Buying - is this normal?

[vinoandbrie]

We had an offer accepted last week (Friday).

Two things:

1. Seller refuses to put house as SSTC on tge various property websites. The estate agent assures us there will be no further viewings, they are just turning away others who enquire.
   
   
2. Our solicitor still hasn't received the memorandum of sale so cannot start work. I was assured on Monday (by the agent) that this would be emailed over on Monday.
   
   We are meant to be instructing a survey today, ie paying over almost £1,000, and I'm just a bit nervous frankly.
   
   Am I just being precious here?!

[TheresLotsOfFarmyardAnimals]

I would be reluctant to start paying money for anything until they took the house off the market. He is keeping his option open.

[jerryfudd]

I agree with pp - what reason has agent given for not taking off market? Surely there can't be a good one - for you. For him, yes, he might get a better offer. Agent won't show round (if you believe them) but what's stopping seller?

It was condition of our offer on our house that we'd meet asking price if pulled from market ASAP and scheduled viewings for that weekend cancelled and no further ones done. Seller agreed and we moved forward.

I'd be reluctant to spend money until they show willing that going forward with sale

[FriedSprout]

We had something similar. I asked a friend to ring estate agents up and enquire about three bed houses. Sure enough she was given details about the one we had an offer accepted on!

[papalazaru]

We had a similar situation. Ended up being gazumped after having our survey done. We were very very pissed off! Next time round I would insist on it or walk away. The vendor is simply keeping their options open. Sorry!

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

An estate agent I spoke to recently said they only completely stop marketing a property after a buyer has had a survey done. Which is crazy given how much they cost.

Call the EA straight away and let them know what's going on. Say you won't have your survey done until it says SSTC.

[noddyholder]

Lots of agents do this so that if anything happens and it falls through they have numbers to call for other interested parties. Just happened to me I had an open day 10 viewers accepted an offer and he pulled out yesterday as banks are much tighter with lending. 7 of the other viewers are coming back and about 3 of those made offers first time so its a relief

[ThePerfectNegroni]

Depends on the area. I've seen London listings that say there is am offer that is proceeding at £x so offers in excess of that will be accepted up until exchange of contracts. Agents are essentially inviting gazumping!

[MissMysticFalls]

The EA for the house we're buying stopped taking new viewings after the offer was accepted but the SSTC didn't go up until their financial advisor had confirmed that we had the finances in place (proof of deposit and a mortgage agreed in principle).

[lulupeg]

ThePerfectNegroni - think it's just repossessions that they are able to openly invite higher offers for - because the bank demands they get the highest price possible up until exchange. A reason why buying a repo can be precarious.

[hyperspacebug]

In London KFH would only mark property 'under offer' after survey's been booked - basically to make sure buyer is as fast as possible to proceed. But going ahead without memorandum of sale? No way.

[vinoandbrie]

Thank you, much appreciated. We now have a sales memo, so that's something. Still not happy re the SSTC issue, and am mulling over the useful advice you've given.

[Rogerthatmummy]

What's your position?

We're selling and we accepted an offer, but the buyer didn't have a buyer for theirs. We continued to accept viewings until they had their buyer lined up (so end of chain) as we were not willing to risk losing the house we are under offer on (we have been looking for 2 years and had three purchases fall through because we had flaky buyers who pulled out)

As it happens, our buyer's first time buyer was made redundant three weeks after we accepted their offer, so having allowed viewings meant that some one came back for a second viewing and upped an earlier (much lower) offer.... We've ended up with a. Lower offer than the first buyer we had lined up, but felt we could do No different as the top of chain started putting pressure on to move stuff on.

My point is, if you are not a ftb and don't have a buyer for yours yet, then I can understand vendors keeping options open.

If you are end of chain or have your below chain complete, then fair point should be marked as SSTC. In our case, our place wasn't but was due to the small estate agent business not having got around to marking it as such on the website (they were not marketing further though)

Epic tome soz!

[vinoandbrie]

Good point Roger, we think we're in quite a strong position....

We exchange next week (barring disaster), and will complete the following week. We have cash buyers for our place so no chain. We're then going to stay with family until we have bought, so will be completely chain free. We are putting down 75% cash as well.

[vinoandbrie]

Just resurrecting this thread as the seller of the house we have had an offer accepted on will still not show it as under offer.

We are going through the legal side of it, we now have the cash sitting in the bank, mortgage all agreed, survey done, and more surveys booked in (damp, etc).

I just do not understand their reasoning, and it's all getting more and more stressful.

[iamusuallybeingunreasonable]

It's simple, they are holding out for a better offer, until you exchange they can do anything can't they

[vinoandbrie]

The agent has sworn that no more viewings are taking place. Even so, it's horrible as we are relocating and schools etc are not yet fixed for September, largely because we are so nervous that we may not have a house by then.

[iamusuallybeingunreasonable]

I know, it's a horrible time, I'm sure it will be fine, we had this a few months back - the agent oddly owned the house, we were just about to survey and he put it back on the market without telling us with another agent... Didn't tell us, but I figured out as we were still looking as been burned before.

We pulled out, we didn't trust them, big karma though as it's still on the market, at 45k less than when we offered.

Can you solicitor get a wriggle on, or set a deadline for exchange and say get it off the market or you will have to keep your options open too

[vinoandbrie]

Thank you for this, helping me see the wood for the trees and a way to move forward.

[apermanentheadache]

I would play them at their own game. Tell them fine, but ask them to please bear in mind that you are looking round for other suitable properties in case this one doesn't come together. Actually, I'd recommend you really do do this - e.g., start looking, in case you're gazumped at the last moment. This might also put paid to any notions that the vendor has of trying to screw more out of you at the eleventh hour, owing to a phantom 'higher offer'. It's been known...