Is the estate agent screwing my mother?

[dodgyestateagent]

DM, who is elderly, has just had to put her family home up for sale, she is moving to assisted living. She is 78 and has lived in this house for over 50 years - my father's recent passing has meant she can no longer cope with the house by herself. She has no idea about market value, valuations, selling a house, so we have been dealing with the estate agent ourselves.

The house went up for sale on Friday, and we were told it was inundated with interest. So much so that the estate agent held an 'open viewing' for viewings on Saturday, for one hour. We were told that over 200 people had come to visit the house!

We've just been told the highest offer, and it's below what would be expected for the area (we are South East, detached, 3 bedroom, large south facing garden). Especially since he said they'd been inundated with viewings and interest. When we queried the estate agent on how he got the offers, he told us that due to having so much interest, he was doing an anonymous 'best and final offer'. The highest offer (and best position) we've been given is supposedly the highest of all of the 'best and final'... However, when we enquired whether or not he'd gone back to any of the other interested parties to see if they'd like to improve on it, he said he hadn't to ensure 'fairness for everyone involved.' It doesn't seem like he has tried to get the best price for my DM. Myself and DH have purchased a couple of properties, and each and every time we've been told about other 'higher offers' and been asked if we'd like to improve on our offer... It just seems a strange way of doing things and I am worried the estate agent has got some sort of back hander going on... AIBU?

200 people in an hour. That's 3.3 per minute. Did they have to run round the house as fast as they could and get out?

@Whammyyammy

200 people in an hour. That's 3.3 per minute. Did they have to run round the house as fast as they could and get out?

The estate agent was blasting the Benny Hill music in the background.

Change estate agents. EA's should not be letting so many people meet up in your Mum's house. I hope she was not there and exposed to this amount of people.

We sold spring last year. Lots of viewings in 3 days. Our agent gave us the best 4 offers after telling them all that due to amount of interest they needed to put in their best and final offer in writing. Once had the four offers in along with their position (sold, cash buyers etc etc) we made a decision. Think you need to get the agent to chivvy up the current offers or find a new one. Ours was great and got a nice healthy sum ftom our sale.

Just read your further comments and their surveyor valued it under our buyers offer with silly things. We put those right and queries some issues which were untrue (no airbricks etc he didn't look very thoroughly!) we offered a £2k discount and they accepted. Surveyors have to "earn" their fee and find stuff. The house I bought had as ime issues but sellers would not budge on price. I loved it as I still bought it and actually some of the "issues" are not issues at all and have not cost a great deal to sort. I would though say that the agent selling did not try very hard to get anything off the offer price or to get sellers to do a boiler m/heating check or electrical cert both of which think should be compulsory if selling.

@klaudiagal
That happened to us 12 years ago after we added an extension
Almost doubled the size of our home but the bank surveyor added £30k to the pre build house estimate. I nearly cried, we'd spent almost £90k.
We were really lucky that our LTV was still low so we didn't need a high valuation to remortgage.
Seems things haven't changed much. It looked like they just costed on square footage, not looking at top price fittings and decor which would be taken into consideration with an estate agent.

200 viewers in one hour!! Is that like Father Christmas time where one FC minute is the equivalent of one hour in the real world!!?

You mean 'screwing her over' don't you.

I would demand all the offers so far in writing. It's not up to him to decide which offer to accept.

Oh dear. I think you should have re-phrased that question!

@Klaudiagal there’s definitely weird things in the valuation process. We had to get my late MILs house valued for inheritance tax purposes so that we could complete probate. The valuation that came back was for £30k in excess of what any other property on the street had ever sold for. When we pointed this out, and the fact that the houses that had sold were pretty much immaculate whereas MILs house had been rented out to a variety of tenants over the last few years and was definitely showing it’s age, he got extremely huffy with us.

He did, after several phone calls, revise his valuation down by £20k and in the end we accepted it just so that we could get probate sorted.

Change agents. 200 in an hour would mean each viewer had about 20 seconds each to view. With Covid It would be impossible for 200 people to view Buckingham palace never mind a family home . If he is telling lies about this you cannot trust him.

Do you even know if he conducted ANY viewings at all? Would the neighbours be able to tell you if there had been people round at the time? Obviously not 200, but since he is quite clearly completely dishonest he probably didn’t have anyone to look at it cos he wants it for himself or a mate.

I mean, it’s kind of irrelevant as hopefully you will find another agent, but would be interesting to find out...

Aaaargf. My elderly DP also had this experience with someone from a naice London agency - pretty flat in good nick with lovely courtyard garden in a very naice area of town. No viewings for months then a very low offer. Turned out on investigation the bastard had not even marketed it and was saving it for a friend when my DP were getting desperate.

Estate agents aren’t renowned for being scrupulously honest!

Let me guess its a “friend” of his putting in a low offer.

Sounds like he’s getting someone a cheap deal, well dodgy change agent, and if anyone holds an open house for you again go and park up nearby for a bit at least

@CrumpetsForAll

Not helpful to you but I only clicked on to see if they were having an affair...

Me too!

@fairydustandsparkle so the only way I can query the valuation is if Bank provides me with the post valuation query form. This was advised by surveyors office and is because the fact that the bank was the one who commissioned the survey.
They refused to do that despite the da t that it is my right to do so.

Oh definitely sack him

@dodgyestateagent Holy F! PLEASE tell me you confronted him?!?!?!?!?!

I'd love to think of a way to close down this estate agent's business immediately. So far haven't thought of one that is legal and does not involve violence, more's the pity.

Have you had a conversation with him yet op?

Sometimes a 'good buy' is bought by the agents for themselves or cronies. You need to get several agents involved in pricing a house, they will value for free and you can move the house from one agent to another if you are not getting the offers you think should come in.
You may try an auction with an agreed minimum price. Running it may cost a bit of money if it does not sell, but having attended one locally (a house near mine was up for sale. It was a dump but the reserve was low.) It sold for £40k above the estimated value, which was astonishing. Virtually all the properties sold, usually for a premium.

200 viweings means "200 hits on that property on our website" 180 of those will be people getting themselves off on property porn, or the neighbours being nosy. 15 will be people looking outside their budget and realising that they wont be able to afford it. 5 will be serious buyers.

It sounds suspicious... it will be satisfying telling the agent where to go!