Why would estate agent do this?

[cuppa18]

we viewed a property in September last year and loved it, in many ways the perfect future house for us but available a little too early by a few years from a financial point of view. it was listed with a guide price and my understanding is that it can be “normal / acceptable practice “ to offer 10-15% under guide price… we could have afforded 10-15% at a stretch, but we were then informed the house had been extremely popular and they wanted at or over the guide price, we realised we couldn’t compete and regretfully backed out. Perhaps we should have tried an offer anyway but didn’t want to waste their time or look cheeky. we later heard they had an offer at guide price which they’d accepted, so we figured it wasn’t to be and left it at that. As we understood it the sellers hadn’t found anywhere to buy yet but their buyers didn’t need to sell anything to proceed (so assume they had already sold or were cash buyers). The estate agent asked us if we’d like to be kept informed if anything changed and we said yes please. Fast forward to January and the estate agent has emailed me out of the blue to say they wanted to let us know they are still keeping us in mind for the property, that the sale is a little slower than they’d like, largely due to the house their clients want to buy…. Why do you think they would do this? Do you think the buyers are threatening to pull out? Have pulled out? Should we make an offer? Should I call the estate agent to ask what’s happening or will they be unable to tell me anything? (Sorry if that’s a stupid question!) I’ve been thinking about this house ever since we viewed it and I really love it…. I should mention we haven’t sold our house yet but have had it valued, I’m not looking to move anywhere else unless it was this house, there’s just something about it which I can’t seem to let go of! Sorry that was such an essay… any thoughts from more experienced property buyers appreciated! Thanks.

There isn't a secret set of rules you need to follow. Their buyer might be slow and they might be interested in re-marketing. It might be the buyer has been negotiating and they aren't happy about it.

Doesn't really matter. If you are still interested then just say so. If you still aren't procedable you might not be considered but there's nothing to be lost from being honest.

They'll be looking for houses to sell, and if the sale isn't going to plan and they think it might fall through (1 in 3 sales do) they're just being good estate agents.

That's quite rare, give them a call, let them know you would buy the house but need to sell yours. If they genuinely think the sale might not go through get them to put yours up for sale on a no sale no fee option, even if they don't offer that negotiate hard - they'll take it for the listing and work hard to sell yours so they can sell the other one.

I've worked in estate agency for 15 years

@Forestspark thank you that’s really helpful :) especially the no sale no fee thing, I didn’t know that was a thing! I’m so new to this. do you think it’s worth letting them know our rough ballpark figure we could afford before formally “offering” so they can let us know if we’d be anywhere near what the sellers might accept? Ideally we’d like to look round again too as it’s been a while plus we could see the house in a different season, but that may be too much faff from their point of view at this stage and I’m not sure anything will put us off, it just feels weird offering from a viewing nearly 4 months ago!

Ideally we’d like to look round again too as it’s been a while plus we could see the house in a different season, but that may be too much faff from their point of view at this stage
Of course you can look round again. If they are having trouble selling they are going to want to be helpful. Even if they weren't struggling and it had just fallen through for one random reason you'd still be foolish not to view again.

In the back of my mind I might be concerned that the sellers might be using you as a bargaining tool against their original purchasers who are being too slow?
Are they going to tell the original purchasers that they have someone else waiting in the wings ready to buy if they can’t complete by x date? (I.e. you)….?

Yes @cuppa18 definitely! Say you would like to offer them xxx amount subject to the sale of your own home, and see where it goes.

There's lots of false info and bad advice when it comes to selling your house on mumsnet, but generally estate agents are interested in two things, listing your house above everything else, closely followed by selling it. If you bear that in mind and think how you can use that to meet your end goal you're onto a winner!

Back when I used to value houses, I met so many people who were worried about putting their house up for sale, in case they didn't find/get the house they wanted. And I do get it, it's a big deal, and also I think in the U.K. we have some weird thing that not selling your house is seen as a 'failure' but honestly, put it up for sale, the worst thing that can happen is you don't get the house you want and you take yours off the market. Even if you let a buyer down in the end, it's not great but you've tried your best and if moving isn't right for you right now, you just don't do it - least you've tried and that's more important x

I would want to know more about the situation as regards the current sale. Has the buyer actually pulled out or given an ultimatum? You could request another viewing depending on the situation and give them the maximum figure you would be happy/ are able to pay. You could also agree to let them market your home but with no sale no fee and not tying in period caveats. The agent would presumably be very keen to achieve a sale for this property and even more keen to potentially achieve two sales.

FFS get a grip. Is this how young people are these days? Can you not deal with life without seeking approval from others!! If you liked this house then put in an offer, not based on what you read on social media but based on what you can afford. It will be accepted or it won't. If its not because its out of your price range then lower your sights

The sellers aren’t likely to ditch cash buyers for someone who needs to sell to buy. It’s more likely that the buyers are getting fed up that the sellers haven’t found anywhere.

Fwiw my home was under offer to another person when I found it and I kept badgering the agent asking if it had fallen through yet. It did eventually!

As far as we know the current buyers haven’t pulled out so the EA shouldn’t let you view the house & considering your own house isn’t sold yet, it’s even less unlikely. There’s no point worrying about how much to offer if the house is still SSTC and you’re not in a position to proceed. I think the first step is just to have a conversation with the EA to discover more about the situation.

Plus aren’t most house's advertised through EAs on the basis of no sale, no fee? You only pay upfront if it’s one of those online agents like PurpleBricks, surely?

'FFS get a grip. Is this how young people are these days? Can you not deal with life without seeking approval from others!!'

Are all middle aged/ old people so intolerant and rude these days?
Fortunately, no one else on the thread is.

Thanks for all the helpful comments, especially those from an estate agents point of view. Have been meaning to update instead of just vanishing…! I rang the estate agents to chat and they said the sale is currently still going ahead, surveys done etc but the top of the chain isn’t complete yet…. They said they’d let me know if the sale doesn’t proceed after all, I said we are very very interested, especially now we know the value of our house. So we shall see! I’m trying to be realistic and not get my hopes up but I do love that house!