How would I know if a Listing Agent is unethical?

[lcchien]

Massachusetts

So I made an offer on a house yesterday and my buyer's agent came back to me today saying that there were 2 other offers on the house last night too. I trust my buyer's agent, but how do I know the listing agent isn't just saying that to drive up the price?

Basically, the house has been on the market for 75 days now, and started out at 50K more than what the sellers are asking now. They've had two price reductions and the most recent one was this past week, on 3/23/06. An Open House occurred this past Sunday and we made the offer yesterday.

The offer initially was a pretty low-ball offer just because the house had been on the market for a long time and was also already vacant; we figured the sellers may be desperate. When I heard from our buyer's agent this morning that there were 2 other offers and that basically, we should put our best offer up front so that the sellers could make a decision, we ended up changing our offer to be match asking price.

So how do I figure out whether or not the amount that I bumped the offer from the original offer was actually needed, or if the listing agent just wanted a higher selling price to get some more commission? Would there be anyway that we could confirm that there were other actual offers?

[PghREA]

I have no way of being able to tell if your agent is unethical. But, I can tell you that on more than a few occassions, a house will be on the market for a long time with no apparent activity and all of a sudden will get 2 or 3 offers on the same day. It happens.

I would discount the higher commission theroy, a few bucks one way or the other doesn't really make a difference to most agents. Any commission is better than no commission.

You're calling the agent "your buyer's agent". You have signed a Buyer Agency agreement with her and her alligence is to you - so if she knows that there are other offers on the property, she is suppose to tell you.

I guess the only way you will know for sure is if the seller's accepts one of the other offers and you end up not getting the house.