Why doesnt the seller want to openly market his flat??

[BeenieBaby]

I can't understand his thinking- he has gotten the estate agents to ring up potential buyers and get them to view BUT does my want the flat openly marketed. Alarm bells are ringing but I can't figure out why he would want this to happen? It's a tenanted property if that helps anyone figure this out...

Does not

Maybe he's testing the water before signing a contract with the estate agent?

doesn't want the tenants to know?

doesn't want tenants to know at this point. Doesn't want people who know him know he is selling (for what ever reason that might be).

ex-wife ?

Hopes the tax authorities won't notice?

Is. Selling an inhherited home and doesn't want people to know, if they are, or feel, entitled to a share?

Could we get into trouble buying a property if it is an issue like tax evasion (from seller) or seller not passing on the money to ?ex wife or ? Other inheritees I these are indeed his reasons?

We passed up on a house where the owner had tenants in and he wasn't going to tell them it was up for sale until he had an offer. If we had gone to look at the house we would have had to go in 'undercover' according to the agent. God only knows how that worked but we passed on it.

No, liability for tax is with seller.

but I'd guess it's a matter of not wanting the tenants to know that he's selling - doesn't want them to leave and be left with no rental income.

You're all looking for sensible reasons. Within 3 miles of me there are ~15 houses for sale which aren't on rightmove, aren't on the estate agent's website and aren't in the estate agent's window. Some of them have a board outside the house, some don't.

The reason for all of them apparently is 'privacy' or avoiding timewasters. So the ones with no board or anything only want the EA to mention the house to potential buyers they believe are serious. The ones with a board but not rightmove etc don't want randoms driving round and peering in the windows.

Doesn't make the slightest bit of sense to me - you want to sell your house, you do everything to sell your house. But according to a few local EAs those are the reasons given.

we did ours on that basis. Didn't want a load of nosey neighbours going through all the photos / a load of timewasters going round. Weren't in a hurry to go, knew we'd only get serious people. There's also a slightly ludicrous snob element for buyers - they get told by the agent that it's not on the open market and it makes them a bit more over excited - like it's exclusive. Worked a treat.

(oh and without doing the brochure etc, the agent did a much better deal on the commission for us!)

An estate agent suggested this to us. Reason being the asking price was high and he wanted to test the water first. If it had been on right move etc from the off, then if it turned out the price was too high it would then be hanging around for longer on there, would have been reduced on there etc and doesn't give a good impression. Get a load of people who are already on their books in, and then if the asking price was too high we would have got that feedback and could then have launched the property on right move with a new asking price.

Made sense to us although we went with another agent in the end, same asking price which was achieved and in open market from the get go. But if they aren't sure about price etc I think it's quite common to do this.

Yes but this flat is also being marketed (off the open market) at a lot lower than market value? Which is also very bizarre. It sounds a bit too good to be true!

One of our neighbours is selling up - we only know because they asked our builders about when the scaffolding was coming down so they could take exterior photos. Apparently it's with the estate agents already, but they only want 'vetted' viewings. Whatever.