WIBU to contact estate agents about houses under offer?

[kt98765]

Currently house hunting and we there are quite a few recently listed as under offer/stc on Rightmove within our criteria. Is it worth contact the estate agents to show an interest incase the sale falls through or is that an absolute no-no? We are new and inexperienced buyers so we want to be clear on the etiquette!

Contacting them to hold your info in case the house comes back on the market - fine

Contacting them to try and gazump current offer - not fine

I’m not in the uk but I almost did. We had put in an offer but it wasn’t accepted. A week or so later, D M harangued me to ring and enquire. “It’s not sold until it’s sold “.

I hung up from her, went to the loo and put my hand on the phone to ring the agent and the agent rang me. The accepted offer had fallen over and did I still want the house? And here we are.

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable if you want to be told about sales falling through (as they often do). Don't try to gazump though, that's awful behaviour.

Got it thank you I also wondered: I have seen posts on here before about people saying get a good relationship with estate agents so they share things with you before they come to the market. How do you do this, or does it literally just mean to contact them and tell them what you are looking for?

Definitely ring up and get your details on the agents' list. Although I agree gazumping is not great behaviour, if the property has only just gone under offer I think it's fine to submit your own. Buyers quite often pull out early in the process if something comes up on the survey or title or if they don't get the mortgage they want. Even if the seller doesn't take your offer it puts you in a better position if the buyer does pull out early on in the process and you are the underbidder. However I don't think a good idea to try to turn the seller's head late in the day with a better offer unless you are confident you can complete at that price. All of this assumes you have viewed the property in advance of course!

@kt98765

Got it thank you I also wondered: I have seen posts on here before about people saying get a good relationship with estate agents so they share things with you before they come to the market. How do you do this, or does it literally just mean to contact them and tell them what you are looking for?

We'd been looking for a while and our estate agents said "we've got one coming on the market soon which we think is what you want". We didn't get first dibs or anything, but it meant that once it became available we were booked in to see it quickly, and of course we were slightly less likely to settle for something from a different agent that didn't quite fit the bill. If they've shown you round a few, they pick up a better idea of what you like and don't like.

In my understanding, under offer just means that it has received an offer, not necessarily that it's been accepted. When it has been accepted it will change to Sold STC

If it says under offer then it is worth a punt.

@Jelly0naplate

Contacting them to hold your info in case the house comes back on the market - fine

Contacting them to try and gazump current offer - not fine

Agree!

@karalime

In my understanding, under offer just means that it has received an offer, not necessarily that it's been accepted. When it has been accepted it will change to `Sold STC`

If it says under offer then it is worth a punt.

I believe that ‘under offer’ means that an offer has been accepted but that the paperwork hasn’t been completed.

@kt98765

Got it thank you I also wondered: I have seen posts on here before about people saying get a good relationship with estate agents so they share things with you before they come to the market. How do you do this, or does it literally just mean to contact them and tell them what you are looking for?

I found that if I called up to book a viewing at one of the houses on their books they would email me more similar ones as they were going to come into the market, or that I had overlooked on RM. That's how we got our house actually.