Not updated to SSTC or Under Offer

[bellamountain]

A house my partner and I are very keen on is available on Rightmove and has been since coming onto the market a few weeks ago. We've actually phoned up twice to enquire and the estate agent has told us the owners have already accepted an offer so it's not available to view. It even has an open day listed and that isn't actually happening even though they are advertising it as such. They said the new 'buyers' have to complete a due diligence but have yet to do. Would this really cause a delay in the status changing to SSTC or under offer? Both times I've called (over a week apart) they've tried to hard sell other properties we aren't interested in. Not sure if this is estate agent tricks or not?

Fairly likely to be true. Estate agents are trying to get a sale so putting people off if they've not secured a buyer would be a waste of their time. Sometimes vendors don't want sstc until things are fairly definite to maintain interest in case due diligence checks fail.

Had this happen to us recently. We even put a note through the vendors' door because I didn't believe the EA. Within about a week it was marked STTC. I can only assume some sellers are just darned weird.

It can remain showing 'for sale' after an offer has been accepted.

It will only show as sold once both sides have given the estate agent their solicitors details.

Mine was showing as 'for sale' for three days after I accepted an offer as my buyers weren't sure what solicitor to use and were getting quotes. As soon as they provided them it was changed to sold on RM and I was sent an email making it official.

Would that be the case if the sellers hadn't found an onwards purchase?

Depends on the estate agent - ours was “under offer” even after we’d exchanged contracts. KFH only moved it to “SSTC” once we completed. It’s still on there as SSTC now, and we moved in last week.

I think some estate agents just like making it look like they have lots of available houses 🤷‍♀️

No but also maybe at the same time.

Whilst the transactions are separate some people wont appoint a solicitor until they have got a sale and a purchase lined up.

Im going to go on a bit of a rant nownso feel free to read or skip.

Being blunt people need to sort things as soon as they go on the market. I spoke to solicitors and appointed one as soon as I went on the market. For my onward purchase they quoted up to the maximum my DIP and equity was for and when I gave them my purchase price I got a new quote.

Buying and selling is really not that hard but I tend to find people like to piss about. Perhaps I'm just too long in the tooth at 36 but being organised is not difficult. From my offer being accepted to just waiting on solicitors took me 2 weeks. In them 2 weeks I had my mortgage approved and survey completed. Any solicitors paperwork was signed and returned either the same day or following day at latest.

I imagine it's true OP.
BTW When we sold our house, the sellers asked if we would take it off the market immediately.