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.

Right and the strongest offer is in the EA’s best interest as if this offer falls through 6 months down the line and they get dumped they lose their commission.

If you’ve had an offer accepted you know it ain’t over until you’ve exchanged and anything can happen. Any buyer knows that if they have a house to sell they’re at risk from cash offers.

Because we wanted our house to go to someone who was a first time buyer or someone moving up the property line so to speak. No interest in selling to a developer (normally cash buyers) and if someone had enough cash to buy it outright they were very unlikely to be this type of buyer.

In the past the only chain I've had fall down was a cash buyer who broke the chain.

I know many won't agree, but my point here is it's entirely up to the seller who they sell to.

We had a few offers, we did not take the highest offer.

There was a BBC documentary about this sort of behaviour several months ago.

Never trust an estate agent. They usually work on commission so if someone could potentially offer more, why on earth aren't they going back to the seller! One thought, they could be selling more than one house in the chain and don't want to break it. But that's not working on the sellers (as an individual) best interests.

I'd definitely put a note through the door but be careful of how you word it. When I was selling, I had lots of agents and all sorts putting letters though the door, pretending to be cash buyers but really they worked for estate agents. They went in the bin.

They usually work on commission so if someone could potentially offer more, why on earth aren't they going back to the seller!

1. We have no idea what the current buyers have offered
2. More importantly, an offer is often made conditional that any booked viewings are cancelled and no further viewings are booked.

I’ve dealt with 3 estate agents in the last 12 months and I can categorically say I do not trust them. Lots of underhand tactics are employed that skirt legalities!

Is there no longer an under offer banner?

We did exactly the same with my aunts house. We were offered ££££££ over the asking price buy cash buyers, my aunt wanted her home to go to a family moving up the property ladder or first time buyers. It was first time buyers with a young family that bought her house.

Sounds completely normal to me. We offered asking price on our house on the absolute proviso that no one else viewed. We were the first to view. It had not yet gone onto RM and went up a couple of days later and the board went up the day after we offered.

One other place we were interested in, they took an offer from someone who allegedly knew the original builder and the vendor then refused to let others view or offer.

So I have been on both sides of this. It is great when it works in your favour, get over it when it doesn't.

It’s rare for developers to operate wholly in cash. Most use some form of external debt (eg development loans or bridging finance) to leverage their capital. They’re not going to use all their own cash as equity.

Quite apart from the fact that the property needs to have scope for development to be of interest.

I’m going to add “cash buyers are developers” to my MN myths log.

You are a complete dimwit. Of course the agent is saying no. Do you have even the most basic understanding of this process?

😆😆😆

Several posters saying to contact the neighbours to circumvent the agents. They must imagine people are desperate to control a former neighbour’s house sale.

In reality, they don’t give a shit.

.

If the house is under-priced than they very likely want someone they know to have it cheap, probably to avoid the buyers hitting a stamp duty tax threshold.

The sellers do not want you to have the house, OP, it’s meant for someone else.

Never trust an estate agent. They usually work on commission so if someone could potentially offer more, why on earth aren't they going back to the seller! One thought, they could be selling more than one house in the chain and don't want to break it. But that's not working on the sellers (as an individual) best interests.

Estate agent commission is typically somewhere between 1 and 2% - normally more towards the 1. Even if the estate agent in this story is working on 2%, it would take an offer of £100k more for them to even make an extra £2k. And how often do you think offers vary this wildly?

Let’s say OP makes her cash offer at £20k more than the current offer. The difference in commission could be as little as £200. Why do you think the agent cares?

When I sold my first property the estate agents never changed the ‘For Sale’ sign to ‘Sold’. The sign still said for sale on the day I moved out!

What a charm you are.
Of course I understand the process, in more detail than perhaps you even care to imagine. But, I’m not the one who showed up on MN making up stories about OP not wanting the seller to pay commission.

I didn’t “make up stories”. I presented a scenario.

You are proving my point.

I'm aware some don't, I didn't say all are. However, I can say my first property had 3 cash offers from developers when selling. 👍🏻

That's a jump! They have told the OP the situation and yet they just won't accept it
What they want to do is guzump.those who have put in the offer.

EA has done nothing wrong here, move on and find something that is available or wait and see if the house falls through.

Put a note through the door to the owners and explain you are a buyer who can proceed and everything else - also ask is the estate agent selling to someone he knows as this is illegal and dodgy

It's really none of your business and you come across so entitled. I work in property, my family used to own an estate agency business and my mother is currently selling her house. Properties are generally left on rightmove, zoopla and other portals until the sale has gone through because sales often fall throgh. Once the process gets a bit further along the agent may then update the listing to say "sold subject to contract"
my mum has had three sales fall through on her house and it's been left on the all the property portals for the entire period.

We had similar when we sold our last house, one very pushy buyer who would turn up at my door and put notes through the letterbox. It makes the whole process very stressful especially when you’re paying an estate agent to deal with this. The house was under offer which I kept pointing out as well as to deal with the estate agent and not directly with me.
edit to add the house was still showing as being on the market until official paperwork completed

Have a search on the local planning and building conteol database and see if anything has been done to the place in recent years, you may find details of the owner that way, then you can try to contact them directly. I would also ask neighbours if they have contacts for the owners. Time to not be shy when there is opportunity involved.

. I would also ask neighbours if they have contacts for the owners.

OP (with more social awareness than some on this thread) has said she doesn’t want to do this.

If a lady knocks on your door, a few months after your elderly neighbour dies/goes into a home and after an estate agent board has gone up, and she explains that they have asked to view the house but been told it’s under offer, do you really hand over the number that the neighbour’s kids gave you for an emergency?

Or do you look vague, say “I’m sure the estate agent is handling it” and shut the door quickly on the strange lady??