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Original poster

I finally have an offer on the house but I think the buyer is taking the piss? Is he? What should I do?

70 replies

Namechanger2015 · 24/01/2018 22:37

I am selling my house as a consequence of divorce, I don't live in the house anymore and really want it sold as its preventing me from buying somewhere myself. Its a hugely acrimonious divorce, ex and I don't speak and I am dealing with the sale mostly myself.

A buyer has placed an offer today, at a decent price.

However he is yet to sell his house, and has told the estate agent he will sell via them if we accept his offer and also place a lock-down agreement on my house - that is, we accept the offer and take the property off the market indefinitely until he can sell and complete on his house.

Estate agent is confident they can sell his house quickly, desirable location etc etc. But if I enter this agreement it means I have to wait for him to sell up and can't accept further viewings on my house.

I can't see any benefit for me, however the house has been viewed lots and no offers so far.

I haven't sold a house by myself this was before, ex is offering no viewpoint whatsoever so I am not sure if I am thinking correctly about this or not? What should I do?

OP posts:

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 25/01/2018 09:09

The more I think about it the more annoyed I am getting with the estate agent for going along with this.

I feel like I am in a pretty vulnerable position as I have divorced and never really dealt with finances like this before so I would have expected a bit of humanity from them but I know I am kidding myself with that approach!

The house is on at £525k, (which I feel is high) and the current offer was for £500k (more realistic price). My contract with agent states that I can go multi-agency at the end of Feb so I will let them know this.

However other agencies valued my house at £475k which is obviously a lot lower so this will mean taking a hit on the price of the house. I don’t know if they will stick at £475k seeing as there has been interest at £500k but I will call them and ask.

OP posts:

alotalotalot · 25/01/2018 09:15

The EA are working in their best interests, not yours. Try another one in Feb. They can only advise the price. If you want to market it for 500k then you tell them that.

Singlebutmarried · 25/01/2018 09:16

I’d be tempted to sack off the EA and have a look at the on line agents.

In my experience of selling a house we ended up doing all the showings anyway, totally depends on your circumstances this as to whether you’re able to or not.

idontlikealdi · 25/01/2018 09:18

No way! What if it take ana age to sell and complete?

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 25/01/2018 09:21

It’s in a different city so I can’t do the viewings myself, exH still lives there and won’t be helpful with viewings either so I would prefer to have an agent to do these.

I didn’t know I could dictate a price to them, that’s useful to know.

OP posts:

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 25/01/2018 09:22

No way! What if it take ana age to sell and complete?

Exactly. They need to find a buyer first as well. Agents suggest a 3 month lock out period which is far too long.

OP posts:

veuveo · 25/01/2018 10:41

I'd give him a couple of weeks
I just sold my house on first day, it can happen quickly. But he needs to be motivated. If you give him and estate agent a time limit it might give them a kick up the arse.

VivaLeBeaver · 25/01/2018 10:44

I would say no.

If he’s serious he will sell his house and come back to you. Which is what I had to do. Vendor accepted my offer in principle but I had to sell my house. The fact theirs isn’t even on the market yet would worry me they weren’t serious. I guess alternatively he could just really love your house and only be prepared to move for yours. But that’s his problem.

butterfly56 · 25/01/2018 11:11

OP If you haven't had a lot of viewings it's probably because the house is on too high as your gut feeling is telling you.
Have a look on right move to see recent sold house prices for the road where the house is.
If you reduce to £500K or £495K then see if it drums up a lot more interest.
You won't get a quick sale if the house is over priced.
Also weigh up what is you are willing to accept for the house to get rid of it. Is £475K - £485K say your minimum?
But tell the EA NOT to come to you with any more of these ridiculous deals and you tell them what you want to happen not the other way round.
The only time to take it off the market is if you have a definite deal from first time buyer or cash buyer where a deposit has been put down.
The house is chain free and sold with vacant possession?
good selling points. Just the price is high if 2 other Estate Agents agree on a lower figure.
Unfortunately many EA's do not really care about how they handle sales of properties and even less so about the seller.
Good Luck OP. I hope you manage to sell it soon so you can start over again.

Easilyflattered · 25/01/2018 16:26

I'm surprised at the estate agent.

We accepted an offer on Monday and our agents are still showing potential buyers round until the accepted buyers meet them tomorrow to complete preliminary paperwork. Until they can prove they're ready to proceed the estate agents are still marketing. It sounds like your agents are looking for an easy time getting your house off their books

Neolara · 25/01/2018 16:51

When I bought my houses in the past, once the offer had been accepted, I always requested and expected that the house be was taken off the market. I don't think it's an odd thing to ask for. However, I agree with others that it would be sensible to put a time limit on the agreement to ensure they get on with organising the sale of their house.

Mybabystolemysanity · 25/01/2018 20:54

We would have liked to do this. The place we want to buy has been on for two years.

We did a tentative sounding out of the selling agent who said categorically that he would not entertain an offer until we had an offer on ours.

Vendor was kind enough to let us have a second view last Saturday and we have hustled to get ours to market after deciding we seriously wanted it. We go live tomorrow or Monday.

I think the agent was right to say that and in hindsight, we are now in a better position to negotiate. We think ours will go within a couple of weeks.

We think we won't want to have non proceeds let buyers looking round because we want it gone quickly.

I'd be tempted to try and swerve this buyer and remind your agent who he's working for.

