Moral Dilemma.

[msmorgan]

We viewed a house at the weekend which I love, Dp likes it (very rare!) and it is perfect location wise. We have viewed 4 other houses in the same street over the last few years so we have a good idea of what it is worth.

The lady selling is lovely, she has given me her mobile number so I can call her direct to arrange any more viewings and she told me she would love to sell the house to us. Another family put an offer straight in on Monday and there are quite a few other viewings already booked in.

I am annoyed at Dp, instead of putting an offer straight in on Monday, as promised, he has instead wasted time getting building quotes (we would want to extend) and yesterday spoke to the owner of the estate agency to find out how much the other offer is.

The estate agent has told him how much the other offer is and that he will call him back on Monday to tell him how much to offer, after the other viewings and any other potential offers. If feel this is morally wrong and I want us to put what I think is a good offer straight in. We have lost out on a couple of other houses due to dp messing about.

What would others do?

I thought it might be breaking the law. He's a friend of Dp's dad so so I don't think he'd mess him about. I'm not happy about though and would rather just put our offer in now and see what happens.

I am certain it isn't illegal for the Estate Agent to tell purchasers what other offers are on the table (apart from on repossessed properties), but I wouldn't say it's ethical.

I don't really see that it's either illegal or immoral to be honest! With all houses we've bought we've been told what the current bids on the house are. Otherwise you're in a blind bidding situation, which is certainly one way to do things but not the normal way the housing market operates in the UK. If the estate agent is proposing to offer particular information about bids to no-one but your DP, that's a different matter, but him telling him what the current offer on the house is totally standard.

If you match or exceed the highest current offer, the usual practice surely would be for the estate agent to keep everybody informed, and it's then up to the other bidders to counter-offer, until no-one is prepared to go any higher. If the seller has a particular preference for one of the bidders (whether it's because they are chain-free buyers or whatever) it's of course up to them if they want to accept an offer other than the highest offer.

So I'm not sure why the waiting until Monday, or not, is particularly relevant - ultimately the house will go to the highest bidder at the point at which the seller decides to end the process. If she accepts one of the offers this week, then that's obviously problematic. I just don't see why Monday is a magic day in any sense.

Am I missing something here?!

I think that much depends on the housing market where you are hoping to buy OP. If the market is slow you can afford to take your time. If not you need to get your offer in pronto.

I bought a house last Saturday. I knew that it was coming on the market for 2 weeks. The first viewers saw it at 9 am, we viewed it at 10 am. By the time I offered the asking price at 10.45 the first couple had already made an offer.

All depends on the market conditions.

I suppose the immoral bit comes in because the Estate Agent is engineering the situation so his friend, the OP, gets the house impec... and if I offered on a house i would expect the offer be between me, the vendor and the estate agent. I wouldn't necessarily want every other person knowing my business.

However essentially I think you're right. As long as the Estate Agent gets the best possible price for his vendor, even if he does try to get it sold to his mate, he has done his job.

Bowlersarm I see that that's the immoral bit. But I don't see what in what the EA is doing that is actually going to favour the OP's DP. Presumably the immoral bit will be not telling the other vendors what his offer is, or suggesting to the vendor that there are is no more interest. But as the OP presents the situation, it's not clear.

The bit I don't get is the offering on a house and expecting the offer to be between you, the vendor and the EA. Certainly round here (SE) that is just not how it works. Once you put an offer in, it's entirely expected that everyone else interested in offering will be told what your current offer is, so that they can match or beat it if they so wish. Is it really different elsewhere in the country?

gah, sorry for appalling proofreading!

It's entirely up to estate agent how they play it, Our estate agent told all interested parties that offers were about to be made when they weren't necessarily so. The estate agent might be telling your husband he's trying to get him the house but in practice he might not do it as the other interested party may offer more and there is no way he could hide that from the buyer.

Above all don't trust Estate Agents. Their hierarchy of interests are 1. Themselves 2. Vendors 3. Buyers.

I know that I have missed out on hearing about properties because I didn't need a mortgage. They stood to gain more from pressing the interests of buyers who were getting a mortgage from them than from me who was a cash buyer.

I would never believe an EA. He might say he is giving you inside info and tell you what other offers ave been put in, but could all be a pack of lies.

We have never messed around when it comes to offers. If you like the house then out in a realistic offer (asking price if its worth it) and get that house now!

Too many people watch all these property programmes and think that they can get a deal. You can do this if you are not so bothered, but if it really is perfect I would just get on with it.

However, i would discourage you from putting in an offer just before the weekend. It might make the weekend viewers more keen to get it off the market if they know there is an offer on the table.

I don't really understand the waiting until Monday thing. Other than there are more viewings booked for this week and the weekend and the EA expects some more offers to come in. But even after Monday, if the house is still being marketed there will be more viewings.

I cannot understand why my partner can't see that the best thing to do is put a fairly high offer in, but not as high as we could go, and see what happens. It's infuriating.

Re the estate agent, usually the ones I've dealt with previously have told us straight out if outer offer is too low but have never to,d us what the other offers are. I don't trust any of them. I want to put our offer in and text the vendor to let her know it's in and for how much as I now don't trust the EA or my partner to do as I ask!

We closed the deal on our house on a Friday , I say go for it and go in with your offer , don't play games or it will get snatched out from under your nose.

Gosh well that's a new one on me - I think if an estate agent around our way tried to tell a buyer there was another offer but not for how much, they'd get very bewildered looks! Maybe it depends on the local market - round here it's extremely buoyant, and things essentially never go for under asking price unless it goes to 'best and final offers', which is a very particular process when there is such huge interest that they have to put a 'stop' date to the buying process, if that makes sense. Otherwise, if you're aiming to make your buyers compete with each other to get the highest price, it makes no sense at all to not tell them the state of the bidding.

Anyway I wouldn't worry about the morality of it, but regardless, as you say there is no magic about Monday, and if you really like the house I'd say absolutely just put an offer straight in at a price that reflects how much you want it, and forget DP and EA's rather mystifying little games!

Well we've put an offer in, over asking but lower than what I wanted to offer.

We're in the north east and things are generally quite slow, but the area we are looking in things do tend to sell quite quickly if they are priced low, which this house is.

Now we just have to agree on our max offer and hope it doesn't go to sealed bids.