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Original poster

So what is your opinion of what an estate agent said to me

27 replies

spokette · 26/02/2008 08:47

DH and I have started to look at houses to buy and our own house will be valued towards the end of the week and put on the market asap.

I called an agent yesterday to arrange a booking to view a house and he asked about our position in terms of selling. I explained that we would shortly have our own house on the market. He then said that we should not even be looking at houses until ours was under offer. I explained that the house we wanted to view was typical of what we would like to buy and in the right area. He begrudingly agreed to contact the vendor and we will be viewing the property at the weekend.

Clearly the vendor had no problems with us looking at the property so why the attitude from the estate agent?

This is the first time we have become involved in selling and buying a property at the same time.

Do people wait until their own property is under offer?

What happens if your original buyer pulls out? Do you stop looking until you find another buyer?

Advice will be most welcome! We have only started this process and our stress levels are rising already!

OP posts:
flossish · 26/02/2008 08:49

I thought that the estate agent was right - but I'm in the same position as you (in first house) so I'm not totally sure TBH! It will still be useful for the vendors though if they get feedback!

peanutbear · 26/02/2008 08:50

I think its because the market is so slow there is no point in you putting in an offer on a house until yours is under offer

I have a house up North that is up for sale it now has 3 offers on it none of which I can accept because they havnt sold there houses at all

saying that I have found estate agents exeptionally rude whilst dealing with them

peanutbear · 26/02/2008 08:52

No its a pain if they have to clean there house from top to bottom for someone who house hasn't even been on the market yet

sorry to be blunt but we had a lot of this people just decided to sell came and looked I spent all day cleaning took the children out to find out they liked it but they hadnt sold there house yet

I moved out in the end!!!! and am letting the estate agent s deal with it

DualCycloneCod · 26/02/2008 08:53

ye si think you are wasistng time
no one takes oyu seriosuly til yours is under offer

chopchopbusybusy · 26/02/2008 08:55

The estate agent is right especially in the current housing market. Once you have a good offer on your house the estate agents will be much keener to show you what is available and will contact you as soon as something new becomes available - often before details are prepared.

SpacePuppy · 26/02/2008 08:57

Well I assume you would need to successfully sell yours first before you buy the next one. If you don't have the financial pressure of selling first then there should not be a problem. I would also think that it might be easier to get a mortgage if you have income from another sale?

missingtheaction · 26/02/2008 09:00

If your house isn't even on the market yet then i am not surprised the agent was sniffy - as peanutbear said, the market is slow and he doesn't want to drag round houses with buyers who are not going to be in a position to buy for ages. As a recent vendor, it is a total pain in the neck to tidy the house/mow the lawn for sightseeing visitors and i always gave the agent a hard time if he sent round people in no position to make an offer. He quickly learned that our first question when someone asked for a viewing was 'what's their position' and that this drove the amount of tidying up I did! I also refused viewers if he didn't know the answer. I did let some sightseers in, but tagged them on to real buyers so no extra tidying up.

You don't ahve to wait until your house is under offer before you look but you will be much more popular if your house is at least on the market (then the agents can check it out and see if it's likely to sell so see if you are likely to be in a position to buy!)

I personally wouldn't accept an offer from anyone who didn't have a complete chain behind them, and if that chain got broken then I would immediately put my house back on the market. As a buyer, what you do if you lose your buyer is up to what you think you can get away with.

Get Kirsty and Phil's book 'how to buy a house'. and some prozac or booze.

LIZS · 26/02/2008 09:01

I hated "timewasters" . You'll soon find what a hassle it is to arrange viewings and spend hours at awkward tiems clearing up only to find the viewers being very laissez faire or worse still not show up. I'd rather thave an EA acting like that on my behalf tbh.

Original poster
spokette · 26/02/2008 09:30

OK, obviously there is a huge learning curve that DH and I have yet to negotiate.

Thanks for the advice and I think we better stock up on some wine!!

OP posts:
wannaBe · 26/02/2008 09:33

think people looking at houses before theirs are even on the market are timewasters. It pissed me off no end when we had viewers like that.

