The Errors and Omissions in a Purchase Offer

Errors and omissions in a purchase offer could be enough to cause offer rejection.

Some people strongly believe it is the Sacramento listing agent’s duty to point out errors and omissions in a purchase offer to the buyer’s agent. This Sacramento listing agent is not one of those. Much as I might feel the urge to help my fellow real estate agents, there are good reasons not to. For starters, a) some agents resent the advice and tips; b) it’s not good risk management practice; c) being “fair” to all parties could be interpreted to mean I should provide input to every single real estate agent; d) my fiduciary is to the seller, not a random stranger; e) I am not their broker; and f) we may not agree.

Not to mention, offering help could backfire. A disgruntled home buyer whose stupendously brilliant offer was rejected by the short-sighted seller — the seller who obviously could NOT spot a good offer if it hit her in the eye, with all of its errors and omissions in a purchase offer explained in detail by the listing agent to the buyer’s agent — could very well decide to pursue litigation. Even though the offer was lousy and it sucked. No thank you. Bad risk management to engage in that sort of liability. A buyer’s agent might even beg to know why the offer was rejected; not gonna breathe a word.

I see stuff all of the time that blows my mind. I wonder how could the agent write an offer like this? My compassionate nature and inclination is I should help that agent, but fortunately my good common sense takes over and speaks more loudly. The errors and omissions in a purchase offer might be small things like bucking local customary buyer-paid fees or asking for a detail that is expressly spelled out in MLS as an exception. It could be larger things like messing up the sales price or blatant misinterpretations of the California Residential Purchase Agreement or checking boxes that don’t apply.

Not my place to point out the errors and omissions in a purchase offer. But it is good fuel to use for my own Elizabeth Weintraub Team members, to show them what not to do and to help them to improve their own purchase offers. It’s probably one of the reasons we enjoy such a high success rate for offer acceptance. It’s painful for me to see preapproval letters for buyers dated from 2015 and to know the reason these poor unsuspecting buyers are not in escrow this spring is printed on page 10 of the RPA.

But . . . not my job. My job is to fully inform my sellers, to expect my sellers to make their own decisions, and to treat private information as confidential.