Estate agents- is this normal?

[Bimmy76]

Our house is on the market. A few weeks ago we received an offer of £X (about 8% below asking). We accepted it because we had seen something we wanted to offer on that we knew would go quickly.

Unfortunately the chain collapsed when our buyer’s buyer pulled out so we put our house back on the market.

Today we received another offer of exactly the same amount. The house we wanted to buy has gone under offer to someone else so we are no longer in a rush. So I asked the EA to go back to the person who had offered with a counter-offer slightly higher.

The EA said that she would try but that she thought that the buyer was unlikely to go higher because she had already told them that we had previously accepted £X.

Is this normal? It seems terrible to me- who would offer any more in those circs?

Not normal at all - I'd be fuming. It's the EAs job to get you the best possible price and they've just ruined your negotiating position!

she had already told them that we had previously accepted £X.

Not normal and totally unprofessional.
I’d be clear you are not in a rush and categorically will not accept that offer.

I’d also start looking for a new agent

Nope not normal, make sure you make it very clear that you are not happy about them passing that information on!

Sounds like a bad estate agent! Aside from anything else, what you accepted before isn't even relevant - your circumstances have changed now, the market possibly has too.

When we were viewing houses a couple of years ago, there would one or two estate agents that told us at the first viewing that the vendors would accept £X (lower than the asking price). Obviously it's prudent to set your asking price a bit higher than you actually want / expect, so you have a bit of room for negotiation, but I'd be pretty unimpressed if estate agents were working for me and saying that to potential buyers.

Definitely they are not allowed to do that, they are not allowed to disclose any offers that have been made to you and the sale price can only be disclosed once you have completed the sale - make a complaint, that’s terrible service, you’re paying them a lot of money to get you the best price possible.

Wow - i'd be complaining in the strongest possible terms. Not normal and absolutely not acceptable.

As a buyer, in the past i've had agents tell me to attempt low offers. Various different reasons given. Long time on the market, seller in a rush, lower offers accepted in the past ect. I often thought 'i bet the seller wouldn't be happy for their agent to be saying things like this!'.

Agents just want to get properties on and off their books asap to make ££££ and will say what it takes to speed it up. They're not particularly loyal to the buyer or the seller.

Thanks, all. Bloody hell.

To be fair to the agent they may have been thinking you were needing a replacement offer fast, and that the buyer wasn't going to be able or willing to pay asking price or close to it, but might be drawn in at a lower price. In which case, had you not lost the other place, you would presumably be rather happy with their work.

Estate agents aren't allowed to disclose previous offers as far as I'm aware...

Sitting with my Estate Agent Manager husband and he said unless you have instructed them to disclose the previous offer, they should never have told them.