I am new to buying resale. But, this is what I was told when I made my offer at full price. He said that since I offered the full price he would write sale pending on the listing. If, I had offered less he would not have written that and other people in his office could have taken offers. In essence, he said he would email or call the seller with my offer and once they signed the papers it would go to Disney. If I were to have offered less than asking price he would present my offer to the sellers, but in the meantime, they could be presented with other offers as well.
Yeah, I think that is phrased pretty correctly.
Technically, three things are necessary for any contract -- verbal or written. There has to be an
offer, there has to be an
acceptance of an offer, and there has to be
"consideration," which means something of value changing hands. In a real estate transaction, normally the consideration is the buyer making a deposit.
Again
technically, the listing is actually the first real offer. The owner offers the contract for sale at a certain price. If a buyer accepts, by agreeing to pay the listing price and making a deposit, the contract is theoretically sold.
Same deal with an acceptance of an offer below selling price. The listing price is the offer, the buyer's lower offer is a counter-offer (and that can go back and forth several times), but once there is an acceptance at some price, the contract is theoretically sold.
If the seller fails to go through with the sale with a listing price acceptance, the real estate agent is owed the commission on the sales price. Unfortunately, that is not enforced often, and as a practical matter, collection would be difficult.
Likewise, if the buyer fails to go through with the transaction, they can and do lose their deposit. I have a "friend" here on the DIS who has had that happen, and has split the deposit with the broker.