AIBU to not trust my estate agent is acting in my best interest?

[Mary959]

I thought that estate agents acted for the sellers interests - especially given that it is the seller that ultimately pays them.

As you can imagine, I was therefore quite concerned to receive the following paragraph included in a reply from my estate agent. I had asked him to put the property back on the market after I verbally accepted an offer of £10k below asking price. The estate agent tried everything he could to dissuade me from putting it back on - despite it being my right to have the property listed until contracts have been exchanged. Eventually they called the buyer and they increased their offer to the asking price so long as it remains off of the market.

It was the Estate agent that provided the valuation initially, and I am concerned that they may have undervalued it. The house received this offer only two days after it being on the market (the buyer has listed their house up with the same estate agency).

Am I getting a bad deal here? Why would the Estate Agent try so hard to dissuade me from re-listing the property? They are meant to follow my instructions and act in my interests - not the buyers!

This is the part of their response that caused me so much concern (below) :

“The property remains listed as SSTC (Sold Subject to Contract) online, so it can still be tracked publicly. However, the buyer has already incurred costs by instructing solicitors and completing anti-money laundering checks, so it would be unfair to fully remarket the property at this stage. We only marked it as SSTC after those steps were completed.”

Estate agents are a business.

i thought we all know that estate agents ultimately look out for themselves first.

I didn't trust my estate agent the whole way through My house sale. I stayed with him as he didn't do anything terrible. But I definitely never trusted him, I analysed everything he did and I made my own choices.

Only you are looking out for you.

Make your own choices. You can go against estate agent advice.

If you really dont like your estage agent, get rid of him and get a new one. Look for reviews first

You are definitely being unreasonable if you think the estate agent acts in the interest of anyone other than the estate agent.
Did you get valuations from other EA before you put it on the market as that should give you an idea of a reasonable asking price.
It is unusual to put the house back on the market after you have accepted an offer though as it is unfair on the prospective buyer. If you weren’t happy with the offer then why did you accept it?

Most buyers want houses off market. It's usually part of the offer. To give them some credit they may have worried buyer will retract offer. SSTC is absolutely normal. It is sold subject to contract.
Just to add if house I was buying was fully remarketed, i would immediately back out before I aquire more costs in process which will obviously not go well

I just get really bad vibes about this to be honest. I feel like getting my own surveyor as I worry that the house has been undervalued- especially coupled with the estate agents desperation that I sell to this buyer.

when I insisted that it was put back on the market (two days after it was listed and before the buyer eventually increased to asking price), the estate agent actually threatened me the buyer possibly going to the small claims court as they had instructed solicitors and paid for money laundering checks. I had just agreed (under a sense of pressure) verbally to an offer £10k below asking price. I clearly want happy and wanted it back on to see if it could achieve the full asking price. We were no where near signing written contracts. To have small claims court mentioned was totally off putting and raised massive alarm bells .

sorely all estate agents don’t act like this? Why would mine? What could be their motivation for trying to railroad me into accepting an offer £10k below asking price and at the same time try to stop me from relisting it so it can achieve asking price.

no wonder people say moving is one of the most stressful times!

Maybe he knows the buyer.

Why stay with this estate agent then? Why din't you just get rid of him and get a new estate agent?

If you are not happy with an offer, you shouldn't accept it. The estate agent is correct that the buyer starts incurring costs in good faith once you have accepted an offer. It is absolutely standard to stop marking a property once you have accepted an offer - that is what 'sold subject to contract' means.

If the property had only been on the market for a few days when you had the offer, it would have been fair enough to wait a while before accepting the offer to see if anything higher came in, but in the current market, most people would be delighted to get an acceptable, proceedable offer so quickly.

Did you get the property valued by two or three agents before you put it on the market? That is the normal thing to do. But as everyone will tell you, a property is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it - there is no such thing as a 'correct' valuation.

Edited to add: most houses are selling for below asking price at the moment (I sold mine last year, bought another this year, and am currently SSTC on my late parents' house - all at slightly under the official asking price).

It’s totally normal for buyers to want a property under offer to be taken off the market.

However.. threat of small claims court is just very weird.

the motivation for pressuring you eould only ever be to extract maximum profit for the agent, or to give a bung to their family/ mates.

