Help - I suspect estate agent hasn't told seller of our offer

[barking]

Hi - just wondering what to do....
We've been looking for 6 months and a house we missed has just come back on the market after previous buyers dropping out.

When we viewed, agent said seller is really keen to sell, (it's empty), our first offer was refused, I put in second offer 9am this morning 5k below asking price, and the people buying ours are cash buyers. I've checked our mortgage is portable so just need valuation to get banks approval.

Phoned estate agent 5 times and he keeps stalling, saying he can't get hold of seller, then later said he would try phoning, then said he knows what the seller will say - which is they want to wait a while to let there be other viewings.

Arghhh! I really don't want to lose this house, what are they waiting for? Can I report them? Should I go in in person to get a better response? Feel like this is psychogical warfare and I don't know the rules - don't want to p*ss estate agent off, but feel like he's hiding something.

Is there a way I can contact seller directly?
Help help help

Residential property - purchase price Rate of Stamp Duty Land Tax
up to £125,000 0%
£125,001 - £250,000 1%
£250,001 - £500,000 3%
£500,001 or more 4%

Barking that should help a little

I would phone up the solicitor you are planning on using and say you are awaiting to hear whether offer has been accepted or not but will instruct them as soon as you have heard offer has been accepted. Then you can go back to Estate Agents and say we are going to be using Messers x,y and z. The meter should not start moving until you officially instruct them. Lots of solicitors also offer fixed price conveyancing costs.

Alternatively you may want to ask Estate Agents who they would recommend, lots of solicitors and Estate Agents work quite closely together and a bit of chalm might help!

apologies for poor typing I have poorly DD on knee - Chicken Pox

....obviously that should have been charm not chalm!!?

It's up to £250,000 (ie 3% at £250,001 and above). The fixtures and fittings thing is quite dodgy I believe, and difficult to do if there isn't anything in the house to be worth the extra money.

We had to do the same, our current house had loads of offers at £250K so we bit the bullet and went in at £252,500 which scared off a lot of the other bidders. In our case we were then bid up higher against another bidder (who I still very much doubt existed although agents aren't supposed to be able to get away with that these days.)

FWIW, my advice is that if this is really the house that you want, lodge a £250K offer and stress again all the good points of your position. It might just scare off other potential bidders who don't want to go above 1%. It might also be the "magic figure" for the vendor as they will also have the stamp duty threshold in their mind too.

Keep us updated.

Sorry Smurfs x-posted. And best wishes to spotty DD!

Steer clear of the fixtures and fittings route tempting as it may be. There has been a big clamp down on this in recent years and borderline transactions are scrutinised more closely.

I feel for you because I spent many an evening sobbing as yet more hoops appeared but I am so happy here as are the rest of the family!

Fingers crossed your friend isn't keen tomorrow....maybe you could slip some local children a tenner to stand around smoking, drinking, swearing etc and that would put her off a bit

eeek not children smoking....youths maybe

thanks Barbara - it is head to toe spots poor little mite.

I've put an offer in at £250,000 this morning, they said they will talk to vendor this afternoon, though still have viewings today and tomorrow which they will honour...........

Barbarawoodlouse - do you mean I should go over the 250 as most people won't want to go over the 1% ? I'm still not sure whether its enough to secure it as they are looking for cash buyer over everything else.

Smurfs - you have my greatest sympathy, all 3 of mine got it over xmas and new year a couple of years ago. I remember someone on here told me to get calamine with glycerine as moisturising spots is important to minimise scarring. I remember they all felt much better about 3 days after the spots came out.

Hi, No I meant that you should do just what you have done and offer 250. That way anyone who sees it should(!) be told that there is already an asking price offer on the table and they will know that to beat it they will have to go over the threshold.

Obviously the vendor might still choose a cash buyer with the same offer as you, but there aren't that many cash buyers around.
Did the agents sound any more positive about the new offer?

Hi barking and BWL, good that you have put forward the firm offer at the asking price.
All you can do is sit tight and wait to see if there are any developments over the next few days.

I do think it is probably slightly unrealsitic of the Vendor to want a cash buyer - yes they are the ideal from a timescale point of view - generally limited surveys etc however they are very aware of there appealing nature and would be more likely to offer significantly less than the asking price. They are also in my experience far more likely to chip the price just before an exchange as there is not an emotional connection for them with the property it is all about the figures stacking up and the bottom line.

Thank you for your kind words re DD - she is currently asleep but I have never seen so many spots....I am so fed up with Chicken Pox though DS has just recovered from them this week and he has been poorly for the last 3 weeks! I am using tubs and tubs of cream between the 2 DC!

I am willing you on to get this house as is BWL

Hi Smurfs and Barbarawoodlouse
I've just got off the phone to my hopefully very hot solicitor, she sounds incredibly capable and feisty saying she will go hell and highwater with me to get this house.

She says a cash buyer would probably take longer so we have to come up wiith something to tempt them. She has phoned agents to kick ass and also to put forward a very scary plan - if they agree, she proposes that if I can crack the whip with the survey and mortgage offer, she is saying to get the property off the market, she can exchange in two weeks and I've got to get my buyer and her buyer to promise to do the same - 2 weeks of utter hell then completion when it suits everyone.

The following words come to mind from the film Gallipoli:
"How fast can you run?"
"As fast as a leopard"
"How fast are you going to run?"
"As fast as a leopard!!"

Still haven't heard back from agents.....

I like the sound of your lawyer

Fingers crossed for you at Chez Louse!

Barking & BWL

2 weeks is perfectly possible I do have a great need to shout HURRAH! in situations like this. Your solicitor sounds great.

