Anyone good with Estate Agent stuff about please

[PropertyBefuddlement]

I'm sooo out of my depth its not funny.

We put an offer in on this house which was owned 50 50 by a couple splitting up. Man accepted our offer, Woman (who does not want to sell) silent on the matter. Waiting time for us of 12 weeks before man could force sale through court.

8 weeks of waiting down the line, estate agent phones us...

Woman has today received and accepted a higher offer. Estate agent tells us if we offer 5k more, it will be enough to outbid.

What should we do?

Presumably if we outbid by 5k, they then phone the other buyers and tell them what we have bid? Sorry to be naive but does this go on and on? Until someone can't afford to go up anymore? Would you make one more bid or give up?

Any suggestions from the more experienced would be great. (Namechanged by the way as other posting history may out me to estate agent!).

[Longdistance]

Sounds like a con to me.

Were the vendors using another EA? If not I don't think the EA has been honourable.

[PropertyBefuddlement]

No, one estate agent. What would you do?

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

Hmmm. Assuming you are in the UK, Estate Agent definitely should NOT have told you that offering £5,000 more would secure the property. How did the male seller accept your offer? Was it in writing via the EA?

[Diamogs]

Yes technically the back and forth between buyers can go on til such time as one gives up.

The property ombudsman are so on top of EAs that the days of fabricating offers are long gone, although you will always get the odd chancer.

[PropertyBefuddlement]

Estate agent say because they act for both man and woman, although man accepted, woman insisted property remained on the market and will continue to do so until exchange of contracts.

Why the not honourable? Is it bad form to tell everyone what everyone else has bid?

[Diamogs]

But agree with a PP who said the EA shouldn't have told you how much to outbid.

Unless the vendor tells the EA to that is.

[Diamogs]

Sadly nothing is finalised until exchange of contracts and any party can pull out til then. It's crap really and IMO we should adopt the Scottish system where offers are legally binding.

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

When you say wwyd?

I would accept that I have been gazumped (happens all the time in non-divorcing sales too) and walk away unless I was absolutely desperate to have that particular property or could concede that I had had a very cheeky offer accepted anyway.

I would not be prepared to get into a bidding war. Always be suspicious of vendors who will gazump you - they are all arseholes, no doubt about it.

[PropertyBefuddlement]

Ah, well, when I say accept the offer, technically it was not formally done as only one of the two sellers who did iyswim, it was all estate agent saying 'hang on, he is desperate to accept your offer and on the court date yours is the offer that the court will order her to accept as it is the best one, and the one we will recommend to the court' so nothing formally in writing.

Bibbitybobbityyhat. yes in the UK. can you tell me why they shouldn't have said?

My DH suspects that their offer is so close to ours purely because EA told them what to bid, as when we viewed the person showing us round told us what all the previous offers had been

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

EA acts for vendor, everyone knows that.

But telling one potential buyer what another potential buyer has offered is a big no-no, even for the scummiest agents.

Surely it is obvious why? Otherwise house sales could just go up and up and up by £1 increments.

At some point the vendor has to accept an offer and honour the sale. Otherwise they run the risk of both parties pulling out and telling them to get to fuck.

[PropertyBefuddlement]

sorry just to be clear EA didn't say 5k more would be enough to secure the property, said it would be enough to outbid the other buyers,, which is why I'm worried about a back and forth scenario.

Don't think we made a cheeky offer, was within 3% of asking price in cash. But for reasons I can't really say here, we would be gutted to lose it, as something unusual about the property so not readily swapped with another iyswim.

My DH is quite cross indeed and suggests we withdraw our original offer to see what happens (he thinks they have made other buyer up) I think if they have accepted another offer this evening if we wan't to try and up the offer we need to do so tomorrow morning as don't want other people to have incurred legal expense.

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

I agree with your dh.

[ChishandFips33]

I wouldn't withdraw. If the other offer is fabricated/a bluff then withdrawing might reset your 12wk court date wait. You're 8 weeks in so not much longer

I also wouldn't bid up --unless I desperately wanted it and was prepared to pay more-/ the wife, through sheer awkwardness, could keep being difficult and demand more and more

[Mougly]

Best bet is to write a final offer letter saying that your final offer is subject to contract and on the terms that the property is taken off the market. If you dont state this they can accept your offer and then continue taking other offers. This is called gazumping and you can loose all money you've spent on survey, solicitor etc if someone offers over you last minute.

[PropertyBefuddlement]

Thanks for all the help.

We are going to sleep on it and then DH will ring EA when I'm at work tomorrow and try and get a bit more info out of him about it all with a view to possibly changing our position in late afternoon when I'm home from work.

He did say to me on phone today that woman seller is adamant property stays on market till exchange of contracts, so no use putting in an offer where it needs to be taken off market. But Dh doesn't believe that either. Dh is so cross it will effectively be good cop bad cop routine if he rings tomorrow instead of me.

Will come back and report

[Lighteningirll]

My dh ex did this and she managed to delay the sale for a year, wasting the time kf three different buyers and eventually having the sale taken out kf her hands and managed by the court. I would walk away this house is not really for sale.

[StepAwayFromTheThesaurus]

I would run very fast in the other direction from this house.

The couple needs to sort themselves out and then sell the house, not try to create a proxy war via potential buyers. Even if you offer more, there's no guarantee the couple (either half thereof) will behave decently and honourably. You could simply pay out for surveys and searches etc and have them gazump you again. Indeed, you should expect them to.

There might be something unusual about this house that you like, but it will not be worth it. There are other houses out there and you may well find one much better than this one.

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

"the woman seller is adamant that the property stays on the market until exchange of contracts"

well, she's not going to be overwhelmed with offers is she then? That's generally not the way buying and selling works as most buyers are not prepared to go through with the lengthy and costly buying process with the threat of gazumping continually hanging over them.

I think FamilyLawSolicitor has given great advice on this thread - I'd be inclined to listen to her!

You have all my sympathy, it's a rotten time for you.