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 29/01/2018 16:01

Hi, thank you for all of your advice, I have learnt so much reading this thread!

Just as a quick update, I spoke to the EA and refused the offer from the buyer. I said I am happy to consider his offer when he is in a position to proceed with the purchase but will not be tying myself into any sort of lock-out agreement, and will also not be paying for the house to be cleaned before purchase.

I also let the EA know that I will be looking to use other agents from the end of Feb.

EA was fine and did not try to talk me into accepting the offer - I think I sounded quite confident of my decision. Definitely felt like the right thing to do. We have had a few more viewings (3) since then, one of them is a viewer who has sold his property subject to contract, the other is a speculative buyer (again), and so I will need to nip that one in the bud too.

Thank you for your advice, I am confident I did the right thing in refusing the crazy offer.

OP posts:

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 19/02/2018 11:09

Hi I just wanted to provide a quick update in case anyone else finds this thread useful.

My house is still on the market, the buyer who wanted a lock-out agreement is now marketing his flat with the same agent as me. This weekend he received an offer but it was £20k lower than he wanted.

Lock-out man has said to EA he will accept the offer on his flat, if we sell him the house at £20k less. So the EA called me and asked if I would consider selling at £480k now, when it is on the market at £525k, and we are hoping for £500k.

I am relieved I didn't enter a lockout agreement with lock-out man, he sounds quite deluded. I am also at my estate agent for even entertaining the idea. I will be going multiagency at the end of this month. I don't think I would ever consider a lock-out agreement, thank you for talking me out of it.

OP posts:

lalalonglegs · 19/02/2018 11:29

I think it might be worth seeing if you can bid him up a bit. After all, you haven't had any other offers and other agencies did value the house at £475k. I hope you sort it out soon, it must be very frustrating being tied to a house that you no longer live in.

YogaDrone · 19/02/2018 11:31

We moved about a month ago and when we gave notice to our EA that we were going to multi-agency or sole agency but with a different EA it really seemed to focus their minds on selling our place and we got 3 viable offers within two weeks! Good luck to you. It's such a stressful process.

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 19/02/2018 11:58

I did say I would be interested at £495, but I feel that £480k is very low, as I will need every penny I can get in order to rehouse me and 3 children (we live with my parents in London at the moment, very cramped).

It sounds as though the lock-out man has had some interest in his flat as it can't have been on the market for long. This has got to be positive. If he gets a higher offer he can offer for your place again.
Yes I hope so, although the EAs had originally told me they were certain the property would be snapped up at asking price etc, so I wonder if they are overvaluing to bring in the business and then holding on to properties for longer.

I am hoping there will be more interest when (if!) the weather perks up. Either way I will be looking to go to an additional agent at the end of this month - I have had one approach me who have said they will match the sole agent fee of 0.75% that my current EA is charging. Current EA has said 2.5% for multiagency, but they are willing to drop this in order to keep the property on their books.

OP posts:

lalalonglegs · 19/02/2018 14:15

If you go onto 2,5% (or thereabouts) you will be paying £15k in estate agency fees including VAT. Therefore, if you get the lock-out man up to £485k, you would be in more or less the same position as accepting an offer at £500k.

Fingers crossed that the lock-out man ups his offer soon.

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 19/02/2018 14:28

I think I would drop the current EA if they stuck at 2.5% and would simply switch to the new EA.

OP posts:

Frombothsidesnow · 19/02/2018 14:38

I've twice sold properties very quickly with a new agent after trying unsuccessfully with the original one, and both times have got the price I wanted from the start. So I would hold high hopes for you with a new agent. Any agent should offer to match that 0.75% fee for your business.

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 26/02/2018 12:18

I am back again with a silly question. Lockout man has come back with an offer of £495k, which is great.

However he has stated that the offer is on the condition that we commit to him and take the property off the market immediately.

However, if we accepted his offer, isn't that what we would be doing anyway? I don't understand what he is asking/what I am missing in this house buying process?

(told you it was a silly question!)

OP posts:

Frombothsidesnow · 26/02/2018 12:22

That's what people do if they accept an offer from a buyer who is ready to proceed, and surveys etc all crack on straightaway.

If you accept an offer from someone who is yet to be ready to go, you might keep your property on the market as they're not your ideal buyer - they may not be able to proceed. You might agree to take it off for, say, a fortnight to give him a chance to be ready, but put it back on after that if he's not under offer for example. It depends on all sorts of things, including the market, but it's pretty common to give a buyer a time limit if they're not ready to proceed.

Original poster

Namechanger2015 · 26/02/2018 12:26

Lockout man has an offer from a first time buyer, and so he is in the process of selling, This is with the same agent that I am with, and so the estate agent is selling this to me as a good situation as the EA is fully aware of the process of sale at the buyers end.

I don't know what I should be asking for, should I say I will not take it off the market until the survey is complete, or something else?

OP posts:

Chocolatecake12 · 26/02/2018 12:30

We placed an offer on a house that we loved but hadn’t sold ours. They took it off the market for 4 weeks and when we still hadn’t sold ours it went back on the market.
I felt that was fair.
Could you do the same? Give them a month and then put it back in the market?

Frombothsidesnow · 26/02/2018 12:30

If he's ready to proceed, it's not unreasonable to ask you to take it off the market. If you think he might mess you around, you could say you'll put it back on if the survey isn't booked by x date, but he sounds keen to move on.

If you're having doubts about him as a buyer though, you can turn the offer down. It's allowed.

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