Nightmare buyers and estate agent

[Thanksforthememory]

We are currently selling my mum in-laws house as she died last year, we've had a few people round but no offers so we reduced to offers over £180.
We've spend £13k doing it up before we put it on the market new kitchen, bathroom, all newly carpeted and blinds so basically inside is like new.
We reduced last Monday and by teatime had our first viewing they offered £170k on Tuesday then upped it to £175k which my husband reluctantly agreed but I said to keep on the market because you never know what may happen.
On Thursday it went sold on Rightmove but being busy didn't have time to query it.
The buyers asked for a second viewing on Friday which I agreed only to find out when they arrived that the woman had brought a family member who was a architect who went round with his clipboard and pen and proceeded to tell me everything that was wrong with the house, while I just sat there in shock, there was nothing he told me that we didn't know anyway as if you walk round outside it's quite obvious to anyone what needs doing.
I told my husband what had happened and I was furious by this time as I thought they were just coming for a second viewing and not to rip the house apart especially when offers over 180 meant just that but with the covid who knows what may happen hence taking the low offer but then to slate the house which to means they are going to be horrendous to deal with as I can see they are wanting it even cheaper as the last house to sell on that road is £20k higher than their offer.
Now we are waiting for then to sort a survey out which doesn't seem to be forthcoming so my husband rung the estate agent and asked to put it back on the market till at least they've had there survey done and was told by agent that it's illegal to have it up for sale when they've signed a contract which I found out this is a complete lie.
I would like to pull the deal and sack the estate agent. What would you do in this situation.
Thanks.

Unfortunately you don’t know what you’re talking about. I also fear you’ve just turned down the best offer you might get.

1. Once an offer is accepted the house is taken off the market and SSTC. That’s normal practice. You could have left it on to complete viewings while ‘considering’ an offer but once you accept - it comes off.
2. Most offers are accepted with a small amount of due diligence. The EA should ask if there is a mortgage AIP and whether the buyer is proceedable (cash buyer, renting, SSTC would all be proceedable). That’s it. If there is more than one offer they will help you decipher who is likely to be the best bet for quick completion. The solicitor does the in depth checks, proof of funds and so on. A lot of the initial process relies on good faith, whether you like that or not.
3. It’s normal for an EA to hold a key because most of the time they prefer to do the viewings themselves. You’re paying them for this service, it’s better for COVID security, and it saves the vendor getting upset at any criticism in the way you have been.

Op that’s not how it works.

However you can accept an offer and tell the buyer that you will continue to market it until survey and mortgage offer in place. However no one in their right mind will continue with that sale. Why would they possibly spend all that money when they risk you getting a higher offer and pulling out.

If you decide to accept an offer then you take it off the market. Mark it sold subject to contract. If you don’t think the offer is good enough. Decline it

What you’re trying to do, is grabby and unrealistic. It will simply never work. You will never sell it under the conditions you wish to set.

It’s like selling something on eBay. Agreeing to sell it to someone who has a two hour drive to collect, and saying ok I will sell it to you, but I’m going to try to sell it to someone else, and if they get there first, then tough, you’ve had a wasted journey, no one is getting in the car in those considitons.

And that’s what you’re doing, you’re asking them to get in the car. To start spending,on a survey, fees etc, whilst you keep trying to find someone else to buy it for more money.

I wonder whether they realise what an utterly nightmare seller you are going to be and pulled out on flimsy excuse of mortgage (which as everyone has said they cannot possibly get in place until post survey anyway - anyone can get an in principle offer). I think you are absolutely mad in this market to have turned down an offer that close to what you wanted on a house that is not needed for onward purchase.

You really don't seem to understand that it's immoral to keep a house on the market after accepting an offer. If you aren't happy with the price, you decline the offer.

Your buyers are the ones who have had a lucky escape.

OP you are clearly a nightmare seller and have no understanding of the process of property sale and purchase. You are ignoring all the very good advice on this thread.