Cappuccino · 26/02/2008 09:36

we put an offer in on a house when we didn't even have ours on the market; hadn't even had it valued

we looked at it, liked it, and got ours on the market as soon as we could

we live in new house now

sometimes you can do things the other way around

Cappuccino · 26/02/2008 09:36

and I resent being called a timewaster

TheBlonde · 26/02/2008 09:37

I am looking at houses and ours is not on the market. Not had any issues with EAs like this although I understand noone will accept an offer from us until ours is under offer

TotalChaos · 26/02/2008 09:37

while in principle I agree..... our flat was on the market for ages. Had to turn down an offer from someone who hadn't sold their house yet. fastforward several months whilst flat was on the market - and guess who sold their house and ended up buying our flat . problem with our flat was no garden/poor lighting as basement flat - our buyers were a gay couple who wanted to be in city centre for nightlife etc, so they weren't too fussed about the flat being in basement.

Original poster
spokette · 26/02/2008 09:40

The two houses we are viewing at the weekend are what we are looking for and if we like them, we would like to put an offer in on one of them. I don't believe we are time wasters, it just so happens that we have seen something that we really like before we have had a chance of putting ours on the market.

Hopefully in this slow market, the vendors will take us seriously, especially as one of them has been on the market for nearly 2 months with no offers.

OP posts:
Iota · 26/02/2008 09:43

I love my current house and there are very few houses that I would like to buy, so there is no way I would sell my house before I had found one that I liked better.

I guess I'll not be moving then

ConnorTraceptive · 26/02/2008 09:47

Our situation was exactly the same as cappucino's - although I can understand why the estate agent is cautious. When we put ours on the market one of our neighbours booked a viewing to be nosey and came and took photo's

noddyholder · 26/02/2008 14:43

Wait until you are under offer, the other way is a nightmare

flowerybeanbag · 26/02/2008 14:46

But spokette if it's a slow market and the vendor has had their house on the market for 2 months with no offers, why would it be any different with your house once it's on the market?

If it's taking the vendor a while to sell, surely the same may well apply to the purchaser, so reasonable for them to only want offers from people who are actually in a position to proceed, otherwise you could all be in limbo for months.

edam · 26/02/2008 14:50

when we bought this place, estate agent refused to take us seriously until the whole bloody chain was in place. Madness - not only had we got to sell our house (it was going on THE NEXT WORKING DAY after we viewed this house) but were expected to wait until everyone else in the chain had sorted themselves out!

Anyone who imagines they can be sniffy about viewings in this market is probably not doing themselves any favours IMO. So it's a pain in the bum to tidy up, that's all part of selling your house.

edam · 26/02/2008 14:51

AND we got two asking price offers the day our house went on the market (ie the next working day after we tried to put an offer in).

Iota · 26/02/2008 14:52

there are always options e.g.

some friends of mine bought a house before they sold their own - they rented it out for a year and then sold it

BrummieOnTheRun · 27/02/2008 10:31

Spokette, make sure you're not spending imaginary money on your next house.

Once you've had an offer accepted (IF you have an offer accepted) you are likely to be under immense pressure to sell your property at whatever price you can get.

Make sure you've factored in large discounts, and that your next purchase isn't based on an estate agent's valuation of the property you are selling.

IMHO in this market, you make money when you buy, not when you sell. Sell first, then negotiate hard on your next purchase.

nervousal · 27/02/2008 13:19

we looked at lots of houses before we had ours sold - we wanted to know what was on the market, what we would need to spend on a new place etc. We also wanted to be in position to move quickly once our own house was sold.

I agree its annoying when folk come to view who aren't in a position to buy - but thats all part of the process.

MrsMattie · 27/02/2008 13:23

We started looking before we were under offer, but nothing came of it because we weren't 'in a position to buy'. It gave us a good idea of what was out there, and hardened us up a bit (saw a few places we loved but didn't get, were even gazumped at one point...) which was all good practice for the 'real thing'. I don't regret looking, but you have to be realistic - most sellers are looking for a safe bet, and without the cold hard cash (or promise of it to come very shortly) they won't take you seriously.

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