AIBU to think we should be able to view a house even though we aren’t selling?

[HolidayHun2020]

So a house has come up for sale near us, we’re in a position that it’s not the ideal time for us to buy BUT for the right price and property we could make it work. Our house isn’t on the market but if we wanted to go for something we would put it up straight away. We plan to look at selling and actively trying to move within the next 6-12 months. I want to go and see this house as I saw it a couple of years ago and fell in love with it. It’s come up again, but the estate agent has said that we can’t view it unless we proceed with putting our house up and then if it’s a no from us on the house we are viewing we would then need to get out of the contract to sell our house!

AIBU that this is ridiculous? We just want to see this one house on the off chance it’s the one? If we offer and they say no under the circumstance fair enough. Should we just walk away until we are definitely ready to move.

I’ve sold seven times - the last time quite recently and in every case the EA contract has included a ‘ready, willing and able purchaser’ clause. That means that once you accept an offer from a buyer who is able to proceed, you are liable for at least part of, if not all the EA fees from that point on. Worth checking before you sign on with them. Most of the EAs in our area operate on the same principle.

This was us too OP - in a bit of London where 95% of the housing stock is dull Victoriana. But it became apparent eventually that every month one potentially interesting property would come on in our price bracket but because we weren’t “proceedable” agents weren’t interested in talking to us, so we weren’t getting anywhere. Eventually we bit the bullet and put our place on the market, thinking that if need be we’d have to tell our buyers to wait or walk away. In the event we found buyers very quickly and had an offer accepted on our perfect home soon after - because when it came up we suddenly looked very appealing to agents and vendors.

The entire system is dumb and poorly constituted.

Wow, I've never come across that, and I've sold 6 times, in different areas of the country. Maybe I was just lucky! It was some years ago mind you, perhaps this is a more recent thing.

You don’t pay the EA before exchange - I meant that if the EA contract has a ready, willing and able purchaser clause, you become liable for the fees once you accept an offer from a buyer who has the means to proceed.

I’ve moved a lot since 2005, but mostly in the local area, so it could well be both recent and peculiar to the area. Used a different EA each time, as the fees varied quite a bit, but all had the same clause.

You don’t pay the EA before exchange - I meant that if the EA contract has a ready, willing and able purchaser clause, you become liable for the fees once you accept an offer from a buyer who has the means to proceed.
But then, if you don't exchange, you don't pay the fee? So the OP could take her properly off the market and owe no fees? This has been my experience. Or is she liable for the fees if she changes her mind about selling?

I am trying to sell my house at the moment. The market is slow.When I have a house viewing I do a big tidy up, buy fresh flowers and put in effort to make my home as well presented as possible. It is beyond frustrating to hear that people like it but aren’t in a position where they can proceed. Absolute time wasters. It’s my home not a museum for you to trek round

Some contracts make you liable for fees if you change your mind.

@budgiegirl
Meant to add - but if you can’t find anywhere you don’t take your property with a buyer off the market, you just keep putting of the exchange date until you do find a house so that it’s the buyer that eventually withdraws. Then you aren’t liable as you aren’t the one walking away.

What is you put your property up at a very high (unviable) price, until you are ready to actually proceed. Its technically on the market, so can do viewings, but no one will want to buy it? I injure you'd lose out to the prior that only look at new to the market properties, but it's a way of letting your options open without wasting anyone's time perhaps?

If the EA has what they call a ‘ready willing and able purchaser’ clause in the selling contract, then yes, the OP would be liable to pay the fees if she takes the house off the market after accepting an offer from a buyer introduced by the EA and who has the means to proceed with the sale. Always worth checking as most of the EA’s in our area have this clause.

Sounds like a plan, but you’d potentially put people off even viewing if the price was too high. And you’d be constantly fending off EA pressure to reduce the price because they have a job to do, and would know the realistic selling prices in the area.

So you would be willing to lose a buyer and bring down the rest of the chain, causing increased legal fees for all involved. Nice move.

Yep. The majority of the EAs in our area, and all that I’ve used in several house moves have had a ‘ready willing and able purchaser’ clause in the contract. It makes the seller legally responsible for some of, if not all of the fees in the event they pull out of a sale after accepting an offer from a buyer introduced by the EA and able to proceed. There really are some very selfish and bordering on daft suggestions on this thread. The last time we sold up and moved was 2018 and I wouldn’t like to chance it again if this is the way people think.

