky for the buyer and the agent.

This is supposed to make your seller worry about losing this buyer to one of the other offers.

In Oregon, there's a 10 business day inspection period that begins upon mutual acceptance of an offer/counteroffer... during that 10 days the buyer can basically terminate for no reason at all, with no loss of earnest money. I'd guess that's their plan- lock 'em up in contract first, terminate the ones they don't want or who won't play ball on the repair negotiations.

-jeff