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 don’t think it’s more likely that they are up to something dodgy than it is that they just haven’t removed the house from a third party sales site. I have definitely sold houses before that have stayed up on RightMove and had friends/neighbours say ‘ohh, I thought you said you had sold your house’.

If you want to put a note through the door you can. Apparently some times EAs do not pass on offers because they want to sell to a Particular buyer. Eg because they have a tie in to a mortgage broker for a buyer. Or there may a linked sale.

Also it costs EAs to be on Rightmove . If it’s not showing as SSTC I would expect it to be either open to offers or off the market and not on Rightmove . It’s odd

Yes I would expect it to be SSTC too.

It’s not even like the EA is using it as a marketing tool and taking down details/offering alternative properties when you enquire on this one. They can’t get off of the phone quick enough.

The agents have told you it’s sold and the position why are you wanting to keep hounding them. When my brother sold his house he said the same he didn’t want any more offers, he was hounded and hounded so much it was unbelievable, he even got people writing to his neighbours saying could they get in touch with us . It’s sold move on and find something else.

How many times do you need to be told “No”?

Accept you’re not going to be buying this house, move on and spend the time you’re wasting speculating/complaining about this on trying to find somewhere else.

But the sellers HAVE decided what they want to do. They want to proceed with the offer currently in place and to not hold any further viewings.

No need to be so rude.

If the property is sold it should not be actively marketed by being on Rightmove.

Yes people can go a bit mad when it comes to buying & selling houses.

And in this case as a probate sale, there might be all sorts going on - heightened emotions, maybe siblings having to agree on things they don’t really see eye to eye on. If it’s a decent offer I can certainly see them saying “yep that’s fine, we”ll wait for them to sell, we don’t want to deal with any more offers.”

Well. Thy can take it off the market then 🙄

Sounds a bit odd. If you were to offer the agent is obliged to put this forward to vendor - but difficult to know what to offer if not seen inside.
I know you have already tried but maybe go back to agent and ask them to explain a bit more - eg is there a grace period for current offer - are they fully proceedable (as you have said you are). If you do decide to offer put it in writing and clearly state you have no dependent sale etc
Might be there is an explanation in which case would be helpful if agents were transparent.

That may well be an estate agent admin/laziness issue. They may think it is off the market. Or it may be waiting for the memorandum of sale (that’s what our EA waited for before marking it as SSTC).

Even if there is something off by the EA what can you do about it ? Unless you know who the owners are the EA are the gateway to it now. If you really feel that strongly about it , maybe go into the office and see the reaction when you make an offer or ask for details .
The other side is that the vendors have accepted an offer and are doing the right thing in allowing them time . I accepted an offer from a nice family on my parents house . No mortgage so no pressure on me time wise.

Well. That’s not the OPs fault. Not sure why people are giving her / him a kicking 😵‍💫

We insisted that our offer be put to the seller (subject to viewing) and we ended up buying the house. Legally they have to pass on the offer.
Likely they are getting a back hander from a builder so dont want to pass on.

Hounding?! I’ve made a couple of phone calls.

If they are wanting no more offers; they shouldn’t have it listed as for sale!

And each. Time they’ve said no. Unless you don’t understand the word no they’ve told you their position so you don’t need to ring over the house any longer.

How is it rude? The OP keeps calling and every time she is told she can’t view the property. It’s time to get the message!

It’s all very well saying it shouldn’t still be on RightMove. Maybe it shouldn’t. But OP has been told it’s no longer available and that’s that!

I know someone trying to sell their house and their big name, higher end estate agents are absolutely hopeless.

I have similar experience both as a purchaser and a vendor.

A local house is still listed as SSTC and the new owners have lived there well over two years.

You could browse this link for the Agent's code of practice
Codes of Practice | The Property Ombudsman and maybe even contact the Ombudsman to see what they say about a property not being available whilst still being actively advertised for sale.

I've read other responses, but would be concerned about the owners being deceived.

There is a very popular agent in my area that operates I would say on the very edge of the law. Not acknowledging offers by simply not replying to emails, covertly encouraging bidding wars, pre-sorting interested parties and restricting viewings. I've tried to view through them and haven't made the cut with them. BUT due to their ability to massage higher offers are very popular with sellers. I have a relative that bought through them and despite not providing all keys to the property then proceeded to block all requests about it.

They're horrible BUT get lots of properties because they get the sales. I'd never sell through them because they're so dodgy but most in my area do.

I've come to the conclusion that there is no point dealing with them because they can't be held to the usual EA standards.

Good grief, there are some real green eyed unpleasant posters popping up on here.