translate this estate agent speak for me please!

[JennyMackers]

made an offer on a house on monday - have heard nothing all week. I rang the agent and asked 'so?! is the vendor considering the offer?'. The estate agent said that she is waiting to get hold of the vendor's representitive. I was confused. I said 'the owner has a representitive???". Does this mean it's a repossession?

[JennyMackers]

ps, I didn't ask the agent if it is a repossession. when I said to her, parrot style 'the owner has a representitive' she clammed up.

[specialsubject]

perhaps the owner is abroad, a company or no longer mentally capable?

anyway, tell the agent to answer quickly or you are off to buy one of the many other houses available.

[Crutchlow35]

Could be an executory or a power of attorney case.

[JennyMackers]

well, the house is near where i am now, and i saw somebody going in to the house earlier today

[Bowlersarm]

I have never heard that before. Is it a probate sale?

[Crutchlow35]

sorry that should have been executry. yes, where someone has died. it might be power of attorney where the owner is unable to look after their own affairs and has someone dealing with it.

[wonkylegs]

Technically I'm the owners representative on our sale as our house is in DHs name only (due to me still having another outstanding mortgage when we bought it) but I'm dealing with all the sale stuff as DH works in a hospital and can't often be got on a mobile so i've been classified as 'sellers representative' which makes me laugh.

[AliceWChild]

The house I'm buying, everything went through child of vendor as she's pretty old. We'd make the arrangements through the estate agent with them, and then the owner would say she didn't know we were coming.

[JennyMackers]

there's a woman and a child living in it! i haven't seen HER, but her child is about 8, so how old can she be? 55 at the most!!! not in need of advocacy. so unless she's living in the house of a dead parent, or something, then i don't think it's probate. there were photos of her child up on the wall.

[flow4]

It could be a house legally owned by her ex husband/partner... Or jointly owned and being sold because they've divorced and she can't afford the whole mortgage by herself... Or being repossessed... That would make the 'owner's representative' the Ex's lawyer or the bank/BS...

[greenformica]

maybe the lady is living in the house but the owner is in care?

[greenformica]

why don't you just ask them again directly what the situation is and if you get no joy, email the head of the branch and explain you have had no response to your offer which was made a week ago and can you please clarify the owners position as one of your staff mentioned a representative.

[gardenfan]

dd is ftb, able to move fast on a sale, mortgage in place. Max of 150k.
Is looking at houses up to 160k and negociating down to 150k a bit cheeky. Obviously she doesnt want to time waste. What percentage did people manage to reduce asking price by.

[gardenfan]

oops, in wrong place, sorry to hijack

[breatheslowly]

I think you need to ask the estate agent to fully disclose the seller's circumstances to you as you don't want to get tied up with spending money on a house purchase (solicitor's fees, surveyor's fees) only to find that there are odd circumstances that make it really difficult to move the sale forwards. For example what if the woman and child live there but are unwilling to leave when the house is sold?