I doubt the seller is obligated to notify you. If you had put down a deposit, you may have had some legal recourse. You may never know why your offer was rejected, because you may not know how generous the terms or the amount offered were that succeeded. Though difficult to prove, if you feel that this has a discriminatory component, you may consult a lawyer. I think I would move on, and find another real estate agent or company if one was involved. If this was a SBO deal, you were not dealing with a professional and are more vulnerable to quirky transactions.

When the Seller is presented two offers in the state of California, the law does not require the seller to issue a counter offer, unless the seller doesn't accept either offer. If one of the offers presented is totally acceptable to the Seller, without any changes, no Counter Offer is issued, to any Buyers, no matter how many offers were submitted at one time. If neither offer was acceptable as presented, the seller would then have to counter both or all offers submitted. The first buyer to accept and return the signed Counter Offer within the time frame stated on the Counter Offer opens Escrow. In your case it was oblivious the seller was interested in the offer that presented him with the most money and evidentially there was no need to change anything in that offer, so there was no need to issue a counter to any of the offers submitted. In today’s changing market you may want to position yourself as a back up offer. Here’s why…The property will have to be appraised if a lender is financing the money. If the appraised value comes in lower than the purchase offer, the lender won’t loan the money. Escrow could fall out and if your offer is in a back up position, you could be the next one to open Escrow, on the property you want.