We all know EA's fib... but what to believe?

[BlueBeam]

Driving myself crazy over here trying to avoid being whipped into panic buying mode...

Background: DH and I have seen the perfect house in a tiny village around an hour from where we currently live. We do think it's fairly priced however worth noting houses like this don't come up often due to the size of the village.

We've gone in with an opening offer £10k below asking, which we feel is fair in the current market. Our situation is we have an offer on the table for our house which we are happy with, but can't formally move forward with this as we are waiting for the buyers to confirm their mortgage (first time buyers).

We anticipate this to resolve within the week and have a completed chain under us. However, the sellers of the perfect house won't consider our offer until our chain is formally complete (which is totally fair enough!).

I emailed the EA to update him on our buyers and gauge what's going on with the house. Here's where I'm not sure whether to take it at face value, or if I'm being whipped into a frenzy...

Apparently, of the 2 further viewings we were previously made aware of, both 'loved it' and one has arranged a second viewing for this Saturday, with the view to make an offer. There is also a further first viewing going ahead on Friday.

Now, I know nothing we can do right now can change the situation, but I find it so hard to identify what's true and what's sales tactic! And I'm driving myself crazy over here!

Anyone got any theories? Or just prepared to offer some soothing words as we anxiously wait? 😂

I suspect he's telling the truth, you said yourself it's a fair price in a village where not much comes up for sale, it's unlikely you will be the only ones interested.

In those circumstances I would have offered full price and tried to get it off the market.

I've been through the buying and selling process recently and am as sceptical as they come about EAs and very mistrustful of everything they say! BUT in all our dealings with them they were telling the truth as far as we can tell, on everything e.g. when there were higher offers than ours on the table and they pushed us to best and final, we lost our to someone else.

So I would be inclined to believe what they say. Torture I know and all you can do is sit right and wait. It's probably not what you want to hear but as a seller I'd have done the same as your vendors and I think you have to be prepared for it to go to someone else. I know the market varies everywhere but where we've been looking everything has gone for (quite a bit) over asking price unfortunately.

All you can do is repeat to them what you have already told them. You can’t do anything to change the situation, (unless you can up your offer closer to the asking price) the vendors would be as well to remember that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but the EA arent going to remind them of that! They are probably making similar noises to the other potential viewers, it’s what they do. It’s a horrible situation to be in , my sympathies.

I think you are right that they are probably telling the truth in this instance... as annoying as that may be!

I think the reason I am so sceptical is because we previously showed interest in a house (through a different agent - who happens to be our selling agent) and caught them in so many lies. I've also caught them lying to prospective buyers of our house on the ring footage several times!

This has made us take everything EA's say with a HUGE heap of salt. Not nice feeling like you are being misled in such an important and expensive purchase!

But, you are right, we just need to wait it out and trust that if it's meant for us, it will all work out!

I wouldn't trust an estate agent to tell me the time.

Good luck, I hope it all works out for you 🤞🏻

If they are lying, what is the tactic behind that then, if you think its a sales tactic

They wont accept an offer from you until your house is 'sold', so if they are lying about this, that wont make a difference will it?

We are in a position to offer asking price, however as it wasn't a 'no' to our offer and as they aren't willing to open the negotiations before our chain is complete then we don't want to panic, jump the gun and end up paying more than we needed to!

Really frustrating but I feel like our hands are tied right now!

We registered with them before this house came on the market, so they know we have more in our budget than we have offered..

It’s is probably true there are other viewings.
However I just dealt with a very slippery agent who told me person making the offer had sold his house I assumed (never will again ) they meant he was a cash buyer. In fact I’d was estate agent ease for ‘he’s had an offer he’s accepted’.

But your offer wont be accepted without you having sold so I still dont get what they would gain by lying about this at this point

If you had a buyer, yes, perhaps they could lie and say someone has offered asking price and leave you open to go over the asking price, but thats not your situation right now

@BlueBeam Are you just waiting for your potential buyers to send the estate agents a decision in principle? Because they can get one online in 5 minutes so if that's the case I'd be getting your estate agent to chase them so that you can officially accept their offer.

I also think the estate agent is telling the truth but all you can do is offer what you think a house is worth.

