What to do?

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard a buyer getting beat out on a offer they submitted on a bank owned property, only to find out after the sale, the accepted offer was marginally lower than their offer on the same property. My guess is Real Estate Fraud. Recent accounting states that nearly 1 in 55 transactions involve fraud committed by Selling and / or listing agents. In area's heavily hit by foreclosures, such as my state, Arizona, the number is even higher... Here is how it goes... You submit an offer on a property, along with 10 other people. The listing agent receives all the offers. She is contractually obligated to submit all offers to her seller, however of the 10 offers, she only submit say 3 or 4, and the highest and best happens to be her investor friend. And that's the offer that is ultimately accepted. The buyer then re lists the property (Usually with the same RE Agent) after minimal improvements for a much higher price. The agent get's to sell the same property twice and the buyer makes a huge profit in a very short time... lenders and the government are trying to put in fail safes to prohibit this activity, however with the thousands of homes sold every week in America, it's difficult to stop. Your best bet as a potential buyer... Ask the sellers agent for a signed receipt from the seller acknowledging they actually got the offer. Keep in mind, that this too can be forged, but none the less, it's a paper trail and another piece of proof if the law ever get's involved. WilliamAcres.com

The first thing I would do is contact the selling agent and ask if they received your subsequent offer of $325,000. If they did not, the next step would be to contact your agent's broker. Every Real Estate Agent has a Designated Broker that they report to (unless your agent is also the broker, which is possible). It appears that your agent was too busy to work for you and as a result you lost the home. Bad Agent! I would talk to your agent's Broker and demand that he/she take over the transaction from the agent and submit a back-up offer to the seller. That way if the first deal falls through, and that happens somewhat frequently, you would be in line to have your back-up accepted. Finally, and this is what I would do. If the Broker does not support you in this and/or you are not able to submit a back-up offer, I would fire the agent and broker and find someone better qualified. I would also file a complaint against the agent with the Department of Real Estate. In my opinion, there is no excuse for an agent not having enough time to do the job you are hiring them for. Finally, it is my opinion that one of the biggest mistakes a consumer makes is using a part time agent. Think of your agent like a doctor. Would you want a part time doctor operating on you? I wouldn't. Clearly this agent is either incompetent or too busy to focus on you and your needs. Neither is acceptable in my book, because this is what they are getting paid to do.