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Original poster

What's your verdict ? Are we being 'had' by our Estate Agent ? ......(long)

98 replies

NomDePlume · 10/01/2006 11:34

.... I'm beginning to wonder.

As some of you know, DH and I are selling our house to move further up the ladder. Our house was put on the market at the very end of the house-selling 'season', at the end of September '05. The market was dead in our area so we knew it might take a while to sell. We had a number of viewers who all came back with various reasons it wasn't for them. Fair enough.

We had a viewing in early November, the couple (I'll call them X) came back for 2 further viewings which resulted in a low offer. X are currently living in rented, as they sold their property months ago. We rejected the offer outright and they came back later that day upping it a little (but not enough), we rejected that too. All went quiet.

We heard nothing from our Agent, they appeared to be doing jack-all about finding us a buyer. In a quiet market I would expect the agent to be coming to me with suggestions of incentives to get people through the door - Open Days, Lower asking price, Stamp Duty paid etc etc. Nothing of that nature was forthcoming.

As soon as our 12 week contract ended we issued 28 days written notice of termination of contract, as we were deeply unhappy with the agent and had decided to re-market the house in the spring. The agent acknowldged the notice letter and all went quiet again...

Fast forward to last Thursday (2 working days before expiration of contract) and we get a call out of the blue, saying that X have upped their offer again but are away on holiday. We told the agent that the offer was good but we couldn't accept until we were happy that we could find something appropriate for us to buy. Cue mental searches for property and last minute viewings a-go-go. We found 2 houses we would like to buy and negotiated a price. So called our agent to accept the offer, this morning. The agent seems to now be back pedalling a little and saying don't hold your breath for them still be prepared to buy, despite the fact that we told them we needed a few days to find somewhere.

DH thinks that the agent has made an 11th hour attempt to save his ass (and to recoup his 16+ weeks of costs) and has fabricated this offer from X, with a view to it being accepted and then calling the X's and telling them we'll go to £BLAHk in the hope that they'll say yes. I'm not sure, it strikes me as a very unprofessional and risky strategy, if they have... But things do sound suspicious to me.

If you're still awake (well done), what do you think ?

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PrincessPeaHead · 10/01/2006 18:35

i'll keep my fingers crossed for you then ndp, but I reckon it sounds pretty hopeful...!

Original poster
NomDePlume · 10/01/2006 18:36

cheers ! Hopefully I should be put out my misery either way tomorrow...

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PrincessPeaHead · 11/01/2006 16:51

any news??

Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:02

PPH - really not looking good...

Still in limbo. We had a call from our dream house last night to accept our offer, but we still don't know what is happening with our buyer (X), who appears to have dropped off the face of the earth

DH phoned our agent this morning to make it clear that our offer had now been accepted and that we NEED to know the position of X, do they still want to purchase ours ? Anyway, the woman from Estate Agent told DH that they were still having no joy from the numbers X had given, either no answer or they were just getting fobbed off by X's colleagues. So one of the EA staff went through the file they have on X and found a different contact number from when they'd offered on another property. The staff member phoned the number, it was answered, but they hung up as soon as the girl said 'this is y from Estate Agent', she tried again and they'd switched the phone off !!!! I don't understand this, truly I don't. They either want the house or they don't, they can change their mind at this stage, they would be perfectly withing their rights to do so. I wish they'd answer the phone and tell EA that they don't want the house to clarify either way, all this ignoring calls and hanging up on people is unnecessary, childish and leaves us (and those up the chain) dangling. I'm so bloody cross with X, I can't tell you. EA are going to pull out all the stops today to try to make contact with X (not holding my breath), and then we're going to have to inform the vendors of our dream house of our new, sh**ty position. I want to wring their f'ing scrawny necks (X and MrX).

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Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:04

'within'. I'm so angry I can't type properly.

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SoupDragon · 12/01/2006 10:05

What a bunch of ar$es!! I sincerely hope they get messed about by buyers when they're selling (which I assume they are supposedy doing now).

Is the EA person telling you this different from the stupid ar$e who was useless?

Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:07

Soupy, X told us and the Estate Agent that they had sold their property and were living in rented.

FWIW, our agent have no blacklisted X and will not deal with them again in the future.

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Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:07

now

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SoupDragon · 12/01/2006 10:07

Personally, I would not procede with a sale to the Xs at all now. They are clearly just going ot mess you about every step of the way.

Put it with a new agent now in the hope that the keen initial fluury of activity and interest you get with a new agent gets you a buyer quickly. Keep the vendors of your "dream house" informed - they may be willing to wait for a while.

Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:08

Yes, stupid arse is on holiday for a fortnight.

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Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:09

I think that's what we need to do, providing that the vendors of DreamH are prepared to give us 4 weeks or so to sell. The prob we have is that DreamH's vendor has already 'sold twice' and have it fall through, they may not be prepared to take the risk again

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Flossam · 12/01/2006 10:11

Oh NdP, poor you. My first reaction was, no they don't want it. But why would they avoid the calls? I reckon they are still 'discussing it' one is more keen than the other. Surely there must be an answerphone service the EA can leave a message on? Do you really want to deal with these people who seem so unreliable?

Flossam · 12/01/2006 10:13

OK, thread has moved on....

SoupDragon · 12/01/2006 10:13

You'll have to make your house irresistable then. Which will involve putting all children into suspended animation or locking them in the shed.

Seriously though, the DH sellers might be happy to keep your offer "accepted" but not take their house off the market IYSWIM. If you get yours sold, all well and good, if not then they still have your offer if nothing else comes along for them in the meantime.

SoupDragon · 12/01/2006 10:14

Obviously in my post "the DH sellers" are those selling your Dream House, not the ones selling your husband.

Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:17

Soupy, DreamH wasn;t on the market, that's our problem. DH and I had viewed it when it was on the market and loved it, but by the time we were in a position to make an offer the house had been taken off. DH and I chanced our arm and wrote a letter detailing our position and that we would like to make an offer on their property, which turned into genuine negotiations. So the vendors of DreamH then did exactly what we did and frantically viewed places to buy in order to accommodate our offer. I really don't want to have to go back and explain it to DreamH's vendor, I feel like shite, a totally fraudulent timewaster.

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Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:18

lol soupy

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Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:19

FWIW, all buyers have said that the house is immaculately presented and very spacious inside with a good sized garden, but they are nearly all turned off by the busy road we have at the rear (despite the fact that it is behind a secure 7 foot fence).

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Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:19

sorry, all viewers.

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tatt · 12/01/2006 10:23

wouldn't trust any estate agent personally (long story but have some bad experience). Suspect they made up the offer to keep the agency - after all unless they gave the x's address or solicitor how can you check? Then you put them on the spot over the letter (legal requirement now, I think).

Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 10:25

I just don't know. Either way, it looks like we have to find another buyer, and fast

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Frieda · 12/01/2006 11:01

What a pain, ndp - I'm sorry to hear they're messing you about. It all sounds v strange. Could you put some pressure on the agent to get his finger out by suggesting going multi-agent or even switching altogether? The market is just starting to pick up now after Christmas, so re-marketing your house with a new agent might be a good idea. Also, if Dream House wasn't even on the market when they accepted your offer, realistically it's going to take them a while to find another buyer. Lots of house chains have glitches along the way, but that doesn't always mean everything falls through. (By the way, what did the agent say about X'x position? Had they sold or were they cash buyers? Just out of interest...)

Fingers crossed for you.

Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 11:04

Frieda, they had sold and had the money sitting in the bank waiting, as far as the EA were concerned.

Our contract with the EA has now officially expired and we are only still involved with them because of this offer (which was made 2 days before the contract expired). Our house is no longer on the market. If this sale falls through as expected, then we will have to remarket again if we want to save our chain.

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SoupDragon · 12/01/2006 11:09

Register with a new agent immediately and tell them you want them to go all out marketing your property. Tell them how cr*p the old agents were and how you'd like them to prove not all agents are the same

Original poster
NomDePlume · 12/01/2006 11:09

we may have to do that

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