we love the house we're buying, but the state agents are so annoying

[drxerox]

We had an offer verbally accepted on a house that we love 7 days ago, but still haven't had written confirmation. We do ring a lot, because we want to get a survey organised, have a second viewing, see the EPC certificate, and, of course, have written confirmation. Only one of the agents in the office is dealing with this, and he's out alot, so it's all very frustrating, especially as we're moving out of our own house next week.
Today, one of the other agents told us that it didn't help that we were ringing so often. If we didn't really feel love the house we'd feel like walking away. Would this piss you off, and would you mention it to the other (senior) agent, or wait until the sale had gone through? Or is he right?

sorry - ESTATE agent

They sound rubbish. It is not normal for a good estate agent to take so long getting confirmation letters out to you. You really need to get some answers from them.

Blimey, I bet the vendors would be furious if they knew. They no doubt will be paying £££ for this non service. Has this EA not got a mobile for goodness sake?

I agree with Springy. I would let the vendors know.

Something going on in the background, woudn't be surprised if the vendors are in on it as well.

Yep - contact the vendors and tell them what is going on.

I think you should name and shame. We're selling at the moment and think our agents are rubbish we accepted an offer recently and when we asked them why things were progressing so slowly they told us our buyers had gone awol it was only when we threatened to start again from scratch with another agent that things started moving again!

Did you send a written offer, have they written back confirming they have passed offer on?

Personally, I always used to write to both agent and vendor to make sure the vendor knew about our offer.

TBH, I don't think the vendor will accept your offer and is hanging on for a better one. I think the agents is therefore trying to get a better offer our of another potential buyer and stringing you along just in case.

We had this situation on our house and we wrote a letter saying accept in 7 days or we walk away and we meant it. The vendor accepted our offer with literally 1 hour to go before the agent office closed on Friday.

I might add as a vendor I'd want to know what the agents were saying but not sure how they'd contact us directly.

That is appalling and how rude to say about you phoning so often. If they did their job properly in the first place you wouldn't need to keep phoning! There is no excuse not to get something out in writing; nowadays people use fax/email. I would try and speak to the sellers direct.

tell the vendors.

BTW full EPCs are available free online.

special subject thanks so much for the info, I had no idea that you could view them online.

Does the agent have a twitter account?

Agree that it sounds like the Agent, probably with full knowledge of the vendors, is buying time in the hope of another higher offer. You need to give them an ultimatum and tell them your offer is still on the table for another 48 hours by which time you expect to receive confirmation in writing, otherwise you are walking away.

They possibly already have a better offer and are checking it out. Seems reasonable to me.

It's a seller's market.
The agent works for the vendor and his brief is to get the house sold for the best price within an agreed timeframe to a buyer who will complete.

We had an offer verbally accepted a week ago too, and still haven't had written confirmation. Just assumed it was normal, although neither of us are in a rush.

Keep posting OP and let us all know how this works out.

I'm just about to enter this lions den (photos ECP etc being done this week) and with no DP feeling slightly vunerable to potential underhand practices. Reading other experiences really helps!

It does sound like they are hedging their bets and using your offer. I would give them a time limit.

I would go in to their office and speak to them - they won't be able to fob you off then. If an offer is accepted, they should be confirming in writing, unless they are trying to get a higher offer elsewhere. That is something you need to address with them as not very professional if they are.

The way to stop them using you as a backstop is put a time limit on. That puts pressure on the seller to either accept or reject.