Hello forum,

Last December, my fiance and I put in an offer on a short sale that was accepted by the seller and sent to the bank for approval. The home is a townhouse in Northern Virginia. We heard back from the bank relatively quickly, within a month, and were told they had countered our offer with a higher amount. We immediately agreed to it and began the wait for approval.

Six-months have gone by and we have not heard a word from the listing agent. Our Realtor leaves him phone and email messages once a week and we have yet to receive a single response. This past week I found out that the owners of the house filed a quit-claim deed with the county on April 12. I also found out that the listing agent has the same last name as the homeowners, however, he has used it on very little of his marketing materials, os we never knew of the possible relationship until now.

We've believed all along that there was something fishy going on with this transaction, and that the Realtor was perhaps helping the family to stay in their home longer. I have no problem with people wanting to keep a roof over their heads, however, if this is the case, I think the Realtor may have engaged in some ethically questionable behavior.

I've read about quit-claim deeds and don't fully understand how they work of how this one may have benefited the homeowners. Would some of you knowledgeable folks give me an opinion on what we've experienced here and what the Realtor and homeowners may have been up to this whole time?

Your time is greatly appreciated; thanks!

1.If it's been 6 months has the market gone up or down in that time?? If it's gone down you would be better buying another property at a lower price PLUS you will have appraisal issues with your purchase price.

If it's gone up you may be able to sue the seller for specific performance.A (DIL) would give the property back to the bank without a foreclosure.The Quit Claim just gives away interest from one party to the other but does not absolve the past owners of the property from their obligation if they are on the mortgage.

2.The broker/agent in question may or may not be a REALTOR.It is not required to be a REALTOR in all states to hold a real estate license.If they are not a REALTOR you could not go after them for ethics as state real estate commissions care about license laws.Ethics is an opinionated issue open to interpretation.

3.The approval from 6 months ago likely is no longer valid and the bank will have to start a new file and get a new evaluation.

It sounds like the seller never really wanted to sell but listed it so the bank could put them in a short sale program delaying foreclosure.

No Legal Advice

Thanks for the reply. Their quit-claim was for $10 to another couple. How can that benefit them in any way if they still have a mortgage agreement to fulfill?

The listing agent is a NAR-listed Realtor, a Virginia-licensed real estate salesperson and a member of our local agent organization, the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.

We did recently refresh our contract, however, again there was zero response from the agent. I don't believe this agent updated our contract after we agreed to the bank counter-offer. The bank probably doesn't know our contract exists.

I wish I could prove that.

You can look up who the broker owner is of the company and call them if you are not hearing from this listing agent regarding your offer.

It's hard to say what they are doing without being involved in the transaction.Sometimes buyers will like to get the deed so they control the process if the sellers back out later from doing the short sale.

If they have quit claimed interest they no longer own the property.