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Original poster

Is EA bluffing? Seller will remarket if we don't complete

71 replies

AC1977 · 13/06/2018 12:53

We're currently in the process of buying a house, have mortgage in place, searches back from solicitor, about to book building survey. House was on the market for 6 months prior to our offer, price reduced, another party accepted then dropped out (personal circs apparently.) EA tried to get a higher offer from us but the other party we were apparently bidding against suddenly disappeared.

For various reasons we've put forward mid Sept as completion date. We've offered to exchange asap but don't want to complete until then. We're currently in rented and house needs a lot of work so completing prior would take away our budget. EA has come back and said this is unacceptable to vendor and that he will remarket if we don't complete asap. Apparently he took our offer over two others now as we are renters.

We like the house but don't love it and as I said, it needs a lot of work. Basically just trying to work out if EA and seller are bluffing? DH reckons offer early Sept and see what happens...

OP posts:
thatisnotanoption · 13/06/2018 14:19

I am in the process of selling a property (again chain free).
We accepted an offer in March and agreed to the buyers condition that exchange happened in 4 weeks. We were ready to exchange on the agreed date but the buyer had lots of excuses and kept delaying. After a month we finally gave a 2 week deadline to exchange or the property would go back on the market.

We finally exchanged just past the 2 week deadline but are not completing for 11 weeks. As the seller I am happy to wait for completion but really wanted the security of knowing we had exchanged.

I imagine that the EA is not bluffing - there may be concerns about your commitment to the purchase. I would try and exchange ASAP with a long completion date.

Emily7708 · 13/06/2018 14:21

Rather than early September I’d offer 30 or 31 August, to save their rent going over into another month.

Mildura · 13/06/2018 14:27

@Emily7708
Not all rental agreements run from the 1st of the month.

melonscoffer · 13/06/2018 14:30

We were told this repeatedly last year.
EA rang every Friday saying that the house we were buying was going back on the market if we didn't hurry up.
In the end the lady selling it to us got hold of our phone number. She and I spoke directly and she had no idea that the EA was saying this.
She was happy to wait and wanted us to have her house. She'd never mentioned remarketing the house.
From then on she and I sorted it out and rang with updates.
EA was not best pleased.

LivingMyBestLife · 13/06/2018 14:34

You've had the searches done without a survey? I'd have had the survey done first and the lack of a survey is probably what is making the vendors edgy (although no, I wouldn't accept such a long completion date either tbh).

It usually takes around 12 weeks/3 months to purchase a property, so depending on what time you offered in May you are talking at least 4 months so it is a bit longer than expected. The lack of info (you not mentioning this long delay sooner) would also be a bit of a flag. I suspect the vendors think you are not serious about the property and you do sound as if you have doubts.

letsdolunch321 · 13/06/2018 14:34

I think the seller is bluffing, to remarket find another buyer etc etc would take longer than Completion by Sept

2014mum · 13/06/2018 14:38

As a previous estate agent, when I said this it wasn’t a bluff. People did remarket particularly if they chose you as you’re no chain. You’ll be at the bottom of the chain, you’re pushing everyone above you back.

lottiegarbanzo · 13/06/2018 14:40

Might they pull out? Yes. They accepted your offer in May and you want to complete four months later. That's a long time. Your lack of total transparency may mean they now feel on edge and unsure about you. House buying is all about trust and confidence.

If the local market is as strong as you say, they could go back on, acccept another offer before the end of June and complete that sale by the end of August.

You sound as though you're not convinced the house is worth the costs, to you. You need to be sure about that. You almost sound as though you're looking for a reason not to go ahead - wanting them to say no to you, because you can't quite decide.

Original poster
AC1977 · 13/06/2018 15:00

Wow! Took the dog out and wasn't expecting so many replies, thank you all!

I suppose I've felt pushed by the EA every step of the way. We were pushed into making our offer by being told of additonal viewings after we'd expressed an interest (EA had air of someone who thought the whole process was pointless when she showed us round and didn't mention any extra viewings) then we were told there was another offer on the table when we made ours and we had 24 hours to go to best and final (we said that was our best and final and got called back 3 hours later saying they'd gone with us) then we had to jump through various hoops to get it taken off the market, including instructing our solicitors hence the searches going ahead.

To be honest our survey will cosy around £700 so I was waiting for our mortgage to come through first which it did at the end of last week. Now I am waiting for their solicitor to answer a couple of outstanding queries. Is it not normal to do the searches first? We're FTB altho old.

We have offered to exchange asap and will do so again along with completion date of end Aug. I guess we'll see what happens!

OP posts:
lottiegarbanzo · 13/06/2018 15:09

Obviously you won't exchange before you've seen your survey - and given (not shown, given - in case of any repurcussions later) a copy to your solicitor to look through and advise you upon, will you.

Sounds like they wanted to make a brisk sale and knew they could expect to, given the market conditions.

