AIBU to message my deceitful buyers directly?

[beanbag19]

Someone please talk me down from contacting my buyers directly to tell them what I think of them!

We agreed a sale in June. At the time we knew we wanted a new build but there were none of the one we wanted available so we planned to move in with parents. Our buyers said their buyer wanted to complete by 20 August so we agreed that date. They then came back and asked for 10 August due to a holiday. I said no as we needed more time to sort things out.

From the second the offer was accepted she chased and chased. I did everything on my side as quickly as possible. When I came to booking removals, I had to book in advance as we need storage too. Before I booked I asked the EA to confirm that we were still working towards 20 August, our buyer said yes. After me chasing again on 9 August, their solicitor advised that their buyer was awaiting a revised mortgage offer and some docs from the LA. They also advised that 20 August was not possible as our buyers were actually on holiday then, despite the fact that the buyers themselves had previously requested and confirmed this date. They agreed 31 August instead.

They went on holiday on 13 August and I/my solicitor have been chasing theirs for an update. Finally they confirmed today that their sale had fallen through. Their solicitor said that they weren't even sure if our buyer knew as they had advised that they would be uncontactable on holiday and weren't back until 25 August. I told my EA who then had a call from the buyer directly to confirm the situation, apparently they got back last night, so another lie. I then searched for their house on rightmove to see that they had advertised on open house to take place on 11 August, which was two days after they agreed to 31 August completion, so they presumably knew at that time that 31 August was impossible.

In the meantime, we have moved out (because we didn't want to lose the £90 deposit we paid to the removals for the sake of two weeks) and reserved a new build that we have to exchange on in 28 days or lose. Obviously we're not going to be able to exchange.

I am livid. I need our buyers to know what absolute arseholes they are. Apparently they still want our house, which would explain why they lied about everything. But how can you do that to to people? We're losing money as we should have been saving money at my parents but instead we're paying a mortgage for a house we don't live in. We're probably going to lose the house we've been waiting 9 months for. Who is so selfish and dishonest that they would treat people like that?

Obviously I won't message them, but I needed to get that off my chest so thanks if you got to the end!

We were the new buyers in your situation, saw the perfect house for us on the internet in January just before we went on holiday, stupidly thought as we were moving out of London it wouldn’t move as quick but it did and when we got back it was gone. May comes and we’re looking at a house across the road, not right, so I say to EA, what we really want is one like that (original house) and he says ‘actually sale is v likely to fall through on that, but sellers need to move within a month’. We got a bridging loan and offered next day saying there would be no chain and we’d use same solicitor failed buyer (who it turns out had seriously messed them about) and buy her searches from her, on their part they kept the price the same (height of market and prices had gone up), all done and dusted in 4 weeks. I know it’s unusual but the sellers were so much happier with us as they knew we were serious and we knew they were being very fair so everyone won. It can work out and I really hope it does for you OP xx

EAs do lie. Mine was a dick.

We had an offer on our property which was 30% under asking price so pretty derisory really. It was a couple who really wanted the house. EA was soooo disappointed when she rang us with the offer and told us not to accept.

The couple arranged a third viewing. The prospective buyers didn’t even want to view the house. They wanted to come over and apologise and tell me the EA had pressured them into making a lower offer!

I was sceptical so I rang the EA to tell her what the couple had said - she basically crapped herself and tried to BS her way out of it.

I gave the couple my phone number. Told them we could agree a price between us if they wanted it. We agreed a price that worked for both of us, they then put forward their offer to the EA and we accepted.

Would never trust the EAs again though. I still have no idea why she was motivated to persuade them to put forward a low offer when it was her that would have lost the commission!

My38274thNameChange She or someone she knew may have wanted the property. Gets a (legit) low offer in and advises you to say no. Her/her friend puts more reasonable offer in and she advises you to accept.

The original badly advised low offer people almost always come back with a better offer which can be countered, so it looks legit. Just two potential buyers thinking the house is worth less than asking price...

Bet they come back saying still interested in your house but at a lower cost. They will know you want your new build. Put yours back on market and refuse any contact with the Rats that they are.

Would never trust the EAs again though. I still have no idea why she was motivated to persuade them to put forward a low offer when it was her that would have lost the commission!

ES's are certainly motivated by the size of the commission but their total earnings are more driven by how many transactions they can close. If they can get the money in hand sooner they can move on to other deals sooner.

I've only had one EA I really respect and trust. They have plenty of buyers who lead them on forever looking for an impossibly perfect house at an unrealistically low price. They also have sellers who have a fantasy "make me rich" number in mind for what they want to get for the property and it sits on the market forever. So while many of them are dicks, they deal with a lot of dicks too.

They emailed our EA last night with more lies, saying they didn't know their buyer had pulled out until they got back from holiday on Tuesday night. They're obviously completely oblivious to the fact that rightmove says very clearly it was listed on 6 August with an open house on 11 August!!

Apparently they've fallen in love with our house and hope that we'll still consider selling to them if they agree a sale on theirs and are in a position to proceed quickly.

We've arranged an open house on ours so hopefully we'll get some interest from that. Otherwise, I think we'll look to put it up with a second agent.

MissConduct but unless the agent knows the seller is desperate, an advised low offer would be refused, so no sale anyway and could backfire if the seller thinks the agent isn’t marketing the property well.

Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face by saying no dealings with the rats OP. A sale is a sale if the price is right for you.

MissConduct but unless the agent knows the seller is desperate, an advised low offer would be refused, so no sale anyway and could backfire if the seller thinks the agent isn’t marketing the property well.

I agree, that was an obvious blunder and I wasn't implying that this particular agent was doing the right thing. Here in the US, unless the agent is operating explicitly as an agent of the buyer, their duty is to the seller even if that's not clear to the people being driven around and shown houses.

