Estate agent woes. Should we offer more?

[Greenlife1]

To cut a long story short. Finally found a house we love. On at 400. Offered 385 in cash chain-free and ready to rock ;)
Our offer was not put to the seller when it was made because they said they were waiting for all booked potential buyers to view and possibly offer. Ok...

Fast forward 3 days. EA tells us an offer was made and rejected straight away (although ours wasn't even put forward) as too low but no other offers.

Hubby pops into the EA shop as he happened to be in the area only to overhear an EA tell a colleague she would "try to squeeze a bit more out of X" Hubby doesn't think (all though couldn't say for certain) they were referring to us, but, of course, eyebrows raise at the living-up-to-stereotype cliched EA behaviour. Anyway. Still no other offers.

No more than an hour passes and the same EA calls to tell us someone has, in actual fact made an offer. The offer is "a tiny bit" higher and they are also cash buyers. We are told in order to make things fair and to prevent a bidding war we have 24 hours to submit our best and finals.

WWYD?!

Has your offer actually been submitted? That’s the first thing I would want confirmation on. Agents are obliged to submit all offers made.

I would withdraw the offer.

It sounds they are messing with you and potentially faking higher offers to get you to increase yours.

In this market if you are a cash buyer you will have many more opportunities to find something else without having to put up with sharp practices from EAs.

Depends how much you want the house and what you can afford! We didn't offer more for best and final because we thought the offer was fair and the house was a practical choice but not something we fell in love with.

Finally the EA today said they had passed the offer to vendors and they still want to honor all viewings with best and finals tomorrow

I would stick to the original offer which the agent has clearly taken too long to submit to the seller. Hold your nerve. You are an attractive buyer.

Very cheeky of agent not to submit it until now.

I too would stick to your original offer. Has the agent got anything else you could view in the meantime? That might set the cat amongst the pigeons.

The 'try to squeeze a bit more' is them doing their job! No surprises there and i would not hire an agent who didn't try to squeeze as much as possible from a buyer.
Submit the amount you are comfortable with, it that's your current offer then stick to it. Do not feel pressured to go over that.

I agree with this. I would want the EA working for us to try and get the best price for us - that's what we're paying them for.

In terms of your offer, depends how much you want the house. We had a lower offer accepted on a place because we were able to get to completion within 6 weeks. You're in a strong position although it depends how much they need to move.

Unless you are in a hurry to move I would watch the market for a while and let the estate agents know that

Agents are not legally obliged to submit all offers. If a seller specifies not to pass along offers below x amount, the agent can indeed tell the potential buyer an offer is too low. I did this when our place was on the market and it saved both my time and my agent's.

In England they are

No, Falconer is correct.
if a vendor has said to the agent “don’t bother coming to me with an offer less than £200k” and someone offers £190k, they don’t legally have to put it forward.
However, generally speaking the agent should really have those instructions in writing, and it’s probably best practice to notify the vendor that an offer at £190k exists.

www.tradingstandards.uk/media/documents/commercial/codes-of-practice/tpo-sales.pdf

section 9a

Fair enough. When I worked in an estate agency is was professional practice to notify the vendor of any offer, and in a timely fashion.

It would probably be better if this agent in question showed better communication all round.

OP, I would consider if you think the house is worth any more to you, and if so adjust your final offer accordingly. Vendors need to be careful not to over egg the price, the market has changed a lot.

I don’t disagree. I would still inform the vendor of an offer, even if it was below a level they’d previously told me they wouldn’t accept.
but it’s not illegal, or breaking code/guidelines

Was just about to say the same as @MillennialFalconer When we last sold we told the EA to reject any offers below X outright and we didn't need to hear about them.

I don't think you need to increase, I would potentially by a couple of hundred pounds maybe to say you've done your research etc and are keen to proceed but otherwise would be fairly sceptical of another offer that just happens to be cash and a little bit more than yours.

I guess the key here is the agent should have told the OP that the vendor requested that offers under X would be rejected automatically. Rather than keep them waiting/wasting their time.

Good luck OP!

'Squeeze a bit more' is just them trying to negotiate the best price. Playing 2 bidders against each other is the most basic tactic.

Offer what you think it's worth. If you lost it for £10k would you be disappointed? Or can you get a better house for the same price?

It's only worth what people are willing to pay for it.

''@mondaytosunday ·
The 'try to squeeze a bit more' is them doing their job!''

It isn't. Their job is not to pass on offers that are made and to back off if a buyer makes it clear the offer is all they are willing to pay.

Not to try to push people beyond what they can realistically afford or to make things up (such as inventing rival offers to start bidding wars).

As a buyer I know what my budget is and the minute the agent or/and the buyer start trying to ''squeeze' more out of me I simply withdraw my offer.

I had that recently: I really liked a house but made it clear from the start my (fair) offer was all I would be willing and able to pay and that the buyer was very welcome not to accept it. The house had been on the market for a while and I had been told by the agent who initially showed me the house that the sellers were open to reasonable offers.

The agent who took on the offer negotiation delayed putting my offer for 3 days and started playing games. The result: I completely went off the house because of their behaviour.

The seller eventually accepted my offer after I stood my ground but by then I had decided to withdraw it on principle because of the behaviour on display.

That's what greed will get you...

The above should read ''Their job is to pass on offers that are made''

£385k cash for a £400k house they should be biting your hand off in the current market, I'd be offering alot less personally

Hard to say who is leading this, the EA or the seller but, from what you have written, the EA sounds as if they are playing games and are therefore untrustworthy.

I disagree that it is reasonable/ professional to be discussing 'squeezing a bit more out of x'. If the seller directs them to reject an offer they can call and say no and invite a higher offer. I suspect that they do this game playing as part of their selling tactic and that they are making up the other offer just to try to frighten you into paying more. What cash buyer is going to be paying more than you have already offered in the current market?
I would tell them your offer remains the same and is on the table for 24/48 hours and the sellers need to decide by then.

We had a similar situation in the last property crash. Went to sealed bids. We upped our offer by about 400 quid and still got the house. I suspect there was no other bidder...

Even if there is another bidder, that's not a bad idea @Geneticsbunny most people bid round figures so going up in the hundreds could just pip another to the post.

It's very, very unlikely that an EA is going to invent a completely phantom bidder in the hope of getting a few hundred quid more out of a genuine buyer. The additional commission would only amount to a few pounds, and the risk of pissing off and losing the genuine buyer is simply too great.