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.

I hope this isn't the case but...When I bought my first house there was a local estate agent who advertised houses for sale but wouldn't allow viewings on some of them (they are already under offer, sale is proceeding at asking price etc). I am in a related business and realised it was always the tatty, owned by an elderly person without any nearby family, type houses. I repeatedly asked to view and was always told no, they aren't taking any more bookings. We did some digging and they always seemed to sell to one of two builders and there was a conveyancer who operated from the back of his premises- it was clear that he was telling the seller that there was no interest despite long periods of advertising and his builders were buying them cheaply. I was given a survey of one which was shocking, and massively exaggerated which I found out was done by his brother. It was an absolute racket.
Before we realised there was a scam operating, I was offered a property as a direct purchase (we'd mail dropped the street) and asked the surveyor to look at it. He phoned to say he'd driven past, discussed it with the estate agent and it was subsiding and had other problems so he would save our money and not look at it. Got a call from the seller the following day to say the builder had been round and offered her cash to sell it to him...

Can I ask where this is (what region)?
I have a strong suspicion of this sort of thing.

They have probably paid for 3 weeks for the listing so might as well keep it on there for marketing. It’s very likely it’s gone to investors or a mate. Seems unlikely to be a long chain. They are obliged to put your offer forward so you could email it to the agent but you haven’t seen inside? They can also give the offer but add their opinion so it doesn’t mean the buyers will take it very seriously.

I'd look through the electron register and get the owners name, or look on land registry where you can get the name of the owner for £7

Then do a search, similar to the hier hunters for the people dealing with the estate and contact them directly. They may have put a notice in the gazetteer, have an obituary or a funeral note online. Look to see whom they were married and find their children. It can be done but may take a bit of searching

Nobody lives in the house, but the neighbours might know the name of the owners or more about the family. Though if its all flats more unlikely

We sold a house not long ago in similar circumstances. A lovely family had came to view it but needed to sell their own house first, they were desperate on ours so we decided to give them time to sell. Our EA was continually pestered by two others desperate to buy it who were told they’d be contacted if the sale fell though. They went round neighbours, put notes through the door, emailed the EA and were calling every few days to ask if the sale had been completed. It put us right off them tbh and if the house sale hadn’t gone through I’d have sold to anyone but them, they were a right pain in the arse. The original buyers just needed a little bit more time and we were happy to wait for them to sell. The EA don’t owe you an explanation.

I understand what you mean OP

it’s really difficult when you have to sell your own house and can’t live with relatives easily freeing up money

we have tried with a couple of houses which are probate or have an elderly person needing a care home

i think the estate agents are definitely dodgy and perhaps they get an incentive from a property company or builder?

also they may favour buyers who are already selling with them?

Send a letter via the postal service, the seller may have the post on a redirect so it reaches them wherever they are

It's no longer available. Move on. Whether or not it's on Rightmove makes no difference. There's no law saying they have to take it off the website. Move on. There's always another property.

If they don't get to exchange of contract stage, then it'll be re-listed. Wait for that.

It's a business deal: don't get so emotionally involved & stop sounding so righteous!

If you are serious about buying something, talk to the agent, explain what you're looking for, be straightforward about your situation (are you chain free, are you a cash buyer, is your mortgage all good to go?). THen if something comes up the agent will contact you.

But I'd be willing to bet that if you wait, the property may come back on the market.

Totally irrelevant. You sound as though you think they're breaking some sort of law.

Chill. Otherwise, you'll be taken for a ride.

You seem very pushy and entitled OP. They are following instructions from the vendor and dont have to give any more viewings or accept offers if they don’t want to. It’s still on Rightmove because they have chosen to keep it there. Just because you want something doesn’t mean the world has to bend over backwards to an accommodate you.

Sorry about your 900k house hun x

Why is everyone wanting to pester the seller directly when the OP has been told by the EA that the house isn’t being viewed and an offer has been accepted. We were bombarded by two different people who wanted to buy when we sold my aunts house that had been left to us. The sellers have made their position clear for goodness sake, take no for an answer.

I also suspect the EA has some builder mates and is getting a backhander for alerting them to the juicy properties. I’d send a letter to the house saying you can see it’s still up for sale but the EA is not letting you view, and that you are a cash buyer and ready to proceed.

This. We dealt with an estate agent doing this, extremely stressful as it was a small town and they had the majority of houses.

When that happened to us we found out later that one of the agents bought it at much less than we would have offered. A long time ago now but I would bet it still happens.

It may well be being purchased for redevelopment, especially in an area where that is the norm.

If no one is living in it, it’s probably a probate sale and the owners aren’t likely to be in a hurry. It doesn’t matter whether it’s listed or not; no more offers are being accepted, so it’s best to look elsewhere.

Is there a board out? If so you could just knock the door or a put a note through and ask directly what is happening. (Even if there isn't a board if you can identify the property)

The agents are compelled to take your offer.

When we made the offer on our house it was on the terms that no more viewings were allowed. We would’ve withdrawn our offer if we found out someone else had been to view.

It did take ages for the estate agent to take it off RM though, I assumed they were just lax at admin or liked to look like they had as many properties as possible up.

Not if the owners have said they don’t want to hear about other offers

Tell that to the agents! But also unless you get to view it's a bit rash to make a blind offer.

That’s what you took from this post 😂?

Yes. I’m guessing the agents may not be passing on all of the interest in the property so that they go with an initial weak offer (by somebody linked to the EA).

The EA has made their position clear - this doesn’t necessarily mean this is the seller’s position.

Pushy and entitled?! How have you got that from my posts? Is it pushy for wanting to ensure that the EA takes my interest/offer in a property to a seller (which they are currently not doing), and letting the seller decide what they want to do?