To think this is very bad of the estate agents

[LancashireButterPie]

DH and I are looking to downsize.
We have seen the perfect cottage, not far from our DDs family (handy for childcare as it's currently taking us 40 mins each way).
We rang up to view it and the estate agent refused to let us as she said "An offer has been made and I'm sure it will be accepted".
DH and I wouldn't be making an offer, we would happily pay full asking price. Also we are lucky to have enough in savings to purchase, without selling our own home first although we obviously would at some point.
I feel for the vendors as much as ourselves, would it be unreasonable to push a note through their letterbox informing them what's going on?
It's been two weeks since the estate agent last rebuffed us and the house is still on the market.

Thank you.

@LancashireButterPie market has changed though. Years ago you could view before your own place was on the market (used to get loads of people basically time wasting who had no intention of buying). The last two sales, my experience has been that you don’t even get to view unless your own property is on the market.

I was selling a flat on the SE coast, and someone who lived in Scotland wanted to make an offer. The EA told them that they couldn’t make an offer until they’d seen the flat - this was without consulting me.

It turned out okay - the person flew down, and offered. But why the EA insisted on the visit is anyone’s guess.

Once the sale went through the EA asked me if I’d give them a five star review, and looked shocked when I said definitely not. Strangely, the link for the review never came.

This. “Offer” can be anything - it can very well be over asking price.

Firstly the term an offer is used for any offer whether above asking, on asking or below asking.

i am buying at the moment and the flat stayed on the market until we’d got solicitors sorted and the memorandum of sale issued. Probably was a couple of weeks.

But why would you have evidence? You are not a party to any of the transactions

Yes initially but we can claim it back when our property is sold. This is our forever retirement home.

Pop a note through the door. What have you got to lose?

It could be the vendor already has an array of offers to choose from and they’re 100% not interested in booking any more viewings. You say yourself it’s a bargain and a beautiful cottage so it doesn’t sound like they’d struggle to get offers on it. Keep looking, this house has very likely sold.

It's probably had offers before it was listed on the internet. Estate agents have viewers waiting, so it's probably already had an offer.
And yes, they'll give first dibs to people they know.

We had ours for sale recently and we had viewers before it was put on Rightmove.

We don't have to sell our property.

We have savings so are effectively cash buyers.

I would knock on the door and speak to them. If you said ‘We love your house, we are in a position to offer the full asking price and we don’t need to sell our own home in order to buy yours. Your Estate Agent is ignoring me and refused to let me book a viewing. Can we look around or is that out of the question because you have an offer on the table? Sorry to be so direct but we adore this house’.

You need to sell yourself.

If I was them, I’d be dragging you in and put the kettle on.

This is one of those situations where a good, frank chat is needed and to cut out the middle man. Worse case scenario is they say ‘We’ve accepted an offer sorry’.

There’s a six month/year grace period.

I think we will do this.

Stick a note through the door offering full asking price and telling them that the agent has refused to allow a viewing.

No. It would have been bad form of the EA to take you round while active negotiations were going on. That's very rude.
If I'd been the family that had just offered and were in negotiations, I'd have been cross to know that people were still being shown around.

100% note through the door. Our agents did this to us. Our buyer was messing around something terrible. I only found out by someone putting a note though our door that the agent was declining viewings!! Decided that the buyer would get there eventually so no point. I was livid. Don’t trust them an inch.

When we marketed our house the agent said that under guidance of their trade association they had to forward All offers to the vendor.

If you really want this property put a letter through the vendors door telling them that their agent wont accept your offer. Name your price and give them contact details. I does sound like the agent has ceased trading.

I thought you only took it off the market once an offer had been accepted.

I have just been on the other side of this situation.

I put my cottage on the market a month ago. It's a very pretty cottage in a lovely garden moments from the high street but in a very quiet country feeling spot. I've completely renovated it and someone can just move in and start living.

The estate agent came along with a viewer at 9am on the day the house was marketed. The viewer offered the asking price and was in short chain (two properties, with a cash buyer at the bottom of the chain.) The agent kept harping on about how slow the market was and how lucky I was to get an asking price offer so early on.
Given that and what I know to be the case about the market I accepted the offer verbally and then when the letter of confirmation came through the agent put in writing that the buyer was a relation of one of their staff. This obviously made me very concerned.

Then the next day two letters came through my door from potential buyers, both saying they'd been refused a viewing, that they were cash buyers who would pay over the asking price for the house. Both were saying it was their dream house, they'd be flexible.

I called in at the agent and spoke to the young woman on the front desk who told me they'd been 'innundated' with people interested in my property.

When I told the actual agent that he was pretty shaken, he said the two letters were from people unable to proceed - that's why he'd not put them forward. I rang those people. They were able to proceed.

I felt absolutely had over by the agent and have withdrawn my house from the market. I will try again in the spring but am going to be VERY CAREFUL who I deal with.

It was half term last week (and the week before in parts of the UK that have a two week autumn half term). The vendor might have been away. I don’t think there’s any harm in putting a note through the door if you’re not getting a response from the agent though.

The estate agent does not work for you. They work solely for the vendor. Never forget that.

Until an offer has been accepted, the vendor has every right to allow other viewings. You may have been offered well below the asking price and the prospective buyers still have their own property to sell, whereas a different viewer may want to offer full asking price and (as in this case) be able to pay cash with no chain.

What happens if an offer is made then it takes the purchaser months or even years to sell their own property? Or if after potentially weeks of negotiations no agreement is reached? Even after an offer has been made and accepted, the buyer has to specifically say their offer is dependant on the property being taken off the market to ensure no further viewings.