It might be 2 weeks of hell but in the big scheme of things it is a blink of an eye. Think of ways to reduce your stress for the next couple of weeks on the home front - take aways and some M&S ready meals will allow you to focus on dashing around with paperwork and my household would love the treat, house kept this side of tidy not immaculate etc etc and say no to extras - I agreed to make a large amount of cakes for a friend a week before we moved....what was I thinking stress levels went through the roof[hmm}

Well done you, you are tackling everything head on and moving closer to what you want.

Will be watching for next positive development

Hi Barbarawoodlouse and Smurfs, still no news but I'm loving the ready meals idea.... M & S the patron saint of knackered mothers and home buyers everywhere!
I'll be in dire need of their pre-masticated ocean pie as I don't think I will have time to chew next week plus it's half term!
Fingers crossed and a big thank you for posting, its nice to know people are rooting for me

Any progress?

Hi Smurfs
still no answer. The more I think about this 2 week race to exchange contracts, the more I think we will end up losing the house. I could do it, but I would be asking the other 2 in the chain to do the same.

Another idea - in order to secure the house do people put down a deposit? I'm sure I have heard this happens somewhere - scotland, parts of europe? For us, say if we put £5k down (would this be enough?) though borrowing off parents, I hope we would get the sale agreed without the horrendous stress of trying to do it all in 2 weeks........

So many hoops!!

Afternoon Barking, apologies for the delay we had to troop off to the Dr's this morning DS has been having shocking hip pain - Dr thinks it is nothing to worry about and just the tail end of the Chicken Pox but I am so glad I waited in Dr's for over a hour

The 2 weeks to get to an exchange is asking a lot however it can be done and also it is one of those scenarios whereby if you had got most of the paperwork done and you were waiting on one aspect say the search to come back or the mortgage offer then the Vendor would be badly advised if he were to withdraw the contract as he would have to start again from scratch. In these things there is always a period of grace if negotiated well. We put forward our asking price offer on the basis that the dream property was withdrawn from the market for 4 weeks to give us a chance to get our property on the market and sold - I love a bit of pressure it was actually 9 weeks before we were under offer but I kept them informed and came up with a few little lies along the way and juggled many plates!

If there is a bit of reluctance from your buyer to go at this speed and if it looks like you will lose dream house because of the delay you could always offer to pay part your buyers and their buyers (the 2 bottom links in the chain) legal fees - say £200-£500 (depending on region) a piece as their solicitor will charge them more if the paperwork has to be turned around quicker than the standard 8 weeks to get to an exchange with a completion 4 weeks thereafter.

I would take the advice of your solicitor with regards to a non returnable deposit. I would be more inclined to keep the £5k that you could get your hands on easily from your parents in reserve so that if you need to increase your offer to blow somebody else out of the water you have the ability to do so.

It all comes down to money at a time when finances are stretched...doesn't seem fair but not as unfair as Stamp Duty - we had to pay nearly £26k in stamp duty - that hurt a lot I could have had my aga quicker without that....still haven't got it yet, hopefully next year

I will keep checking to see how you are getting on

Hi Smurfs - your poor ds and poor you - we tend to get forgotton about looking after the patient, it has made me realise I could never ever be a nurse!

I went in today, they are still having viewings, they said we are in a good position but they are also contacting all the people that viewed last week to see if they want to pursue things further (how could they!! surely they would phone them?) they did say the owner might be making up his mind tomorrow..........I suspect they may phone up to ask for best and final offer, even though we've increased it twice from original offer to the asking price

Good point about the potential other uses of the £5k, I had never thought of that - thank you, It had never occured to me about an extra charge for lawyer going super fast.

So you managed to negotiate with the seller to take the house you wanted off the market before you had even put yours up for sale???? God your good - you deserve your Aga after that

Maybe I'll be asking you this time next year on mumsnet:
"Help I'm in the middle of Fired Earth hell and the snippy saleswoman won't give me an Aga discount!'
Hold the dream!!!

Oh My God - We've got it!!!!!!!!!

Here's the tricky bit, we have up to 3 weeks to exchange, they have cash buyers with lower offfers waiting in the wings....
They said owners went with us becausef our offer,
and we were there from the beginning and the groundwork was done with regards to getting letters to them from our mortgage company and solicitor. There are still lovely people in the world!

Thank you for your support Barbarawoodlouse and Smurfs
Smurfs - hope your little one is ok and is more comfortable today. I saw your thread last night x

Well done, Barking! How fantastic (followed your thread, but didn't quite know what to say before ).

Message withdrawn

Hurrah for lovely people! I am over the moon for you Now work, work , work and get it exchanged and then huge amounts of champagne to be consumed keep us updated daily we need step by step progress reports....you will get your house!

Can't believe I didn't see thread earlier...now where are my glasses!?

Great news!

Now get that survey booked

ShinyDysonhereIcome - tis done, I've got my leopard costume on
Fimbo and Mellowma - thank you for kind words , I still can't believe it, just got to convince the surveyor that with our equity - woolaway not a problem., We might know if we get the formal offer by monday.

Sorry so brief yesterday barking.....actually that is probably a good thing It really is wonderful news that it is all moving in the right direction. It is lovely to see common sense prevailing - you were always going to be a better buyer than an investor/developer/cash buyer so the Vendor is being sensible.

In many instances buyers who say they are cash actually mean they can get a mortgage That was my greatest bug bear when I was an Estate Agent so I would always insist on seeing bank statements that had the cash in black and white or I would not put the offer forward as Cash. So don't worry unduly about the other cash offers. They will I am sure drift away as the process moves on - if they are investors they would not just have been looking at your Drean House but other projects.

Once the survey is complete you will have the amjor hurdle out if the way and the rest should be straight forward. Is your buyer ok with the timescale?

Smurfs