Agent not passing offer on to vendor.

[mummabubs]

I hate estate agents. Sweeping generalisation I know but just feeling very fed up with all the games, tricks and tactics.

DH and I found a house we like, has been on the market for 9 months. Likely still on as it needs some tinkering and is overpriced. We called last Friday morning to put in an offer which was 6% under asking price. Agent's tone changed on the phone immediately when I said the number and they replied the vendor will never accept that as they've received an offer for £5k more in the past and rejected that. I said that's the offer we're sticking with as that's what we think the house is worth and she said she'd speak to me again later. DH and I were therefore slightly surprised not to have heard back from them instantly rejecting, so we got our hopes up that they might be considering the offer (especially as for all we know that other offer may have been months ago and we know they are desperate to sell). However, turns out agent didn't put our offer to the vendor, put it as automatically declined on their system, didn't bother to tell us and has now gone on leave for 2 weeks. I reminded their colleague who I spoke to just now that they are legally bound to pass on all offers even if a higher offer was rejected previously. Just why do they have to be so bloody difficult to deal with!?

I'd be tempted to pop a note through the door actually.

We bought our current house via Facebook. We did try and go through estate agents but they refused to pass on our request to view as the vendors were now thinking of letting the property as it wasn't selling. A cynic would wonder if the agents earned more from long term let management than a sale.

Anyway, I found the owner on Facebook and messaged her. She actually sued the agents in the end.

It could be that the vendor has told them not to pass on any offers under a certain amount, but if they said they'd ring you back then they should have done that. So what has the EA said will happen next?

So... Wasn't anything to do with the vendor asking for a minimum offer to be passed etc. I had to literally badger the agent again to call the vendor and remind them of their legal requirement to do so. They did this afternoon and vendor has rejected our offer, however the conversation from the agent then went: They will consider offers of £5k more than we've offered (so the same offer they apparently rejected previously and meant to agent refused to pass on this offer!? ),... however they want £40k more than this,... but they are desperate to move so are very open to negotiate if we just just up our offer by £5k. It was such a garbled and incongruent 3 sentences that I just said we'd have a think about whether we want a second viewing to really see if we are willing to increase our offer at all. Truth be told though this all feels like red flags that the agents will be a nightmare to deal with. We do really like the house, but as we're looking for fixer uppers/ places with potential we're also confident that there's not "one perfect house" for us, so we won't be played into paying more than somewhere is worth to us. Just frustrating that when we do finally find somewhere we like enough to offer on it feels like there are hidden obstacles that don't need to be there!

ive has the same problem, there is a house that's been on for over 6 months. not in the best of conditions and requires work. based on other houses in the area completely overpriced. estate agent told me they are not going to accept my offer so didn't even put it forward to them.
the main thing i have an issue with is the fact they over price everything and then when you put it a reasonable offer, we are practically laughed at!
all these offers over, offers in the region of and offers in excess piss me right off aswel!

Never @Fuss! If there were things stipulated by the vendor about offers they don't want to hear about then fine, but why don't agents just say that rather than lying about passing on offers? I hope that seller was successful in their action against the agency, did you get that house in the end?

Couldn't agree more @MkLanch. When the agent told me how desperate the vendors are to move I was tempted to retort that if they're that desperate then they could consider our original offer again! Bearing in mind current average price for the same size house and garden on that road is actually £40k lower than what we've offered and the house would need some adapting (currently has nowhere to eat food as kitchen is too small so they eat in a conservatory on the other side of the house!) I don't think if they're that serious about selling that they'll ever get what they want for it £ wise.

@mummabubs in our case nothing had been stipulated at all and the owners wanted to sell as they had moved away with work. We'd spoken to every person in that office and not one had put our interest to the vendors.
Eventually we rang to be told 'sorry, it's been let for a year'. That was the point I spoke to the neighbours, gleaned a bit of unusual info about the vendor and found her on Facebook.

She took them to court for mismanaging the let amongst other things and managed to get back all her fees. She was furious our interest had not been passed on as she had wanted to sell at the time and felt pushed into letting due to thinking there was no interest in the property.

We kept in touch, arranged to meet for a coffee and eventually, over a year after falling in love with the place we agreed a price between us involving no agents at all. We've been happily here for almost 2 years now.

I wouldn't trust an EA at all from past experience. Fortunately for us we got around it, but if I ever bought again I think I'd put my offer in writing to both EA and vendor.

Good luck with it.

Can you swap emails with the vendor if your offer is accepted? That way you have a line of communication if the estate agent gives you any reason to believe they're not being straightforward again in future.

i hate when they tell you that the seller is motivated to sell and when you put an offer in the flat our refuse.
we saw a house that was on for 350k....overpriced for the village but a nice house. its a offer in the region of...we called the estate agent and told her that the maximum we can pay is 325k...she told us shes not sure they will accept as they have turned down an offer of £340k (i think thats a lie)
so she put our offer forward and they said no. bear in mind its a small 4 bedroom and needs new carpets new decor, and the bathroom upstairs will have to be moved. also the kitchen has been in for at least 10 years and so may well need replacing soon.
these same sellers had tried to sell in 2018 aswel with no luck.
there was another house in the same village that was much better had a massive corner plot and came with a 0.5 acre paddock...and was for £250k (unfortunately someone else beat us to it).

I don't think it's the agent who is the issue here - the sellers are regretting turning down the previous offer. Sometimes it takes a while for people to realise that a house is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, not what they think it's worth.

Put a note through the door.

While I don’t wish to tar all EAs, it’s not unknown for them to fail to pass on offers, because the property’s been earmarked for a mate, or someone with whom they have an ‘arrangement’, who’s hoping to get it for a reduced price.

I’ve met a property developer who openly boasted of such ‘arrangements’ with EAs in his area.

i did wonder if they do things like that.

we loved a house a month ago and called the agent to view, he said no to our viewing because an offer had been submitted. we called and email to check for the next week as the property was not marked as under offer. then nearly 3 weeks later it gets marked sstc!
i wondered if he was holding it for someone else.

They'd consider £5k more but really wanted £40k more.. how helpful

This agent is not someone I'd want to be overseeing my house purchase.. the process is stressful enough as it is, without you having to deal with someone who has been a bit dubious from the off.

Might add, I once had an offer turned down for what seemed a very odd reason, but accepted it at the time.

Only to find out a few months later, when having a good old nose on nethouseprices, that it had sold very shortly afterwards for WAY below my offer.
Evidently only going through the motions of being on the open market.
Dodgy bastard EA, ostensibly so nice! who was with me at my viewing had told me that his father was a vicar!

You couldn’t make it up.

An agent local to us openly told us that they have a list of developers that they call to get first dibs on properties that need a bit of work. It enrages me as it's this sort of system that prices families out of being able to afford a long term house that needs a little work. Where we live done up houses are out of our budget but any houses that come on in our price bracket with potential get snapped up before you can even view.

that's a complete joke! i never realised they were doing that.
i had noticed a few houses near to me have been snapped up by builders but just assumed i had missed them and they had probably gone for a stupid price anyway!
its funny its like the new builds were meant to be for affordable housing. there is a piece of land for sale and comes with permission to build 88 houses....only 8 of them are help to buy! (that's their main selling point)
pure greed!