Getting listing is a big part of the real estate agents game and some will appraise a property at a higher price in order to get a listing. Once they have a listing they aim to get a reduction and/or get the seller to accept a lower price.
The system in other states is different to WA where agents effectively write up a legally binding contract between the buyer and sell.
When a buyer makes a offer any conditions are written into the offer to purchase, ie subject to finance, termite inspection ect. Need to be careful of the wording, subject to finance should include an interest rate and from a particular bank other wise you are committed to any finance at any interest rate.
The offer to purchase is presented to the seller and they can counter offer or accept, once the seller accepts and sighs the offer the agent calls the buyer and communicates that the offer has been accepted.
At that point the offer to purchase becomes a legally binding contract, no changes can be made without mutual agreement. A buyer can withdraw an offer prior to the verbal communication of acceptance but not after.
The only way out of for the buyer is if that subject to conditions can not be satisfied, hence the wording of the condition need to be precise. Another example is subject to sale of a property, that needs to include a time frame and price it needs to sell for. with a subject to sale, sellers put in a clause that can demand the seller remove that condition or withdraw if the seller gets another offer.
