Estate Agent etiquette? Does it exist?

[thegirlwiththemouseyhair]

Have accepted offer on flat (hurrah!) and have seen totally gorgeous, unique v special house.
Was on market at more than we can afford but thought they may come down.
Soon as I said I wanted to put in an offer nice EA who had shown us round said she was passing me on to the negotiator (boss) to deal with him.

Now I know what we all think about EAs but this guy is something else. Talk talk talks overblown bullshit for ages.... Now I have bought and sold a few homes in my life so I do know how things work. But he told me that he has more buyers than homes on his books (so how come this one hasn't sold?) blah
blah bigging himself up.

Thing is just before we made the offer the vendors, who had house with only one agent, agent we are dealing with, instructed another one.

How bad would it be (dp is very keen to do this...) to go to the other agent and put a higher offer on with them?

The house has been on market for 3-4 months and they've only had one very low offer.
We went in low knowing we would have to go up but EA is (obviously) pushing us to go much higher.

I think that your previous contact with the first company would mean that they would be able to sue for the sale fee even if you did make the offer through the other EA.

Sue who? Me?
EAs work for and have contracts with vendors not buyers.

Not necessarily - if the house is one with another agent and they independently send you the details, you could be OK. And it's the vendors who'd get sued, if anyone, not the buyers.

And btw , I did this. Shown house by utter wanker. he put me off it. Still on market (actually was sold/under offer but it fell through) and details sent me by a different agent, through whom I bought it. I told second agent I'd seen it before and they just said 'say nothing' because they didn't want to lose their commission.

I'm going back a good ten years, so the law may have changed in that time.

And, thinking about it, as a vendor, if a potential buyer said to me 'your estate agent has put me off your house, but I'll deal with the new ones' I'd keep schtumm and feign ignorance. That's if I were to be told this by the buyers, of course.

I take it your 1st offer was turned down?

No, I didnt mean that they would sue you.

Yes it was but they took three days to do so, (I however turned down my buyers first offer straight away) so I'm, naturally thinking that we don't need to go that much higher...?

You can do what you like. You have no contract with them over the purchase.

However if the EA thinks that they introduced you to the property and not the other agent, the EA is likely to pursue your vendor for the 1% or 2% whatever it is.

I would say nothing if I were you.

make an appointment to view through the new agent.

Thanks BBM wish I didn't feel like a bad person....
And I know - no room for sentiment in house buying.

Dont feel bad. At the end of they day you haven't really done anything wrong.

Well I guess morally you have but ultimately you haven't.

You have broken any laws!

I think the way houses are sold has changed slightly with the internet. I know I always look on Rightmove and then contact the estate agents I prefer if it's on with a couple of them. We offered on a house earlier this year but I got the feeling the EAs were trying it on with us, so went to look at it again with other EAs, but didn't let on that we'd already seen it.

I don't think you have anything to loose except the vendor thinking there are two people interested in buying, when in fact there's only you.

If vendor would automatically decline a buyer's first offer, they would decline your offer with new agent surely because they'd think it was a first offer.

RESULT!
Got phone call today from EA to tell me he was out of the office till Monday and was passing stuff to his partner.
Spoke to partner to put in second offer.
That's better - much more like a real person

Oh good, let us know how it goes.

YES!
All allowed we're looking to a xmas move

hooray! It's a lovely feeling isn't it!?!

Whoa, I was just reading this and realised who the OP was. GWTMH - WHERE ARE YOU MOVING TO?? moving this off line...

oh wait, i think I'm confusing you with someone else. neeeeeevermind

Estate agent etiquette?
I requested an appointment to view a house and the agent "needs" to see proof of funds before booking a slot. The agent said it was new company policy.
Does anyone know if this is common practice? I am outraged! Furthermore, is the agent acting in the vendor's very best interests ( I was not informed that this was at the vendor's request)?
What about putting a note through the door and bypassing the agent?

You'd be better off starting your own thread as this one is 11 years old but yes, that is normal depending on the area. A lot of people treat viewing houses as a day out and it's a waste of time for everyone involved and a now a covid risk on top, if you're a serious buyer with funds in place then it shouldn't be a problem. (But it does feel like a personal question admittedly)