Still marketing a house once offer accepted?

[headless]

Our agent tells us that it is a legal requirement to get the best price for the vendor throughout the house buying/selling process, and that is why they will continue to market, even though offers have been accepted by ourselves and on the house we're after. I had presumed that would mean the houses would no longer be marketed, ie no further viewings, but maybe still taking names or any interested parties. Am I in cloud cuckoo land, and, if so, is there a point in the sale in which they should no longer market?

You should put in your offer on the condition that the house is withdrawn from the market. If they continue to advertise then withdraw immediately. It is an invitation to gazump.

It's only a legal requirement if it is a repossession sale but there may be something in the contract with their vendor although that would be unusual imho.

This happened to us. After we'd spent £2000 on searches etc we were gazumped.

The next house we made sure they withdrew the house from the market if they agreed to our offer. We learnt a valuable, expensive lesson that day.

That's interesting LIZS, it seems a standard letter that they send out (we received one with regard to our sale) saying that the vendor has asked that the property continues to be marketed until the survey is completed. We never said any such thing, and frankly would be delighted to have no more viewings, as we (rightly or wrongly) judge our buyers to be in a good position and having made a decent offer. Now that we have put our offer in, we are scrabbling around trying like mad to get a survey completed asap to gain exclusivity. In retrospect, scurryfunge, you're absolutley right, and I would never do it like this again...its not worth the STRESS!!!

Some estate agents do this as standard but I've always kicked up a fuss if it happened to me.

Sometimes as an interim measure, a vendor will continue to market until the buyer has instructed a survey (ie put down a substantial amount of cash.)

But there's nothing to stop you from going back and demanding/requesting that it be taken off the market now. We dealt with an estate agent who were quite insistent that they continue to market the property, but we demanded that they request the vendor cease to market it, and the vendor did. I suspect they were quite happy to take it off the market. The estate agent can't refuse to pass on a message.

Thanks theyoungvisitor, I think I'm going to go in to the offices first thing on Monday and clear up this situation, we simply can't afford to lose £2000 or more, and its not like we made a cheeky offer. I will get them to ring the vendor whilst I'm there and hopefully get some joy. Fingers crossed!

How about a half-way?

When we sold our house, we had 3 offers in one day so it was clearly popular. The house continued to be marketted until the buyer had paid for their survey but we did not allow viewings - the EA simply noted other people's interests. That way, the buyer knew that once they'd started spending money that it wouldn't be marketted and we knew that if the buyer pulled out, other interested parties could be contacted ASAP.

Yes, that sounds reasonable, will put this to them on mon. Will be instructing survey on mon am too so hopefully I might get some peace of mind. Many thanks for all responses.

TYV - the estate agent we tried to buy a house through didn't pass on our messages (at least, not fast enough). Actually, they were crap through and through.

I'd always get an estate agent to take a house off the market as a condition of an offer that was accepted.

Of course, this won't help you if your vendors then do a private deal with someone who door-stepped them, behind the back of the estate agent and after they accepted your offer, as they did with us, last week.

This happened with us - relocation agency policy. they agreed to take house off of open market on day of exchange unfortunately due to muppets at bottom of chain, exchange didnt' happen till day before completion (ie. move day!!) we were very lucky, we are now living in said house and very happy but STRESSFUL!!!

As I understand it it is up to the vendor if they wish to continue marketing the property not the EA. If I were you I would tell the EA that you want the house taken off the market once you have confirmed arrangements for the survey, as this represents a commitment (and financial outlay)on your part. If the vendor refuses this, then I would go no further as they are prime suspects for behaving badly.

Are you buying and selling through the same agent?

My flat wasn't taken off the market until after the survey had been completed and tbh I wanted it that way although I hadn't actually discussed it with the EA. Although I wasn't going to show it to anyone, up until that had been done, the deal we have could have fallen through (if my buyer had wanted to drop his price on the strength of the survey I would have put the flat back on the market).

Yes, buying and selling through the same agent, so I would have thought it in their interests to keep our small chain together. I am still going to ask them to contact the vendor while I'm there and will explain that we will not proceed until we have exclusivity. I just wish we'd done it at the time of offer and avoided this extra stress!

Definitely ask them to take it off the market if you have proof that you are in a position to commit eg a mortgage offer - from the vendor's point of view they may have had a bad experience like my friend. They had an offer, the agent assured them that they were moving out of rented and had the money. They took house off the market, turned out that the people weren't cash buyers, they needed a mortgage and he was only in the UK on a work permit so couldn't get a mortgage. This was 4 weeks down the line, prices moved down in this area in the meantime as a load of new properties came on the market, "cost" them about £10k as they had to take a lower offer. So I can see why they are still marketing.

I can see it from the their point of view too, as we are in exactly the same position as vendors ourselves. I didn't get any joy from the EA, they refused to take it off the market and said they wouldn't do until were in a committed position. So we have instructed solicitors and are awaiting survey. We're really not happy about this, but it is our absolute dream house in a very small search area, so don't feel that we want to withdraw our offer.

I feel that on the one hand it does make sense to protect the vendor, but on the other, it is actively seeking 'gazumpers' (they rang all interested parties to inform them an offer had been made and to contact the office if more info was required).

Our solicitor said we were being entirely reasonable wanting it off the market, and so once the survey is returned I will be getting them involved to conclude the matter. Its definitely spoiling my excitement at having an offer accepted!

Thanks again for all comments.