The entire point would be to put people off viewing until you are ready to proceed, then your drop the price. If they are still viewing, then it's not high enough 😂

Then when you find a house you like, it can be on sale at the right price with a single phone call.

But you would run the risk of annoying the estate agents, which you may need on side later, even if you are totally open with then 'I need this technically on the market but don't want viewings until I find somewhere I like'

There would definitely be downsides, I'm not denying that.

I think both YANBU and YABU.

Certain types of property attract huge numbers of time wasters and looky-lous so sellers and estate agents have to get really fussy.

Other types of property are much more likely to attract more speculative buyers who weren’t necessarily looking to move but will move for the right property. Before we bought our current house we had no intention of moving but when we saw this house come on the market we knew we had to consider it. So I called the estate agent, explained our situation and they were more than happy to show us round. And we ended up selling our house through the same estate agent so they got the benefit of commission on two linked transactions.

Ultimately it comes down to the estate agent’s judgment - good ones have a knack for weeding out looky-lous.

I certainly don't think you are being unreasonable, I have just sold a house to a couple in your position. It's an elderly relatives house, we let anyone who wanted to view it come and view it.
The couple we sold it to didn't have their house on the market at the time, they only wanted to move to this specific very small area, so no point putting theirs up for sale if they didn't have a house to move into.
They put their house up for sale in November, it sold quickly and we are all moving next week. It definitely can be done.
It seems very short sighted to me, to not let you view it.

Try re-reading and seeing if you can find where I said this is what I would do. I haven’t got involved in a chain since the very first house purchase I made decades ago. Since then I have always sold to someone who is chain free, moved into a rental and looked for somewhere to buy. The whole chain business is utterly dysfunctional and the UK housing market is a quagmire with entrenched professionals with no incentives to serve homeowners (buyers or sellers) well.

However, regardless of what I would personally do, in terms of the chain collapsing, it doesn’t really matter whether what happens is the vendor taking the property off the market or the buyer withdrawing. But the fees do create an incentive for a vendor who can’t find a place to purchase to drag it out longer so that they aren’t landed with the fees. That obviously leads to more time pressure on people down the chain from them, but it’s hardly an unreasonable position for the vendor to take given the position they are put in.

Think this is a bit different though, in that it’s not the house you’re living in, so not as much imperative to sell quickly to get the house you want. I would probably allow someone to view if they didn’t have their house on the market, but I wouldn’t accept an offer until they were in a position to proceed.

Don’t need to re-read - perfectly literate thanks. You didn’t ‘say’ it, but this is what would likely happen - and you seem to agree because you admit that there is an incentive for sellers drag out finding another property to avoid pulling out and paying EA fees. If you were at least up front with the buyer about your difficulty to find a suitable property, there’s a chance that they have a back up property to move to quickly enough to save the chain below them. What you seem to be saying is that it’s OK to dick the buyers around until they get fed up and pull out.

YABU

When ours was up I remember preparing for a viewing, cancelling plans and sorting out childcare only for the viewers not to turn up.

When I called the estate agent they said Mr & Mrs Smith (not Smith) were very interested in the house and they couldn't understand it. Suddenly it made sense. We bought the house from Mr & Mrs Smith and it had a host of issues, as well as debt collectors coming round looking for them - I think they realised it was still us living there and that we would not be best pleased to see them.

I think I’m missing your point? I intend to show up to the booking, view the house and if I like it get my house on the market and put an offer in so not really sure how your scenario and mine are similar…

I get you ! I find it really hard to understand how you can sell your house without finding a house you like ! We ended up selling ours and looking for houses for a year then just collapsed as buyer couldn’t wait (fair enough) but then we saw something we liked but couldn’t view ! Gave up. Problem is if the market too quick it’s slowing here now so agents are letting people view without having house on market

I think this is just an anecdote but the point is well made that that preparing for a viewing takes a lot of work. To then find out that your viewer is not in a position to make a viable offer because they are not on the market themselves is pretty annoying.

A year !! We put ours on the market, accepted an offer after four weeks and after a further two weeks of viewing the properties we had shortlisted, were being pressured by the EA to find something before our buyer pulled out. There’s no excuse for this really - go round EAs and get brochures before you market your own, and shortlist those properties you are interested in, so that you’re prepared when you get an offer on your own. You have to keep on it, and keep up on your shortlisted properties that have sold. You have to be committed or you’re just a time waster. A year - Jesus wept !!