Estate agent unreasonable?

[veuveo]

Selling my house
First people to view bought it. They knew I hadn't found anywhere.
I had my offer accepted on a property within a week.
Estate agent has just told me he thinks it's a better idea if I sell my property without linking it up to my purchase.
WTF? WHY?
He said that Things move quicker in London, so my sale is likely to be ready before my purchase.
So they think it's reasonable to ask me to pack up a 4bed house without anywhere to move into.
I was quite reasonable on the phone with them but I'm furious now.

Why not? If there was some way to ensure it was impartial, like party wall agreements?
I'm not saying that's the answer, but let's open our minds and see how the process can be changed.

Estate agent is being unreasonable suggesting this is normal and you are being difficult; however, after my last house move if I ever moved again I would sell and then look to buy. We had major problems with our buyers and this in turn caused us difficulties with our purchase. If we hadn’t been in a chain I would have told the first set of buyers to sod off a lot quicker then we did and I would have told the second set the same!

I don't see the big fuss, he suggested something that's not outlandish, if you don't want to do it you just say no (I know you've done this), that's the end of the matter.

For some people being a better position to buy their next home could be a benefit, no biggie

Thanks, Magic. we will try that.
Dreading the whole process, TBH, the selling and the buying -- there are so many horror stories around. But needs must as we will have to downsize eventually and so we feel we need to do it while we're still young enough to be physically able to. And not have to leave it until it's an imperative.
And at least if we're not tied to completing on a new house at the same time as completing on our old one, we can tell any CFs utter bastards who try and screw you around at the last minute to do one.

The process in the UK is awful.
Why can't sellers already have relevant searches done, valid for say 6months, all relevant warranties and planning permissions done, even the survey done?
Offers could be subject to survey, and just more legally binding.

Actually, in Oz the seller does do up front searches and provides a survey, safety & planning certificates very often. It works extremely well.

That's how I managed to put my house on the market via a Saturday open day, Monday sold it verbally, exchanged contracts Tuesday. Helped by my very hard working and well-remunerated agent who worked his butt off from 7am to 9pm including weekends...a different world!

So today I get a snotty letter from the buyer saying they were promised a quick exchange.
I'm so annoyed with the estate agent

I think you need to calm down. It's common practice for estate agents to suggest going chain free to prevent sales falling through because buyers have found something better or are tired if waiting. Just say no and try to control your emotions better.

Why's the buyer writing to you? Tell them to continue liaising through the agent who YOU'RE paying.

there is a site called allagents which list reviews on estate agents - worth checking the agents score and what other people say about them before giving them your business, or you can add your review if they have been terrible! There is a another site with reviews on residential developments that is launching soon called www.homeviews.com/residents which is reviews on living in developments from current residents.

Dairy- the estate agent suggested this a week in to the process.
I just knew he'd promised the buyer that it would move quickly. I specifically told him that wasn't attractive to me.
Blue lady- it's a letter from their solicitor to mine, no directly to me.

In the current market you'd be pretty unwise to do anything to irritate the buyer or impede the sale, but it's your choice.

But we're not even ready to exchange yet!!

The process in the UK

I think you're forgetting that the process 8n Scotland is completely different.

Well, then it's a bit peculiar to have put your property on the market two months ago if you're still not ready to exchange at this point. If there's any way you can, getting your sale out of the way first will put you in a strong position when you negotiate the purchase of your next home.

Well it's the buyer not ready to exchange, because of the amount of enquiries and because they insisted on gas/elect certificates. But they are still putting pressure on because apparently the estate agent told them it would be quick.

And there was a week between me accepting the buyers offer and finding my place. Not a big deal.
And strangely most people won't accept an offer unless you've already got an offer on yours