Op be careful with your house remaining empty, it may invalidate your house insurance.

MissConductUS right. In the uk they work for the seller but pretend they work for the buyer 😆

You have my sympathy. The buyers for our house pulled out on Monday. We were due to move on 29th August! The people we were buying from have 5 kids so have been totally left in the lurch too. Fuckers - there was no reason for them to pull out - they don’t have a chain - they just ‘changed their minds’

When we bought and sold 10 years ago we had a row with the Estate Agent, they wanted their commission on the original asking price and not the final selling price. They claimed is was in the contract, which is was, but there was another statement earlier in the contact that contradicted it and we said that under law the first statement took precedence and they backed down, non too graciously.
Don't refuse to sell to the original people, however much you dislike them, at least you won't feel obliged to do much cleaning for the move.

@Homescapes

Actually that makes sense. Particularly when you consider that a month later, a similar house on our street sold for £50k more!

@MissConductUS - funny you should say that too. From the minute we approached them regarding our house sale they were bleating on about the market being oversaturated with similar houses (it wasnt) and telling us to list low. Which we did, because we wanted a quick sale

Beanbag I know it’s little consolation but sometimes I think these things happen because it’s not the right move. We had a sale fall through numerous times ended up renting it out and we just sold recently and actually made a profit where we would of struggled to get the mortgage amt last time. Not much help but I do think what goes past is isn’t for us

The system in the U.K. makes the position difficult for everyone, I'm sure they were devastated that their sale fell through and were frantically hopinganythingmight change which would allow them to proceed.
Then be honest with everyone and then everyone can make arrangements and provisions which try to keep everythinf together.
Don't lie and be dishonest like they have

You have my sympathy OP.

Unfortunately it's all too common for buyers to mess vendors about, gloss over the truth, lower offers, move goalposts etc etc..

Given the risk of this happening, as others have said you can't be sure of anything until exchange. This needs to be your golden rule when selling.

It was really nice of you to move out in good faith. But sadly there is no room for good faith in the cutthroat world of house selling. Keep the upper hand by not budging on anything until exchange. If this leaves insufficient room to make arrangements in time for completion then you need to renegotiate your completion date as part of the exchange process.

It's a horrid process and for that very reason I've said I'm never moving house again .

Good luck.

So their sale falls through, meaning they are struggling to buy your house on the agreed date, and your sale falls through meaning you are struggling to buy the new build on the agreed date. Perhaps every seller in the process thinks their buyers are twats.

I haven't read the whole thread but would suggest calling your mortgage lender and asking for a mortgage holiday, you should be able to hold payments for a few months or so or reduce them right down giving you a bit of breathing space from the repayments.

jcyclops
They aren't twats for having problems and there being issues. They are twats for knowingly lying and leading the OP on.

House sales are falling through left right and centre where I live. Its shocking. Houses we were interested in and were gutted we 'lost' have come back on the market. One more than once.

The reality I'm seeing locally is the market has collasped. No one is moving at all. The number of sales that have gone through since April is shockingly low. People are panicking and slashing prices left right and centre.

We currently are trying to sell ourselves. We have decided to just sit tight for the time being. We firmly believe no one will know how the market is really going to go until Brexit is sorted now. Its just causing far too much uncertainity and lots of buyers are getting far too nervous and getting cold feet at the last minute.

This is causing whole chains to collaspe.

If this is really is the case, then you might find you aren't in as much danger of losing your house as you think you are. If no one else can move and demand has disappeared you might have no other option but to sit tight.

With that in mind and if your buyers do still want your house, and you still want to move I'd say you might want to seriously suck it up and just bite your lip.

It depends on your area and how much you want to move I guess.

(Oh and you don't have to be a first time buyer to use Help To Buy. I think off the top of my head 88% of people who do buy with it are first time buyers but I could be wrong on that figure. Personally I think Help to Buy is a fucking stupid thing to get involved with if the property you want is over £300k. Especially in a period of potential economic instability. Everything I've seen suggests that Help to Buy is a scheme used by builders to inflate the price of a property by around 20%. It carries the risk of being forced to sell up or being caught with fees for not repaying the loan after 5 years. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. And yes I've looked at it extensively as an option).

Otherwise, I think we'll look to put it up with a second agent.

Also don't get this.

How many people aren't using rightmove now? I'm yet to be convinced that any other agent can get a property under the nose of anyone new who hasn't seen it on line.

Waste of money.

@RedToothBrush we sold within days the first time we put it on the market - I understand that 'new' properties do better. At the moment ours says it went up in February so it looks like it's been up for 6 months. The reality is that it has been sstc for 4 of those months. I would hope that by putting it up with a different agent we could generate some new interest. And surely we'll only pay fees for the agent who sells it?

RedToothBrush Agents have people on their books who are waiting for properties. RightMove or not (and not all properties are on all bucket sites) if those people have search set up and a house misses their catchment by 50 yards or has 3 beds instead of 4 but the potential to make a 4th, a potential buyer may never see it. An agent gets a feel for the sort of property a buyer wants and can suggest a property that may not be a perfect (database) match.

Beanbag, from what I can tell the market here was still boyant in Feb. Its since then that sales have fallen through and less has sold.

Our agent said it went dead in April and they have had much fewer viewing across the board since then.

From what I can see in terms of whats gone through on the land registry and from what I've seen myself, they are not wrong nor lying.

I'm curious as to how widespread this is, but its striking here.

I'd be tempted to put the price up, sell it to them if they love it so much, then leave frozen prawns in the curtain poles on completion day!

Some people are absolute arseholes when it comes to buying and selling property. There must be a better way.