As a side note, please PLEASE stop writing 'would of, could of' - it's 'would HAVE, could HAVE'.

I think you need to redirect your anger at your husband who has accepted an offer you didn't think was acceptable. Decide what price you expect and don't settle for less when you remarket it but don't think you can mess buyers about by holding out for a better offer. You have ignored all the good advice on this thread, I hope when you've calmed down you can revisit the thread and learn how to be a better vendor.

Your buyers dodged a massive bullet here.

Good luck.

The whole thing is very odd. Even the comment on the agent wanting W slice of the inheritance. The agents charge a set fee, normally a percentage, if not an absolute Number, and it’s standard across their customer base.

It’s like the op is so focused on how much money she can get she’s lost all common sense.

You sound like the nightmare, not them

Surely this can’t be real?!?

I dunno. It’s all so very odd.

Even this I did think it was strange at the time why the estate agent wanted a key when we said we would do the viewings but if my gut instinct tells me this was a dodgy deal as with my father's house then it probably was but we'll never find that out

It’s normal for agents to get the key and do the viewings, in fact preferable.

It reads like a total ignorance of the buying, selling, Mortgaging process coupled with a desperation for the money and a paranoia that people are trying to take some of it from you,

The agent looks like they are a good agent. The price was close to asking. The buyers clearly serious if they brought an architect round.

If the 175 was not enough for the op, they should simply habe declined the offer. Her rationale to keep it on thr market for several weeks after seems to be that she wants to see if she could get more.

God help anyone who makes an offer, and the new agent.

*I don't understand your comment

"Yes without a doubt in hindsight I wouldn't do the house up but what made us decide was that at the time with high deposits so less cash to spend on the house"*

I think what OP means is that as a buyer would need at least £17,500 deposit to buy the house, which she considers is high (I'm laughing as to buy a 2 bed house near me I need at least £35k as a deposit) that they did up the house as no/few buyers would have enough money to do up the house after paying the deposit so thought that by doing the work they would sell easily as a buyer would be grateful to have a turn key home.

I'm a FTB currently looking to buy. There's no way I'm paying for a survey or instructing a solicitor if the vendor is still marketing the property. Your timescale is also ridiculous, the offer (which you didn't need to accept) was only made a week ago and the second viewing was less than a week ago and there's been a weekend in between(!)

I also wonder whether the estate agent she has instructed is taking a nominal refundable deposit to secure a viewing rather than to proceed with the transaction to stop time wasters.

It is not compulsory to have a survey - the majority of house sales happen without the buyer getting a survey. If the buyer brought round an architect then they might have done that to get their opinion on whether a to bother with a survey. (Not saying this is a good idea, just saying it's what happens)

I'll stop there because everyone else has adequately covered quite how batshit this is. If the pubs were open I suspect your ex buyers and ex agent would be straight in there for a pint to toast their lucky escape!

@FlumpetCrumpet if you're paying with a mortgage the lender will insist on one even if it's just for valuation purposes.

I just wanted to say, I wonder if there is more going on for you around this. When DH had to sell the family home after his last parent died, he got annoyed and angry with the buyers, the estate agent etc. which was not like him. What was actually happening was that he had loads of unresolved grief and it ended up focussed on the sale. I took over dealing with the agents etc. as I could be much less emotional about it.

[quote GingerBiscuit21]@FlumpetCrumpet if you're paying with a mortgage the lender will insist on one even if it's just for valuation purposes. [/quote]
The bank will do their own valuation but that's not the same as the buyer arranging their own survey, which is what (I think) the OP is talking about. On the house we are currently buying our lenders did a desktop valuation and offered us a mortgage before I'd even started looking for a surveyor. Same thing last time I bought, desktop valuation by the bank, only that time I didn't then get a survey at all.