Mildura · 13/06/2018 15:09

Waiting until one element is satisfactorily completed before organising the next part will inevitably be slower and make the overall process longer.

It would be normal for the solicitor to be organising searches, at the same time as the mortgage application is progressing, whilst also at the same time any more detailed homebuyers of buildings survey is being carried out.

Bear in mind the EA is working on behalf of the seller and acting on their instructions/wishes.

Lunde · 13/06/2018 15:28

It sounds like the vendor wanted a quick sale chose you as they thought as renters you would be able to complete the sale quickly but now 6 weeks later - it appears, to them at least, that you are dragging your feet.

There is nothing wrong with a delayed completion if you are upfront at the start. My current house was purchased on the understanding that moving day would be 6 months away as they were building a new house. But everyone needs to know what is going on - given they appeared to choose you as you were chain free your originally proposed 4½ months must seem like an awful long time.

They may well remarket to see if they can find a buyer who is in a position to move more quickly. I bought my first house in similar circumstances when the sellers felt they were being messed about and were in danger of losing the house they were moving to. I was in rented where the landlord was selling and first viewing to moving in too 5 weeks.

Original poster
AC1977 · 13/06/2018 15:38

The previous seller pulled out in murky circumstances (they got some way into the process from what I can gather) so it seemed logical to complete one step before embarking on another.

The housing market is strong here, houses usually go in 1-2 weeks, but this house was on for 6 months. I suppose I feel it is a bit of a gamble for the seller too.

I am not completely sold on it, this is true, for various reasons, but it is more than affordable plus has the potential to be a great house when everything has been done to it.

OP posts:
Curtainshopping · 13/06/2018 15:39

Sounds to me like the EA was trying all the tricks in the book to make the sale happen.

Mildura · 13/06/2018 15:42

The EA is after all being paid by the seller to make the sale happen!!

LivingMyBestLife · 13/06/2018 15:52

I've always had the survey done first - you have to pay for the searches so no point in doing them if the survey shows a problem with the house. As for the vendor taking it off the market after accepting an offer, again the survey is the usual 'marker' for this IME - you should have the solicitor lined up before or when you make the offer because their details are on the Memorandum of Offer (or always have been for us).

I hope you get the house OP, but I think the vendors were expecting only a month between exchange and completion (we've done that, when there has been a renter in the chain).

Lunde · 13/06/2018 16:02

So it's been about 6 weeks since you made the offer and you haven't got a survey done yet? That sounds really odd. I've never heard of anyone doing searches, survey, mortgage etc as separate steps - normally the survey and searches are carried out at the same time.

Original poster
AC1977 · 13/06/2018 16:22

Could anyone give me an idea time wise of when we'd complete if we just carried on as normal? A month? 6 weeks?

OP posts:
Els1e · 13/06/2018 16:24

It a tricky one to advise as who knows what the seller is thinking. They may be just trying to put pressure on you by saying they will pull out when they won’t. Early September sounds reasonable to me. However they could take the decision to either rent out the property they own, bringing in extra income to offset their current rent; or take property to auction where purchaser has to complete within a month. I would have a discussion with the EA about what the sellers expectations are for completion and whether they are reasonable.

catandpanda · 13/06/2018 16:25

You can complete as early as same day as exchange (we did this once) otherwise a week to a month is pretty normal after exchange - a month is fine.

Robin233 · 13/06/2018 16:47

Bit confused.
How did you get a mortgage with out a survey?
A bank won't lend you any money if the survey comes back haven't found serous problems.
Could the previous buyers - who pulled out have had something unexpected on their survey ?
A house can go through in 6 weeks. Anything longer isn't really desirable.
The seller should have maybe said they would accept your offer if you could complete by 'x'. At least then you all know where you stand.
We nearly lost out buyer because the people we were buying off put the date back to go on holiday lol

Jaxhog · 13/06/2018 16:51

Unless you and they have brilliant solicitors, I'd be surprised if you could complete much before September anyway.

But I would check that the sellers don't have some sort of constraint. The EA should know. When do they want to complete?

Original poster
AC1977 · 13/06/2018 16:51

@Robin the mortgage people performed their own valuation, we want to get a building survey as looking at doing an extension. I'm going to do what Es1e suggested and see if EA knows when the sellers are expecting to complete. Could be it's not that far from what we were going to offer anyway.

OP posts:
Mildura · 13/06/2018 16:54

@Robin233
In the vast majority of cases all a bank requires to confirm they are prepared to offer a mortgage is a valuation report, very, very rare for the bank to insist upon a more detailed survey being carried out. It is up to the individual purchaser to decide if they wish to have the property more thoroughly inspected by a surveyor.
A house sale can go through in 6 weeks, but the average period of time between offer and exchange currently is around 12 weeks.

Jaxhog · 13/06/2018 16:54

If the worry is that they're afraid about you pulling out at the last minute, why not offer them a stakeholders deposit?