Agent lost us an offer

[Affol]

We listed a few months ago for £250k. Had very little interest.

Reduced to £240k. Had a few more viewers. Someone offered £230k cash buyer with no chain.

We wanted to see if the other viewers would offer. Agent said this would be the best approach. One other viewer showed interest and said would be making an offer.

Agent emailed offeror of £230k and said there was “another offer, please submit your best and final offer by 9am”. They took a while to come back and said “Thanks - go ahead and accept the other offer, we are not entering into a bidding war, so we withdraw our offer.”

The second interested party then offered £235k but a long complicated chain including probate sale and with a mortgage!

Argh!

Sounds like they called the agents bluff. They need to go back and see if they can get them back on board if you'd prefer their offer.

Seems like the agent was just following your instructions. They couldn't know that the prospective purchaser would pull out. That's the risk you take when you pit one buyer against another.

The agent was doing their job and doing what you asked of them. Neither your nor they can predict how others will respond.

We wanted to see if the other viewers would offer

Surely that lost you the offer? You had the option to take it but wanted to wait, the prospective buyers called you on it and said they are not interested in proceeding on that basis which is their right.

It now puts you in a weak position as if I was that buyer and the Agent now came crawling, I’d know it indicated that 230 was the best you could get and therefore I’d say I’m only interested in proceeding on the basis of 220 and may negotiate up to 225 but likely not if it was an active negotiation, again, it would tell me there was no offer close either made or you wanted to take. Sometimes you gamble and win, sometime you gamble and lose. In this instance you came out on the losing end.

I'd ask the agent to go back and explain there has been a higher offer but their position isn't as good so you want to see if they're still interested.

The agent wasn't following instructions. The agent outright lied to the first buyer, as there was no second offer, just a second buyer who had indicated that they would be making an offer. The offer hadn't been made yet, so their statement was premature and did not reflect the factual state of affairs at the time.

I've reread the op and you're right. I misunderstood the situation.

Did the Agent say another offer had been made or they have other parties who indicated they will be making offers. The first scenario would be untrue, the second would be true so it’s really the wording of ‘there are other offers’ that needs to be clear to see where this lands?

@Affol what happened in the end?