Is this unethical?...

[Jaimelechocolat]

Today I received an email from an estate agent that said...

"We have accepted 650k on this house but its early days.
Call now to arrange a viewing and then they gave the property details.

I feel sorry for the poor sods who made the offer as the agents are actively encouraging gazumping. Seems dodgy to me - is this legal?

It is legal and it's probably the vendor who wishes the estate agent to continue to market the property. The 650k offer is probably lower than they wanted. Usually if someone offers asking price, a condition of this is that the purchaser requests that the property is removed from the market. There's not much difference in commission for an agent if the property were sold at say 680k than 650k.

Thanks Doris for your reply. It also turns out it was a reposession with the agents working on behalf of the mortgagee. Live and learn!