Is this the quickest sale ever?

[suki1964]

Ok so I know technically Im not sold yet but I rang the estate agent on Tuesday . He came around to look around and to discuss marketing and price

Hour later he rang and asked if we could do a viewing within the hour as he had a buyer looking, so we said yes

Wednesday he came back to do the measurements, photos and video

Halfway through he takes a call, can he bring the viewers back without us there - sure

4pm Thursday hes back saying buyers have offered 5k over , are in position to proceed , everyone in their chain is , my new house I have on reserve will be ready in January, will I accept

Not even a brochure published and the house sold STC

We only thought about moving a week ago and now it seems we are

During COVID, cash was king here. Isolated houses with land, ponds, even a swimming pool. Agents would tell the seller it's a cash buyer. The sales were crazy.

One seller put their property on the market in 2022 after COVID because dad had died. Lovely house, but think 70s kitchen, bathrooms, decor four acres of woodland green swimming pool priced at well over a million. It eventually sold 40% lower four years later. It's all timing.

I agree. I've not lost any sleep over thinking that maybe we'd have got another few K if we'd pushed hard enough. You can't go through life thinking like that. We were happy with what we got, and at the time of putting it on the market, we thought it was a bit "toppy" anyway as other similar houses had sold for a bit less. We'd have accepted a few K less had the guy offered slightly under asking price and still been happy.

I also agree about the EA doing a good job. We chose ours out of 3 we got to look around because she actually seemed motivated and interested and was a sole-trader independent rather than a chain, and she clearly knew the market well. Looking back, it was obvious she had this guy in mind when she came to view it. We'd been stung by EA firms in the past when we were looking years ago - all promised to put us on their "hot" list because we were first time buyers with mortgage in place and large deposit, but we never received a single "lead" from any of them - again, mostly big chains who clearly don't care about personal service etc. I'd describe the woman we chose as being "quietly confident" rather than the others who promised the Earth.

We had 4 viewings, 3 really keen and the eventual buyers offered us 10K above asking price next day.

You should get two other estate agents to value the property before you think you have a good deal asp.

The agent is selling to a mate, and clearly not working for you. I'd find a different agent if they're grumpy with you at this point.

We had this all in all the house was sold within about 18 hours. The estate agent knew a couple who were buying a house further down the road then the sellers pulled out last minute and the couple really wanted that particular road.

Don't think it's a sign it'll all be plain sailing our buyers were a nightmare I completely understood why the other sellers pulled out by the end of it all.

A good agent may have a number of contract-ready buyers on their lists and will be matching up properties and purchasers. That said, that's a good agent. Most are pretty incompetent, IME of buying and selling half a dozen properties or so.

18 hours? So you must have accepted the offer in the early hours of the morning?!

Please don't count on it going through. DS had several over asking offers back at the beginning of May and went with first time buyers.
They're now trying to gazzunder at the last minute ☹️

I instructed agents at 9am, had a phone call at 2pm to say I'd had an offer. The buyer knew there were problems with the management company and had offered a really good price considering (recent sales in block had been at a lower price).

On top of that he made an offer on my husband's flat in same block without even seeing it, said he'd keep our tenant as well. DH had to sign an contract with agent, but flat was sold immediately.

Sold mine within 45 minutes of tge listing agent coming round. It was perfect for another EA he knew was looking, she came straight over and job was a good ‘un

We had similar, but that’s very common here. Houses very often don’t hit open market.

Is your area somewhere that this is common?

Very nice, hope all goes through ok on the survey report!!
We had a hassle free sale of late FIL's house, which was amazing considering how poor condition it was in. Next door neighbour (semi-detached) wanted it and bought it before it went on the market. It is in a good area though.

@Snoken
My mum got three EA round. A whole spread of prices, one really low and he promised "he'd sell it really easily" yeah course he would ... She went with the highest price and even that EA got her over asking price.

I can beat that!

We'd had our eye on a house for a while, it wasn't on the market but we said if it ever came on the market, we would look at it! One Saturday in May, it came onto Rightmove about 10am. I phoned the estate agent and managed to secure a viewing for 1pm, we had our offer accepted at 3pm! House was on the market for 5 hours!

Similar here. The buyer had an alert as he wanted somewhere in the street they were already renting in.

Beware. Sometimes potential buyers will do this to get it off the market. Later on they will find a million reasons why they can't now pay what they offered. I speak from experience.

I'd want to know what the relationship between the buyer and the estate agent was, and did you get valuations from 3 different agents?

How many questions have you asked him?

How can he be sure in that timescale that the buyers have a mortgage offer, and that everyone in the chain is legit?

I'd not believe a word of it.
He wants you to put your house with him and no doubt tie you in to an exclusive contract.

Exactly this, especially when they are offering £5k over asking.

Sounds like the OP has undersold it and could have got more.

But how do you know this?

Unless your solicitors have moved very fast in a day, how do you know the buyers have the money?

Are you just taking the EAs word?

There hasn't been time to sort the money unless your buyers have a solicitor already in had who has contacted yours. And any sale depends on a survey and searches etc.

If you sold £70K under the price you could have got was that sensible?

We only thought about moving a week ago and now it seems we are

well, given, given you offered and have had it accepted within the last week, I am surprised you are surprised you are moving.

Did you get an offer and complete on the same day though, like a previous poster said happened to them (on page 1 of the thread...)

I think the poster on page 1 said they read about it happening in the 90s, not that it happened to them.

I'm not sure it's a very likely story TBH.

If it's many years since you bought OP you may not be up to date with all the paperwork that has to be done once an offer is received.
Maybe you've not gone through this with your new build? All that requires is a deposit.

For buyers now, there is a huge amount of paperwork needed, money laundering questions, proof of income, mortgage offer etc.

It's questionable how this can be done in hours. Many buyers are not honest and SAY they have a mortgage offer, the cash etc and it turns out to be lies.

I hope it's not the case for you .