Estate Agents not letting us put in an offer?

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Hi all. We have no experience with dealing with estate agents so I was hoping someone would be able to advise on the below!

We really want to put in an offer on a property. It’s listed on Rightmove (and has been for 5 weeks), and is a £900,000 house on a street full of £2m+ properties. The area is full of elderly people in average properties that are then typically snapped up by developers and resold for insane amounts.

I initially rang hoping to view the property after it has been on the market for 2 weeks. I was told that there are to be no more viewings as the seller has accepted an offer in principle, but was waiting for them to sell their own house. End of call.

I rang back a week later and asked about the house again as it was still on RightMove. I was told that it was still on Right Move as it hadn’t sold as the seller was waiting for the buyers own house to sell. I asked if I could view as I may want to put an offer in too and was told no as the buyer had accepted the sellers offer (then surely it should be taken off of Right Move?).

A couple of weeks on and the house is still available to view. I rang off of another number and was told the same story again.

Can anyone shed any light onto this? Surely if the sellers are waiting on the buyers to sell, then they may still be interested in receiving new (potentially higher) offers? I can’t help but think something dodgy is going on by the estate agents as the house is such a bargain in a very desirable area.

Is it showing as SSTC on Rightmove? You could always post a letter to them?

The seller could easily have said they don’t want to do any more viewings and are happy to wait for the people who have made an offer to sell their house.

No it isn’t. It’s still listed for sale.

The house is empty (it’s probably somebody selling as a relative has died) as I had considered knocking on the door. But nobody lives there.

But why wouldn’t it be removed from Right Move/their own website then?

Estate agents often leave properties under offer up so when people call to enquire they can suggest alternatives that are also on their books.

Because it looks good for them. People call them because they're interested, EA says oh sorry that one's under offer, here are some other ones we've got.

That does seem odd. It's unusual and unwise to accept an offer from a buyer who isn't in a proceedable position - why would you? I'd be tempted to put a note through the door of the house. I've bought and sold, and rented, many properties over many years, and experience has taught me that EAs generally are not to be trusted.

Yes for sure. However this estate agent hasn’t done this. Just taken our details incase the house doesn’t sell and they’ll let us know.

Just to add, we are cash buyers too.

No idea. Our house only listed as SSTC once the memorandum of sale was done. Maybe because they’re waiting for the buyer to sell, that hasn’t been done yet. Maybe it’s a really good offer so the sellers are happy to wait. Maybe they know the buyers so are happy to wait.

They won’t have removed it to try and keep interest in the property incase the offers is pulled. It’s surprising they haven’t asked for your name and number incase this happens.
It also looks good for the agents having more properties on their site. The seller also may of asked for it not to be taken down until it has actually sold

EA have a friend or developer that they are selling it to.

This is exactly where my mind has gone to, too. The area is very desirable and not much comes to market at this price in the area (all snapped up by developers).

This.

If the house is such a bargain, it’s possible the offer they have is already significantly higher than asking. You don’t know the buyers circumstances, they might have a personal connection which means they’ll offer even more than “financially” makes sense.

The offer is still high risk of falling apart if the buyer can’t sell or the seller gets fed up of waiting. You have to be off Rightmove for a minimum of 14 weeks to “refresh” the listing so there’s no benefit to taking the ad down and putting it back up. By it staying up, they can continue to take names and numbers for people who would be interested if the sale falls through.

If I put an offer in without viewing, is the EA obliged to pass onto the seller?

If this were the case, I would have thought the EA would explain a bit further. Yet it’s just a blanket “accepted an offer but they need to sell”.

I’d pop a note through the door. Even if the house is empty, someone might see it if the go and check on the house. You’ve nothing to lose! Empathise you’re cash buyers and they might be tempted.

If this was the other way around and you’d had an offer accepted to buy the property, would you think it ethical for someone else to keep
chasing up the agent to try and offer more?
Yes the fact it’s on rightmove still is annoying, but presumably you didn’t get an early viewing?
Many people I know are ok the database of estate agents so that they get potential early viewings pre marketing - especially as as you’re such strong buyers? Worth a try for future properties.

Depends what the seller has asked them to do. The seller can say they don’t want to know about any offers that meet certain criteria.

In this case, it sounds like they’ve said “we don’t want any more offers now we’ve accepted one” so whether you’ve viewed it is moot.

i think estate agents leave properties on right move as a way of promotion ie look how many properties we’ve been asked to sell
our contract with an agent ended (no sale) and our property stayed on Rightmove for ages

What would they explain further though? What they’ve said is all you actually need to know. It probably didn’t occur to them that you wanted them to explain the minutia of their marketing strategy.

I rang to view within a couple of days of it being on the market. I was told I couldn’t view as they had done enough viewings and had accepted a chain offer.
We are on this estate agents database and received no emails regarding this property.

Perhaps explain why it’s still on Right Move when it’s not available for sale?

By leaving the advert up, it’s incited you to call back several times and weaken your own future negotiating power. It’s likely other people are doing the same.

So the seller has a buyer in hand, but has also now gained a pool of backup buyers who have shown their keenness and put themselves in a weaker negotiating position going forward.

It’s not sold yet. The memorandum of sale hasn’t been completed.

But again- why do they need to explain anything to you? You have the facts that matter to you: you can’t make an offer now, we’ve taken your details in case things change. Anything else isn’t really your business.