[quote GingerBiscuit21]@FlumpetCrumpet if you're paying with a mortgage the lender will insist on one even if it's just for valuation purposes. [/quote]
Sometimes they do a desktop valuation. Where did you get the info that most house sales happen without a survey @FlumpetCrumpet?

I googled it out out of interest a while back when our buyer hadn't had a survey done and we were a couple of months into the process. I seem to remember the figure quoted was 76% don't which I found astonishing (it was very specific circumstances that meant we didn't have one on our first house, including my dad being a retired surveyor). Can't remember the exact website might have been the rics

@FlumpetCrumpet I don't find it surprising, how much of the housing stock is 10 years or younger or new builds that don't tend to have surveys, lots of people wouldn't get surveys on houses that young, our buyer didn't.

Gawd, so many people have said this already but as someone who is currently selling and buying I couldn't resist! Please believe other people who are saying that in the nicest of ways you don't appear to understand how buying /selling currently works. As a buyer, we have a mortgage in principle in place but as others have pointed out you cannot physically get a firm mortgage offer until after surveys have been completed, as that is what the bank uses to decide whether the house is worth the amount of money that you're asking to borrow. So it would be impossible for your buyers to have a firm mortgage arranged within a week of their first viewing (!) It is also completely unreasonable behaviour to accept an offer but then want the house kept on the market. If the offer was too low for you then the onus was on you not to accept it. We were bitten by this twice and have since stipulated that the offer we make on a house is contingent upon the house being taken off the market immediately if the offer is accepted. Otherwise why the hell would I arrange to fork out £1000 for a survey when the seller is still working away to sell to someone other than us!? The agent was acting ethically when they stopped arranging viewings after you accepted the offer. Legally agents have to put every offer they receive forward to you, so they still had to tell you of the offer that was below your "offers over" asking price. YOU then made the decision to accept it when you could have said "sorry, but that minimum we've listed at really is as low as we're prepared to accept".

I hope you get what you want in the end OP but crumbs you sound very difficult to buy from! Also, I appreciate you can't do anything about it now, but if part of your motivation is to recoup the £13k you spent on doing it up... DH and I are often put off properties where this has happened as the kitchen or bathroom might be new, but if it's not to our taste then we'd rather have a fixer - upper that we can at least put our own stamp on.

Unless you are quite remote most EAs prefer to do viewings themselves so having keys is essential. Mine did all of the viewings for my house. Nothing dodgy there. I honestly think estate agents are better at doing viewings - especially if you're so sensitive.

I'm also scratching my head about your recent update re deposits etc. Strange.

I'd not want to buy from a seller like you.

I bet the EA is thanking his lucky stars to be rid of you too. For the I would think max 3.5k he’d earn from you (off the back of a very good last two quarters so not desperate) you just won’t be worth the pain and effort.

Last post honest 😀 but I’d have to absolutely love the look of a house to not mind being shown round by the actual seller on a first visit. I might not mind on a second if I wanted to ask you questions if I was serious about offering but it really is the pits being shown around by a seller with a vested interest in the house. Very uncomfortable and you can’t discuss what you would do differently without offending them.

Maybe next time there is a viewing, let the estate agent do it. If you’re choosing a new one, then maybe choose the one you feel most comfortable with.
Please don’t be offended by low offers either. You’re not obliged to accept, however, if you only have one offer on the table, then that certainly tells you something about the value of the property. It’s then up to you if you want it to sit there and wait for the market to meet your advertised price.
I also noticed you was ranting about what you’d spent and how it was like new. Two things to consider. The money you spend and the value that adds do not always correlate. You may have paid too much for the materials or the works. As for being like new, I very much doubt it, otherwise your potential buyer’s architect’s clip board wouldn’t be full of snags.
There is no issue with you doing a refurb to add value, but please don’t be offended because a stranger tore it apart.

Step back, get the right agent, let them take the strain, only accept an offer and buyer your happy with and be patient. You don’t need to be this involved. And fantasise about what you will spend the money on.