The North Shore is basicly a Seller's Market at this point, not a buyers' market despite what the media would like you to believe. There may be a big shot of foreclosed homes coming on the market in the next two months and that will be an opportunity for you to compete better. Multiple offers and cash offers have been common, especially on cheap bank owned properties for the past six to nine months.
Banks will not consider you to be under agreement on property THEY own until a P & S has been signed by them AFTER their counter offer has been signed by both parties. This can take ten to fourteen days depending on the bumps in the process of your particular property. The bank can and will accept any offer better than yours until your P & S has been signed BY THEM.
No such thing as a "verbal" offer legally in Massachusetts.
If the property is NOT bankowned, most buyer/seller signed OFFERS will put the property under agreement as a binding contract and can be taken to court in Massachusetts under the right conditions.
Nothing is valid until it's in writing and signed by both parties.
Good luck
Paul

Not sure I follow the scenario. There are laws and ethics requiring all offers to be submitted. All offers should be submitted by a listing agent or your agent promptly. What happens after the seller gets it is totally up to the seller.

Unfortunately I do not know the whole scenario, but you are at a disadvantage if you are competing with cash offers, if your financing the purchase and your down payment is low. If seen banks take much lower cash offers over a financed offer.

Your scenario is not quite clear... you offered a commission to the seller? Not sure what that means. If I follow you, the bank is the seller... Hunted down the REO? REO stand for Real Estate Owned not quite sure what you mean... How was your agent working for you as a buyers agent or a facilitator? A listing agent can't legally talk to you if your agent is working as a buyer's agent. I gather there are to agents involved? How do you know the listing agent didn't did not present the offer, did they tell your that and why didn't they?


Anyways it can be complex maybe you have a complaint maybe you don't. If your have a complaint make sure dates, conversation, disclosures and presented contracts are documented. The chain of event need to be much clearer than what is described here. Good Luck!!

This is a broker to broker issue. The broker/owner known as the responsible broker for your agents office should be contacting the responsible broker for the office of the listing agent. Also if the listing is an MLS listing the listing agent is bound by a cooperative agreement there. There is also state law about presenting all offers. Your first course of action should be broker to broker, then to the state licencing board. You should also find out if the agents involved are Realtors, they have a higher code of ethics reqirement. You will need to document everything in your complaint. Take notes of dates & times of all conversations as well as emails/faxes etc. You will need proof that offers weren't submitted. You also should have a conversation with your buyers agent as to how to coordinate your efforts better, & why your offers have had difficulty.

Ask your agent to submit your offer directly through the asset manager who handles that REO, and ask your agent to add an exclusive dealing clause to all of your offers. You also need to start submitting multiple offers, because it's really a numbers game. Also keep in mind that most of your competition will flock after all of the "great" stuff as soon as it hits the market.

Instead of trying to compete with the investors to purchase REOs directly from the bank, you could purchase one of the rehabbed ones from one of the "We buy houses" folks (who are also investors) for a good price with less competition.