offer on repo house - referred?

icebergx

Repo companies are usually authorised to accept anything above a certain price (price x).
They can automatically decline anything below a certain price (price y).
Any offer that comes in between x and y is referred to the lender and they will make the final decision base on the supplied info. this can take anything between 1 day and 2-3 weeks (This is how long Connells recently took to get back to me - they have a massive backlog).

The EA will recommend a Solicitor, they can be good but there are no guarantees.
The 28 day thing isn't too strict either. as long as things are progressing nicely, they'll give you a bit of leeway.

Xinpei

Thank you all for your comments. With two EAs selling the same house, I hope this will create some pressure for the EA I put my offer in with to progress things along faster. very very unnerving that our offer will be made public as it is really quite a catch - exact same house on same street marketed at 165K! Fingers crossed for now....