Not that I believe EA about anything, it just doesnt make sense as a 'sales tactic' for them to lie at this point about this

That's so frustrating! We had an almost identical thing happen.. we accepted an offer from a previous buyer as our agent told us they were first time buyers, only for us to find out a week or so later than had TWO flats to sell before they could proceed!

I also had a different agent leave me a voicemail clearly intended for the seller of a house we previously offered on, in which he said I was currently in 'rented accommodation' 😂

Whilst they are probably telling the truth about further viewings this time, you can't blame me for being sceptical! 😂

I kept it simple in my OP but essentially - they had a mortgage approved for a lower amount than our house, saw our house, and have gone away and sought to increase their mortgage. If my selling agent is to be believed, they now have this approved in principle but are coming back to see it this coming Saturday to show parents etc.

The offer that's been discussed is agreeable to us so, I think it's a case of if the parents like it we can be off market by Monday... but then again I won't believe anything from my selling agent until it's in writing!

If you are absolutely desperate for this property, and it's really rare to come up, and you can afford it, you might consider upping your offer to 5k over ( or whatever you're happy with ) for them to take it off the market. And get emails confirming how close you are to setting up your chain etc. Anything you can think of to strengthen your offer.
If the agent is fibbing and this works out you'll never know.
I know some will think this is foolish and there's a chance you'll be spending 15k unnecessarily... and they might well be right! If I loved a house that much I'd give it a go nonetheless...
I'd also consider making another offer even after they accept a competitors offer... it'd only be a week or so in so I wouldn't feel too bad about this. You've made very clear your interest.

Best of luck!

@BlueBeam As a recent vendor I can honestly say the EA worked with me and their advice was very good. I just was not interested in speculative viewing. It was a bungalow and attracted viewings from dc whose parents lived miles away and had not put their house on the market. At the other end there were people who had the money in the bank. One of them offered near the asking guide price so they were the ones we went with. Your situation sits in the middle but have your buyers had their survey done? This holds things up too.

In the end we had a family crisis and the buyer would not wait. I had to get probate as DM died 2 days before completion. Four months later a new buyer offered more, had the money and completed. I do not believe the EA lied to anyone. We had 10 oriole view it on an open day. My ideal position was to get a cash buyer or first time buyer. The EA advised on the potential buyers who were best placed to buy in a reasonable timeframe. When your buyers have their mortgage you might be in a better position. If anyone is downsizing and already has the cash, you will be in a less good position.

I would incline to believe the estate agent. If you don’t want to run the risk of losing the house then I would offer the asking price if you still feel it’s fairly priced. I had a family member with a property on the market and received 2 x identical offers within 30mins of each other. Both identical offers were approx 8% below asking price. It went to best and final and one buyer increased their offer hence secured the property but the other buyer didn’t. It was a fabulous FTB property if I say so myself, I think the other buyer who refused to increase their offer must have been kicking themselves to miss out. They probably didn’t believe the estate agent either!

It sounds credible to me.

But unless/ until you’re in a position to proceed you can’t really do much anyway- I would just keep in touch with the estate agent and ask him to let you know if the seller is about to accept another offer.

You are right - we can afford the asking price but we would be hard pushed to increase on that. We offered 10k below expecting some negotiation (we were the first people to view it so we didn't want them rejecting asking price in the hope of getting above, which we are unlikely to be able to compete with...)

I think perhaps our best bet is to see what Saturday brings and hope we tie up our chain quickly, so we can increase if we need to!

You might also get your own estate agent to update your buyers and check that they know that there is a degree of urgency if they are expecting you to be able to get out of the house reasonably quickly (you could phrase it as “it might be some time before we find another property if we miss out on this one” or something similar).

That's a really good idea, thank you!!

I was a bit pee'd off that they asked for a second viewing before proceeding after they had pushed their offer so firmly, but I do understand it's a big purchase and they need to make sure they are happy.

Perhaps this will remind them that there are other puzzle pieces that will impact the sale and motivate them to not hang around!

I don’t think it would be an outright lie.

There probably is a good amount of interest in the house for the same reasons you like it. But you’re in a strong position to get an offer accepted soon so Good Luck no one beats you to it.