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.

Maybe if it is an empty property the vendors live far away, they have had an offer they are more than happy with and they have told the buyers that if they get a buyer within 3 months it is theirs

Sounds like a dodgy EA. Not unusual.

I saw a house I was interested in, good price but needed work. I knew the estate agent. He told me not to bother - as for probate reasons it had to go on open market by the executor to be seen to be getting best price. A family member was buying it ….

It sounds like the offer has been accepted with a grace period - ie giving the buyer time to sell their own property. However if we did that we would be taking names and phone numbers of anyone wanting to view. If you think there is something fishy going on pop a letter through the door but it does sound feasible. If you accept an offer and then let people still view you need to make the buyer aware

So you want to put in an offer to potentially gazump a buyer who got there first (just needs to tie up loose ends) and are annoyed you are not being given the opportunity to snatch the house you also like from under them?

They don’t have to offer to show you around but if you make an offer they still need to put the offer to the vendor. The house has not sold. Put your offer in writing to the estate agent via email. Then write a letter and post it through the door of the property, address it to the owner of the house and put your offer in writing stating that the estate agent will not let you view the property.

You can write a complaint to the manager of the estate agency. After that if it remains unresolved than you can complain to the ombudsman. Dodgy dealings with the estate agents that secure lower prices for themselves, friends or relatives, whilst completely unethical is not unheard of.

Yes, this can be the case too - I've been an executor in that position, with multiple beneficiaries.

One wanted the house, to be transparent I had to market it, get a few offers on the table and then go back to the relative and say, look, there is someone willing to pay x, are you prepared to match that.

And then it was sold to the relative.

Yep.

I'd see if you can figure out who owns it and drop a letter through their door.

I'd do just that.

Have only read to page 4 but I’m another one who thinks it sounds dodgy. It should marked on Rightmove as SSTC if they’ve accepted an offer. It won’t be lazy admin at the EA office, Rightmove is ridiculously easy to update and it’s been brought to their attention that Rightmove is still showing it as an active listing by OP if nobody else.

I don’t know what you can do about it OP but if the house is a bargain like you seem to think it is, it’s clearly the EA selling to a mate/developer and telling the sellers there’s no interest.

This doesn’t sound dodgy. Once an offer is accepted, no new viewings should take place.

I was really annoyed with the estate agents who sold me my house as they wouldn’t take the Rightmove ad down or even add that it’s under offer / sold STC. The ad was active and misleading people up until completion. I’ve been told that they are doing this to motivate the buyers to not drag out the process and submit all documents etc promptly. This would make sense in your case since the buyers need to find buyers for their own house, the agents probably want to make sure this happens asap. I’d speak to the agents and put my name down for viewings in case the sale falls through, you might get lucky

100% this

Just to say that a property CANNOT be marked as "sold" until certain criteria is met, including "proof of funds", which means "money in the bank", "firm mortgage offer" OR "certified proof of a proceedable offer on their own property".

Estate agents don’t care about honesty, they just want their easy commission. EA’s don’t normally let you view let alone make an offer if you haven’t already sold your own property stc. There’s definitely something fishy with this one!

When I sold a house back in the early 2000’s, the EA was giving the nod to a local buy to let landlord who was buying up properties in the area where I lived.

Luckily, I realised that something was amiss and I refused to agree to market it for the price the EA was recommending and I put it on at about 20% higher than he suggested. Prices were slowly climbing at this point.

I got an offer the very next day for just above the price the EA had suggested. Obviously, I refused it and said I expected them to market the property for a while before I’d consider any kind of reduced offer and surprise surprise, the buyer immediately increased the offer to the full asking price and the sale went through very quickly.

Don’t trust the EA to be honest and in your shoes, I’d write several notes and post them to the letterbox weekly until you hear from the actual owners.

Find a lovely card, put it through the letter box and put your offer directly to the seller. Make sure it is a tempting one

Leave your number. Say you were surprised the estate agent refused to pass on details but if they want to pursue it you're in a good position to proceed.

EAs always have developers as contacts, usually accepting back handers. Unfortunate for you, but it’s been going on for years 😣

Happened in our cul de sac. Was sold to a developer before the advert went up.

Jeez OP, if it's that important to you, stick a note through the door confirming you are an interested cash buyer ready to proceed.

What you are describing is common practice with estate agents. Annoying, but common.

I accepted an offer from a younger couple with a family ignoring later offers, because I wanted the house I was selling to remain a family home.

This is why they leave it on - so people can register interest in case the sale doesn’t proceed. They’ll come back to you if the seller wants to open it up to offers again. The estate agents want to make the sale so they won’t be just fobbing you off for no reason.

Estate agent or pal of EA is buying it at a good price is my guess. We had similar - fortunately EA was bought out by another company and house put back on market. We bought it but it took months.

They are legally bound to report any offer. Send one in and send via post/hand to property address.

She wants to put in a stronger offer for the buyer to consider. Nothing wrong with that.

As yet, she hasn’t done that, so the estate agent hasn’t refused to pass on an offer, given there is no offer.

It is possible that the EA has been instructed “no more viewings” as a condition of the offer currently accepted, which would be very standard, but that the EA may still pass on an offer if not explicitly told not to.

However, as a seller, I wouldn’t put much credence on an offer from a party that hadn’t viewed, and I would be acting contrary to my agreement with my potential buyer if I let them view, so the outcome would still be a “no unless it falls through”

And if the EA is trying to do some dodgy side deal with a mate, surely they would be more likely to take it off the website once the dodgy offer was accepted?!