A friend of mine, who is a builder, sold his house a couple of years ago. He was hired by the buyer to knock down his old house and build a new one. The buyer ended up losing the property to the bank. The property came on the market, last week as an REO.

I contacted my friend about the property, and engaged his wife as my buyer's agent.

Someone (repo man ?) had been through the house and taken all kitchen cabinets and appliances, the furnace, hot water heater, bathroom sinks, basically everything except for the toilets. The house has been sitting vacant all winter with no heat.

The disclosure statement on the property stated the seller has no knowledge of any conditions of the property.

Since I had knowledge about the property and knew what it would take to make it livable, I put an written offer on the property. My offer was full listing price, cash sale, no contingencies, no inspections, close in 2 weeks. How could a bank turn down that offer?

It turns out, the bank has accepted another offer. There were three offers submitted. The offer the bank accepted was dated the day after mine. The listing agent is representing the buyer on the offer accepted by the bank.

I find it very difficult to believe that anyone could have submitted an offer better than mine, unless the listing agent let their buyer know the details of my offer.

Is the listing agent under any obligation to keep the my offer confidential? Do I have any recourse available to me?

none, move on and get used to it. Harsh but its the best action.

Is it worth it to me to do somthing? no I try to move on to the next deal. Forward the contract to the asset company with a letter of explanation. What will it get you? Some satisfaction maybe.

I feel like some, not all, reo listing agents in my area act like its the wild wild west.

There are a number of issues that could apply. Some probably are state law specific, others could be against the REALTOR COE if not followed. My suggestion is to move on, unless you can get some inexpensive local legal advice.
Our COE:

http://www.realtor.org/mempolweb.nsf/pages/code

Duties to Clients and Customers

Article 1
When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client…

Standard of Practice 1-5
REALTORS® may represent the seller/landlord and buyer/tenant…

Standard of Practice 1-7
When acting as listing brokers, REALTORS® shall continue to submit to the seller/landlord all offers…

Standard of Practice 1-9
The obligation of REALTORS® to preserve confidential information…

Standard of Practice 1-13
When entering into buyer/tenant agreements, REALTORS® must advise potential clients of:...

4 ….any potential for the buyer/tenant representative to act as a disclosed dual agent, e.g. listing broker, subagent, landlord’s agent, etc., and
5 ….. the possibility that sellers or sellers' representatives may not treat the existence, terms, or conditions of offers as confidential unless confidentiality is required by law, regulation, or by any confidentiality agreement between the parties. (Adopted 1/93, Renumbered 1/98, Amended 1/06)

The bank is under no obligation to accept any offers for any reason. You can speculate about who may have done what or what could have happened, but ultimately you'll never find out and be wasting your time.

Go find another one and write another offer. There's always more fish in the sea!

bt99:

If your offer had come through me as the listing agent it would have been kept strictly confidential.

That is not a required though if the seller of the property specifically authorizes the release of information from all offers.

Mr. Foreclosure

bt99 - the answer is the listing agent has to follow the legal instructions of the client - which in the case of the listing agent was the bank.

I have been told by them to hold offers and submit several at the same time, however as a matter of practice I always let other buyer agents know that there is a strong likelihood that there will be multiple offers and submit their highest and best from the beginning, to avoid your exact situation.

Most of the time I am under no obligation to do this - buyer agents should be aware of this if they are experienced - but the end results generally are there are several low ball - several right at list price - and some higher then list price.

Bottom line is that the bank can chose which ever one they want and I have no control over which is selected - however my opinion is often sought.

My opinion is they owe you no explanation - if you really want a house then make your best offer knowing if that doesn't get it then you are satisfied and move on.

Most agents will let all parties know if there are multiple offers on the property. Then they give an option for everyone to give their highest and best offer. This is common courtesy though, not required by law (in my state). The asset managers have the option to go ahead and just accept any offer at any time. Believe it or not I have clients who will offer over full price on a property that is severely under-priced, the first day on the market. The other contract may have offered to close in one week, or simply had more earnest money, or had added that the earnest money was non-refundable. In a bidding war sometimes the smallest difference will tip the scales.

In NC we can not let any other parties know about other offers without the permission of the seller. This is a new re law.

It is one issue to advise other agents that there are multiple offers and quite a different issue if you are free (by the seller's authorization) to discuss the details of competing offers.