pressure to use EA inhouse broker/solicitor/ mortgage

[ElleyBear13]

Evening all,

I was wondering if any housing experts (or anyone who can understand this better) would help?

Husband and I have had our offer on a house accepted, the house is on the market for 101,000 we have managed to have our offer of 98 accepted. We are first time buyers, with a provisional mortgage acceptance letter from our bank.

The estate agents then told me over the phone there is a £1,000 cash back incentive on the property, which initially sounded too good to be true but I accepted the offer to come into store to discuss the offer with them.

The £1,000 cash back incentive will allow us to secure the house for 97,000 but we must use their in-house brokers, solicitor and mortgage offers. Alongside this they will not take the house off the market UNLESS we accept the inhouse incentive (in which they'll take it off the market as soon as we sign for the mortgage process) or until the mortgage has been finalised with our own bank. They will not accept the provisional mortgage acceptance letter to take the house off the market.

Understandable however we feel very (very) worried of starting the process and another buyer offering more on the property.

If we went with our own solicitors and bank these are the charges:
£623.70 for solicitors conveyance and search fees
£250 for valuation
No fees for mortgage.

If we go with the in house EA:
£499 for lifetime membership (we can use them in the future to sell the house or get a better deal on mortgage)
£350 for search fees
£890 for solicitor fees.
£300 for valuation and fee arrangement.

The mortgage is 4.2% with our bank or the deal they were offering is 4.9% same fixed year and payback term.

Apparently its quicker to go with the in-house deal, and they'll take the house off the market as soon as we give the go ahead. This is the only reason we're tempted to go with them however we're unsure were we stand can we ask them to take it off/not accept viewings as soon as we start the process? We're worried about losing money if we start the process, the house is also perfect and we love it. Also can we ask the owners (we have their telephone number) whether they'd consider taking it off the market?

The EA are also being pushy on us going for their deal.

We have no idea whats 'normal' in house buying!

Many thanks x

Yes, just stick to your position: your offer is subject to them taking it off the market , and you use your own professionals. Take it or leave it.

Why on earth would anyone ever invest survey and other fees in a house that was still being marketed to other buyers?

Am reading this thread like .

Completely agree with all the advice you've been given. The vendor sounds greedy and silly. Good plan to pull out. Can't believe the EA is being so underhand and dishonest.

eAs must belong to the either the property ombudsman or ombudsman services and you can. I plain to whichever of these your EA belongs to, as EAs are regulated by the Office of Fair Trading

Good luck with finding another house!

Complain, not I plain!

Pull out and find another house that isn't being sold by people who are out to screw you over. Don't deal with that EA any more. You can't proceed with this sale because it would be stupid to spend any money on a survey etc when they aren't even taking it off the market. The vendors are either a bit dim and don't realise they are being a party to dodgy behaviour or they have been promised a cut of the commission fees that the EAs want to screw out of you by forcing you to take more expensive options. Walk away.

Find out if the EA belongs to the ombudsman scheme. If so, ring up the ombudsman and check they are registered. We did this and the ombudsman contacted EA and that got them changing their ways!

Yup- contact the ombudsman.

Absolute scum and working against you and their client!

Definitely put it in writing, and give them a deadline date to take the house off the market, otherwise your offer will be withdrawn.

Once you have finished dealing with them, name and shame them.

£499 for lifetime membership

• WTF? That's perhaps the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. So, you pay them for the privilege of you maybe giving them your business to sell in the future? They should be trying to persuade YOU to do this by being efficient and not acting like conmen.

All the other fees sound pretty ridiculous too, and like too many different roles are getting mixed up - conveyancer/mortgage company/mortgage broker/EA. These need to be kept as separate as possible as they all have different interests. The conveyancer and mortgage broker should be working for you. The mortgage company are working for themselves. The ea are working for the sellers. Mixing them all up like this - search fees with valuation fees with 'fee arrangement fees' (again, WTF? a fee to arrange a fee?) is not going to help you in any way.

Agree with what everyone else had said - make them taking it off the market a condition, and walk away if they don't agree. They'd be mad and v greedy not to agree - they're basically saying they want you to spend money on all this nonsense while they wait for a higher offer, hoping to gazump you. If that's their attitude, I wouldn't want to deal with them - house buying is stressful enough as it is.

That is totally nuts on behalf of the vendor!

What a horrible way to do business! I hope it works out.

Good grief - they've done a job on the vendor haven't they?

Fwiw we sold a house last year and the EA was adamant they kept marketing until after the survey results were back and it was clear things were proceeding with the sale. It wasn't what we actually wanted (I know we were the client) but the sale went ahead quickly and had anyone else expressed an interest we'd have said no to a viewing unless the sale had gone pear-shaped.

Same EA had a buyer for us before the photos had gone online and was very good so we trusted her judgement on things.

This sounds different and very much a pressure sales technique. I'd walk away. Who'd want to line the pockets of that bunch of scammers.

The EA will be earning an hefty commission from any extra services. They will have spun the line to the vendor that the vendor shouldn't take the property off the market as they can not financially qualify you.

If I was you I would go down either of these routes:

1. Letter to EA stating that you are still interested in the property but since the vendors are keeping the property on the market you will also continue to look just in case.

1. Retract your offer stating that your solicitor has advised you that this is not normal practice and that you feel that the EA are trying to hard sell their products.

In both cases put cc Mr & Mrs Vendor so the EA that the vendors will be getting a copy so they can't lie about the reason.

I used to work for EA before the recession and it was a hard sell then so probably worse now and of course now it is all about checking you out (so they say).

If it is a group say like Countrywide (companies will have different names but all part of the same group) their in house solicitors is a big conveyancing team. It will be like calling a call centre and you will rarely speak to the same person twice. As far as a soilcitor is concerned go for personal recommendation.

Forgot to say that of you do want to go ahead then once you have the formal mortgage offer then again in writing say that you have the offer but will not be instructing your solicitor to progress until the property is taken off the market as you do not want to incur costs for nothing.

Sometimes the vendors will be scared of losing a sale and go against what the EA is advising.

Hope all goes well