Estate Agent suddenly playing hardball with us...

monkey_writer

Hello,

We put in an offer on a repossessed house. Asking price £124k. Worth £130 with about £15k of work.

We were told that the bank who owns the property had accepted an offer of £110k and it is going to auction in 2 weeks (the other party thinks they can do it in time) so if we offer £112k and can get to exchange in 2 weeks then (barring any higher offers) they would probably go for it.

We put in the offer - £112k. The EA then calls back saying the bank will accept £112k if we get £5k deposit to them in 24hrs. They will then take it off the market and won't do the 7 day notice or show anyone else round - it will be ours and we will have 28 days to exchange (though that would be flexible).

The EA then suggested his solicitor could take it on and get the money to the bank in time.

Whoa! This means we would have the house, but we haven't done searches, surveys... it's a big risk! And what if our mortgage company values it too low to get a mortgage?

I'm happy to push everything and get to exchange in 2 weeks - I'm hoping to do the conveyancing myself to speed things along - but I need to see inside the roof before I can commit to buying a house!

What shall I do? How should I play these guys?

Hope you can help!

Theogirl_2

Hmm, two weeks is a very short space of time. Lots to think about.

Does the EA know you need a mortgage? He is acting like you are cash buyers.

The land search with I think establishes the owner of the property is a minimum requirement by the mortgage co, as is a valuation survey. I doubt that you could get these done and returned to you within 2 weeks though it's not imposible.

If you don't have a mortgage offer in principle, they probably won't even book the survey within 2 weeks.

Unless you have done conveyencing before I doubt you would be much quicker than reasonable solicitors.

If it were me I would either think it's not to be or carry on arranging stuff and go to the auction, you may even get it for less.

Hope this has been helpful, perhaps you'll get some EA /financial advisor replies who might know better.

fitterastra

Just a quick note,

Bank manager and estate agents - Always out for a quick buck.


Bare in mind.


Good luck.

alared

There is no way ANYONE could exchange in two weeks.
Walk away there`ll be plenty of others to pick from.
Why take a massive risk without first checking out all the angles.

mandi

You wont get your mortgage offer without a survey, and by law the 7 day notice has to go into the local press...Is this agent a member of the NAEA...? seems all a bit odd to me..............

monkey_writer

as far as i can tell they're not NAEA, but they're well known in the area.