You can say no, and then when the term of your agreement with these chancers is up you could find a more ethical practice.

Yes - that’s a possibility that has been going through my head.

I may ask that question explicitly in an email. Surely they can’t lie and then if it transpires they did later then that would be clearly unethical and a complaint to the property ombudsman.

I just don’t trust them… To mention the small claims court was absurd and came across very badly to me. Like a threat. I haven’t really felt comfortable since.

They are parasites. You don't tell them why you are selling (or buying) or give away anything about your financial or negotiating position - you can't trust them with anything. They are only interested in turning over as many properties in a given time period as possible - they are not interested in the price you get so long as they get their percentage. They will always try to dissuade you from pulling your house off the market or remarketting it and they will always encourage you to hang on when there are delays from other people in the chain. They also won't tell you everything they can about what is going on with buyers or sellers if it might cause you to drop out: parasites, no other word for it - not to be trusted on any level - deal with them coldly and at arms length.

I got three (including these) who were pretty much straight down the middle. I wish that I got a surveyor valuation now. When I do the instant valuation on Zoopla it comes up a good bit higher than even teh asking price (context: My asking price was 310k. Eventually this was offered, but only after the buyer tried offering 300k. Zoopla instant, and some others, say around 340-350k)

it’s just been constant pressure with them really. From the moment the offer was given I was expected to give my immediate thoughts on it and told that they buyer “doesn’t want to play games” etc. (despite offering 10k less than asking…)

Estate agents are a business who want to make them not you as much money as possible- are you paying them a set fee or a percentage of the sale price? If it is a set fee they will just want you house sold asap.
However I also think it is weird that you accepted an offer and then wanted to put it back on the market again just two days later, as at that point you were just stringing your buyer along just in case you get a better offer. Selling and buying a house takes commitment and trust between the buyer and the seller. It seems clear that you aren’t happy selling at the price you have been offered or with this estate agent and if I was your buyer and knew that, I would be worried that you would mess me around right up until the point of completion if you ever got there

MumsNetters cannot know if your EA is trustworthy, OP. Certainly some are not.

But was there a line in the contract about removing the listing as part of the sales agreement? As PP say, this is typical and we included it. If so you cannot expect to violate it. Even without this formality your EA is correct that once you have a contract you should prepare to honour it. The lack of consequences in British consumer real estate law is an international laughingstock.

Did you feel that the EA pressured you to accept the initial offer? In many parts of the country it is a buyer’s market. Depending on the percentage reduction £10K represented a recommendation to do so may have seemed wise, but pressuring a client is not a good move. However this is a separate question from whether to honour a contract.

Pretty much sums up how I feel about them in a nutshell!!

I just feel so uncomfortable with the whole situation. I don’t want to mess the buyer around, however I feel so uncomfortable with the way the estate agent has managed things (eg. small claims court references) that I have been tempted on numerous occasions to pull the sale altogether, wait until the 12 week period comes to an end and then relist elsewhere .

Regarding being pressured - yes, most certainly. I was expected to comment on the offer straight away on the phone. I had very little thinking time and was told that the buyer “doesn’t want to play games”.

There wasn’t any line to that description in my contract with the estate agent. Nor am I near the point where I have signed/exchanged any written contract with the buyers . Therefore the estate agent mentioning the small claims court when I mentioned putting the house back on (so it could have a chance at the asking price) was very unsettling and pretty much undermined my trust completely in him. I mean, even with the absence of any written contract with the buyer aside, at that stage I was still within the cooling off period (14 days) of my own contract with the estate agent. So surely the buyer (who I was told got a bridging loan for this) would also be in their cooling off period, so would not be at any loss at that stage . Just bizarre to mention it really.

Cross post. An offer of£300K on a property marketed st £310K is a 96.77% offer. That’s very handsome, particularly as an opening gambit in a buyer’s market.

The typical response, if you wanted more, would be to make a counteroffer or simply to reject the offer. The EA presents your decision as attractively as possible. They try to help buyer and seller come to terms.

EAs are not known for undervaluing properties. More typically they overvalue to entice clients, who then find they cannot get a mortgage for the agreed price.

It sounds like the EA handled this badly. Terrible form to expect a response in the course of your initial conversation.

