Heed broker when selling family house
Q:Q My husband inherited a house with his two brothers and his mother. One brother has been living in the house and paying all expenses and taxes. A few years ago, this same brother worked out a deal with their mother for her to sign her portion of the house over to him.
He is now moving and the house will be put on the market. Does the brother who owns more of the house have greater control over the sale price and a final acceptance of a sale, or is it still equal among the three brothers? — askedith.com
A: Putting the house on the market, accepting an offer and finally selling will require the signatures of all owners. Any one of them could refuse to sign along the way, which might trigger unpleasant and expensive legal procedures.
What happens if the brothers can’t agree on price? That depends on family dynamics, and you probably have a better idea than I do. They might want to agree in advance that they’ll follow the advice of an experienced broker.
Q:Q Having read several articles referencing sellers receiving multiple offers on a house and choosing or playing the offers against each other, I wonder how this can happen. When we put our parents’ house on the market, the Realtor said in no uncertain terms that he would not/could not tell us if there were other offers coming in or other interested parties. We had to deal with any offer one at a time to comple- tion before they would tell us of any others.
They wouldn’t even tell us of any other offers if we countered a previous one and hadn’t heard back from that potential buyer. So when I hear about bidding wars on hot properties or in a recent article about a seller choosing the lower of two offers because she felt they would take better care of her garden, I don’t understand how she could know of these two offers at the same time and choose. — M.
A: Unless specifically stated otherwise, the agent who lists your property for sale owes you a set of fiduciary duties. These can be summed up as a legal requirement to put your interests first, above the agent’s own. Among specific fiduciary duties are the prompt presentation of any written offer, and disclosure of any information that would be in your interest. Timely presentation of all offers is usually required even in the rare instances, allowed in some states, where a listing broker does not take on fiduciary duties.