Estate Agents not letting us put in an offer?

[Abcdefghijklmnoo]

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.

My house came off right move after it closed - as in the buyer had the keys. The sign came down two weeks later. It was my choice to not to receive any other offers. Some people aren’t interested in juggling competing offers and just want it done.

You could ask to be notified if the sell falls through and the seller is willing to entertain other offers.

All of this is perfectly normal.

This post has sparked lots of emotion, judgement (good or bad) and controversy and I dont know why.

You mention you aren't too familiar with estate agents and are asking for advice on if their communication or actions are normal and or following procedure and or ethical.

Simple answer: YES.

From the timeline, your first enquiry was after the advert had been live for 2 weeks. You say the house is a bargain price on a desirable road where done up properties go for 2mil+. Therefore, it is not unusual to expect that within that 2 week period there was a great deal of interest from buyers. It sounds like during that period before your initial enquiry, they had viewings and presented an offer which the vendor has accepted.
Typically although not always, people make offers contingent on no further viewings or offers.

I see your frustration and confusion on the basis that the house is clearly still listed as for sale on rightmove. This implies that other potential buyers should still have open access to view and make offers.

Unfortunately that is just not the case UNLESS the vendor has accepted the offer in principle and told the agent (and their buyer) they reserve the right to continue with viewings and listen to other offers. If they accepted the offer on the premise of no further viewings and gave those instructions to the agent then the agent is simply responding to enquiries under the instructions of their client - ie decline further viewings.

My property purchase was done with 2 different agents representing buyer and vendor on both ends....our properties (london) remained on rightmove until contracts were exchanged and only then did they become marked as sold.

Some buyers insist on the advert being updated to say under offer as a bare minimum once their offer is accepted but I dont believe that any agents are obliged to do so. It will never say SSTC until much further down the conveyancing process.

I had a similar experience when I was searching and made multiple calls and enquiries to agents to request viewings...asked why on earth it is still listed as for sale weeks or months down the line if an offer was already accepted. As people have said, it is a common marketing strategy and whilst irritating, not unusual at all. I asked to view a property that I loved but the agent stood firm and said no, the vendor has accepted an offer and wants to proceed so regardless of a new buyers position, ethically they were not willing to show the property... in honesty, I think thats completely fair IF someone's offer stipulates no further viewings.

As others stated, there is nothing at all stopping you from making a formal written offer via the estate agents putting forward your position as proceedable cash buyers. IF the vendors have not explicitly said do not show us further offers then yes, by law the agents must present it. So you have nothing to lose.

But the agent is absolutely in their right to decline interested parties to view once an offer has been accepted. It is therefore up to you to decide if you want to write a formal offer without viewing the property in person.

In my view (and I dont profess to be a property law expert or an estate agent expert), it really is quite simple.

Incredibly difficult to take the emotion or frustrations out of house buying especially in this hideous market but I think this post answers your original question objectively and simply.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do and I hope whatever the outcome is, you find a home that you love.

That's a good point. Or could it also be that it's a very high offer and they aren't interested in the stress of trying to get a tad more?

Yeah we had this years ago. Are you a first time buyer? If so agents don’t like to get them on doer uppers, mostly because they are in experienced buyers but also partly FTB’s do not have the requisite equity to make up any short fall in what the bank may be prepared to loan. My guess is a sale may have already fallen through due to reasons above. So they want an experienced buyer with plenty of cash.

She can ask whatever she likes about the house. There will be someone who knows someone who is connected to the house. They can always use the DM facility to conduct the conversation privately and in more detail if either party wishes to. That the executors may not be in the group doesn't matter. Putting myself in the executors position, I would not be happy to discover that the property were being undersold to a party to whom the agents were doing a favour at the estate's expense but keeping up the pretence of continuing to market the property all the whilst refusing viewings/other offers. That's one possibility. The other might be that the vendors want the person who has offered on the property to buy the house but in case they can't proceed in time, are checking how much other interest there is in the market so that they know if something like a sealed bid option would be viable. OP might end up annoying the executors by attempting to contact them direct or not: it's up to her to take the chance.

This post has sparked lots of emotion, judgement (good or bad) and controversy and I dont know why.

@Shuggie1 I agree with your advice and indeed your entire post apart from this - the controversy is because many posters (including the OP) seem convinced that the EA is a lying liar who lies.

I realise it is anti-social, but if you want to get a bargain in the ruthless game of property then you are going to have to put away feelings of shame or embarrassment to compete. I offered this advice because the OP seems really bothered by the situation, which suggests they really want this house. So in that case they need to push in and annoy people. It is how to get ahead in this world. If they aren't willing to do that then they need to let it go and move on.

Yes and that’s why, although there are circs where they favour developers or friends, I say they’re often just lazy or crap.

Once they have an offer they can sit back and focus on other houses. However, where they do care, and where they should shift themselves, is where the offer is relatively weak as is in this case. Offers dependent on a house sale can easily fall apart - at that point the seller may go elsewhere so they could lose seller, commission and marketing costs.