Sorry, what I meant was that often the buyer will insist on no further showings when the offer is verbally accepted. Before contracts are exchanged.

I was told by the EA that the buyer has taken out a bridging loan to partly finance the purchase (they mostly have the cash, but need to top it up with the bridging loan) before they sell their current house. They have listed their current house with the same estate agent.

Yes, from the outset I just think they have been very pressuring. Especially mentioning small claims court. I was so very close to pulling out there and then.

I personally think the EA is being fair. You accepted the valuation (similar to others) You accepted the offer. You then back tracked and decided to relist. Marking a house as SSTC is normal after the buyer incurs costs. The EA's reputation is based on the buyer's experience as much as the sellers. What you've done is rubbish for a buyer.

Keeping a house on the market to get a better offer is shitty. Either reject the offer or accept and work towards a sale.

You need to back out now before you mess them around any further.

EAs work towards sales. Sometimes buyers or sellers mess them around. They are trying to rescue a sale that had a valuation accepted in a housing market that's pretty rubbish at the moment

You need to check the terms of business you have signed up to when you engaged the agent and make sure you know if you agreed to remain with them for any specified period or if you have to give notice or if there are any other clauses or penalties that apply when you decide to leave.

When I last engaged an estate agent I amended their standard terms to make it so that I could terminate the arrangement after two weeks rather than the month or six weeks or whatever it was. I wasn't exactly trusting of them - which is sensible enough when dealing with any estate agent - and I did come to feel that they weren't on my side.

Estate agents mainly act in their own interest.

They can undervalue properties in order to get them sold as e.g. 1% of say 290k is better than 0% of 320k. The buyers who get to view the property will often be ones who are arranging a mortgage or finance through a mortgage advisor to whom they are connected / getting referral commission from.

I’d be very wary right now as I’d expect EAs to be desperate for sales in most parts of the UK. When someone tries to pressurise you it tells you they are in a weak position. Talk of the “small claims court” is risible at this point in the process.

I think it is bit like the ick, once you have lost trust in an EA you will not regain it.

I would dump them as soon as you are able. The only problem you may have is if you are also buying and that agent is selling a property you want.

Zero point in getting a surveyor they will follow the exact same process as the EA. They look at similar houses that have sold recently what prices they have gone for and then think which direction the market is going. If it's rising yours might be valued slightly higher, if it's falling less.

There is no exact science to property prices its supply and demand.

You seem tricky, of you were your buyers how would you feel dealing with you.

You know there’s a panorama documentary on estate agents? It basically covers all your questions and concerns and gives concrete examples of the tactics estate agents use. It’s only a brief documentary so I’d recommend watching it and seeing if any of that applies to you, to help you decide your next steps. Spoiler - yes, agents have a bunch of methods to not act in your best interests. It’s probably that the buyer is using the agents preferred broker or something that makes them more desirable (aka comes with more commission)

In general terms, I am no fan of estate agents.

I don’t see that they’ve behaved poorly in the examples you’ve given though.

It seems to me you are lacking in confidence. If I was on a call and someone wanted an immediate response, I’d let them know that I would take the afternoon to think/discuss my options. Are you quite vulnerable? Do you have anyone else who can support you in the sale process?

What is the two week cooling off period you’ve mentioned? I think if you are instructing a contract in person for services, and they are providing that service, there isn’t a standard cooling off period.

Your behaviour throughout seems a little bizarre. You marketed your house at what you thought was a fair price of three valuations. You got a very close offer. You say you felt pressured to accept it by the estate agent, but that was entirely on you. You only had to use your words and tell them you needed time to think about it. Of course they will pushy. That's their job. There was absolutely no reason why you should have rolled over and accepted that pushiness.

But you did, and you told the buyers you would definitely sell to them for an agreed price. Then you had a change of heart and decided to try to get some more money by putting the house on the market again. Most buyers wouldn't put up with that sort of behaviour. Yours seem to have decided it was worth upping their offer as long as you agreed to behave more honourably and take the house off the market properly this time.

Now you are wondering yet again whether you have been hard done by and can get some more money for your property. Maybe you can. But the only person to blame for this complete shambles is you. If you do come off the market and go on with someone else, make sure you communicate far more clearly and that when you do finally decide to accept an offer, you stick to the agreement.