[quote=sdrealtor]Obviously CAR was being sarcastic with the bullet-proof comment. The areas she is looking at are far enough away to avopid most of the real coastal damage you are referring to and most are relatively well maintained around here.

In reference to the “fake” multiple offer situations it is usually coming from the buyers agents not the lisitng agents. I would saw that I actually receive an offer in less than 50% of the times I get a call from a buyers agent saying they will sending over an offer. Thats not to say there arent some listing agents playing games but from my pretty extensive experience the problem is more related to false promises by buyers agents than listing agents. In situations like that I always tell buyers agents I have other agents saying they are bringing offers but i have nothing yet and I will beleive the other offers or theirs for that matter are real when I see them hit my fax machine or email. Experienced listing agents understand this.[/quote]

My experience has been purely with dealing with REO listing agents. Several times on several houses the listing agents claimed to have multiple offers in hand and told us to submit anyways. 5 out of 6 are still active months later. The real funny part about it is that they won’t lower the price after supposed offers fall out. They claim the house is at fair market value and our retort is a little education in markets and economics. If the house has been listed for a year and hasn’t sold then they should rethink what fair market value is!