Where I agree with the pp that they do tend to favour their own interests when selling more than one house in a chain over that of the individual seller.

That sounds unlikely but as a first time home it was probably cheap. It must have been developable site.

This thread is so entertaining 😂 On one side you have voices of reason, on the other people openly encouraging harassing the neighbours and gazumping (which is commonly considered unethical) and creating conspiracy theories while clearly having no clue what the process is

So in that case they need to push in and annoy people.

Would you give out the contact details of your dead neighbour’s kids, if a stranger knocked on the door and asked for them? If so, I’m glad you aren’t my neighbour.

Pushing in and annoying people who have no obligation to give you what you want… seems unlikely to get you what you want.

But this is all speculation - purely on the basis of a listing not being updated!

Exactly!

I also don’t understand this conviction that people unknown to the OP would be all too delighted to jump in (on something that’s none of their business) and start telling a total stranger how to contact the vendors, just cos they saw a random post on a FB group.

Sounds iffy.
If they've accepted an offer it should be listed as sstc not for sale.
As OP was on the books with this agent, then she should have been informed about the property when it was first available.
The way the agents are responding is strange. I've never encountered any that wouldn't be falling over themselves to get a cash buyer.

Are they the sole agents, OP? I'm guessing so, hence the situation.

Do agents really do that “contact people on the books” thing any more? Or do they assume that everyone is looking on their website and/or rightmove and will be in touch through those channels?

(barring super high end “find me a mansion with a swimming pool and cinema room” type agents)

I thoight it was illegal for estate agents not to pass on offers to sellers, to stop this happening (EAs arranging low price sales with developer mates). That doesn’t mean they have to allow viewings but they do have to pass offers on.

The voices of reason are on the side of getting an offer to the agent. The rest is hysterical nonsense. Gazumping is a common part of the housebuying process & there are ways to avoid it as a buyer.

It’s very obvious who is experienced in buying and selling.

Just anecdotally my parents purchased a house that hadn't even made it to Rightmove.

My parents registered their details with an EA, they had a phone call out the blue from them to say a house that matched their criteria was coming to the market, no other details, my parents viewed the next day and offered full asking. It completed 8 weeks later.

The photographer hadn't even had chance to take marketing photos!

@Trevordidit interesting!

I am sure it happens. But I was querying this “should have been informed” - as if this was the general rule.

As OP was on the books with this agent, then she should have been informed about the property when it was first available

Op - we are in the midlands, a family and have had an offer accepted on a similar sounding house & on a similar sounding road, but ours is marked as sstc.
We viewed the property within a few days of it being advertised, our offer accepted & all other viewings cancelled.
This does happen, the only issue seems that because it hasn’t been marked as sstc you think something dodgy is going on, it’s highly likely it’s not.
I say this as there was a previous house we saw that we wanted to view which was being marketed through our own estate agent and we couldn’t view it as it had already sstc, but was still on rightmove for sale. Additionally, there were houses we had arranged to view but had our viewings cancelled because during the two days of us booking a viewing they had accepted another offer.
This is how the market works, if it’s a good house on a good road you need to act fast.
You have lost out on this house.
I am unsure of your circumstances but if you are a cash buyer, not a developer & are trying to find something suitable, then arranging a viewing over a week after it has been advertised is odd and way too late.
In my area, it would be more suitable to go for an auction property as lots are advertised and you can probably find something similar.
What I wouldn’t be doing is blaming the EA trying to imply there is some kind of a fiddle going on, simply because I missed out.
As I said, my family have had an offer accepted on something similar but it is marked as sstc. You probably have a similar situation, just the property isn’t marked as sstc so now are selfishly trying to get that house from the current buyers, who you presume are property developers, but most likely another family - why? Just because it’s not marked as sstc? Seriously?
As you have been repeatedly told, some agents don’t do that, there’s nothing dodgy about it & it is frankly not a good enough reason to try to effectively steal a house from someone else & it says more about you than the EA in my opinion.
You need to move on & as previously mentioned, if you are a true cash buyer then surely auction properties would be more suitable for you, then you can avoid the (in your eyes) dodgy EAs.

RTFT.

I swear this thread is going to run to 40 pages and on the last page will be someone saying they thought the EA legally had to pass on offers.

Cancel the cheque 😀

You have no experience of estate agents but have ignored all the posters pointing out that its not unusual for rightmove listings to remain static long after an offer is accepted or that agents will not take you to view if the owner has said “no more viewings”.

They are under no obligation to explain to you why the owner has accepted a particular offer (and it may be much higher than the asking price). This is the owner’s business.

It may be frustrating but you have told them you have a cash offer for the asking price available, they can do no more than keep you on record for if the sale falls through.

Are you looking to develop this property yourself for resale? (it may be relevant to the owner’s decision).

I’d still like to know how someone gets a £900k budget without ever having dealt with an estate agent before.