[quote=walterwhite]how could you get a bank to hold up on the sale to look at my offer? I wouldn’t know any of the facts until after the sale were completed, right?[/quote]
Thats correct.
The bank’s client is the owner.
They won’t tell you anything unless they have permission from the owner.
The agent’s client is the owner.
The agent won’t tell you anything because your interests are opposed to those of his client.
The agent has no duty to disclose all facts to the bank as they are not his client.
He has no duty to you either.
Claiming any damages involves proving a pretty far-fetched counter factual (seriously, you are claiming it was your Barbie Dream House? Dude.).
The most effective way to deal with this is to address it at an administrative level.
Respond very positively to the solicitation for the furniture purchase.
Ask that it be in writing (because, hey, you need everything in writing).
Once you have it in writing, figure out the office structure of the other agent.
Go directly to broker or risk manager for the agent and describe this as illegal seller profits and payments outside of escrow.
If this is a big name franchise office (eg Remax or C21), they will have in house counsel.
Showing documentation of fraud (presented by an attorney) will probably make them crap their pants in short order.
You probably won’t get the short sale.
That involves a fair amount of goodwill on the seller’s part (and you have burned that) but you will help to make this practice less common.
Make no mistake, I agree that this is fraud but I also think that the primary victim is the bank (thus my lack of sympathy), the secondary victim is the buyer (and I don’t put a lot of stock in nebulous opportunity cost in this market), and that the actual damage is (intentionally) hard to prove.
I wish you luck.
