Unsure what to do re survey and EA

suze_g

Spoke to my IFA today about arranging a mortgage and survey .

She asked me about getting the go head on the survey and asked about the seller's postiion.
I was unsure so she called the EA who told her that the seller has taken time off to look for a property and we should go ahead with the survey.

The EA has had the seller's solicitors details and mine for about 5 days, and I requested the m of sale, as my mychoice homebuy agents have requested it.

Today I get a letter from the EA dated yesterday confirming the purchase, not the m of sale, and it states that the property will be left on the market.No sellers solicitors details on it.

I know lots of EA are doing this to make their sites look fuller etc, and I know it's really early days for me, as haven't had a mortgage confirmed yet. but I have to send off a cheque tomorrow for the survey, and am worried that (as I read in a post further down) that the EA will still be looking for better offers and I'll lose the property. Should I hold off on the survey until the mortgage is confirmed (subject to survey), then ask the EA to at the least put under offer on he property? or is this just the way things are done now?

S

A_Nice_Englishman

It is the seller who decides whether to take the property off the market.

I would approach the estate agent again once you have your mortgage agreed subject to survey (i.e. you have proved that you can afford the property) and booked the survey (i.e shown that you are serious about buying it). The seller will probably then take it off the market.

When I was selling my last house , I failed to follow the above advice and had two 'timewasting' buyers which delayed the sale for six months.

poppysarah

Have you viewed the place more than once? You sound quite unsure about the whole process.

dottiepeas

Similar thing happened to me recently- our offer was accepted on the house, but they would not take it off the market until I had the survey booked and solicitors details provided to them. The EA did stick to their word though- they took it off the market as soon as the surveyor was booked in.
Think they are doing this as standard, incase the buyer is a timewaster....and in the current market, when alot of mortgages are not getting approved, the EA wants to keep other interested parties on file...incase it doesn't work out!
(we are currently in the process of getting the mortgage approved btw!...Scary times!!)

suze_g

poppysarah wrote: »

Have you viewed the place more than once? You sound quite unsure about the whole process.

Hiya, Yes I've seen it twice, it's not the property I'm unsure of, it's the process, and what is acceptable practice or not.

I've done a lot of reading up on it all, but I'm still a first time buyer, trying to do my research to make sure that as far as I can control things go along as they should.

suze_g

dottiepeas wrote: »

Similar thing happened to me recently- our offer was accepted on the house, but they would not take it off the market until I had the survey booked and solicitors details provided to them. The EA did stick to their word though- they took it off the market as soon as the surveyor was booked in.
Think they are doing this as standard, incase the buyer is a timewaster....and in the current market, when alot of mortgages are not getting approved, the EA wants to keep other interested parties on file...incase it doesn't work out!
(we are currently in the process of getting the mortgage approved btw!...Scary times!!)

Hi thanks for that. Maybe I'll chat a chat with the EA about the seller's reaction to listing it at least as sold subject to contract when I have the (hopefully) a mortgage approved, and survey booked.

suze_g

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

It is the seller who decides whether to take the property off the market.

I would approach the estate agent again once you have your mortgage agreed subject to survey (i.e. you have proved that you can afford the property) and booked the survey (i.e shown that you are serious about buying it). The seller will probably then take it off the market.

When I was selling my last house , I failed to follow the above advice and had two 'timewasting' buyers which delayed the sale for six months.

Thanks for that. I do think it's fair enough to wait until I have a mortgage approved. I was worried about paying for survey and the seller still then listing the property as on the market. I'll have a chat to the IFA tomorrow

A_Nice_Englishman

You could always say to the agent 'If I book the survey will it be taken off the market?' then decide whether to proceed or not

Poppy9

It's also worth asking the EA if any other buyers have had a survey on the house and if it disclosed any problems that made the buyer pull out.

I wish I had done this when I was buying my first house as it would have saved me a few hundred pounds. Turned out we were the 3rd people to survey the house and then pull out because of what the survey picked up. The buyers or EA didn't let on because we didn't ask them!

chickmug

Poppy9 wrote: »

It's also worth asking the EA if any other buyers have had a survey on the house and if it disclosed any problems that made the buyer pull out.

I wish I had done this when I was buying my first house as it would have saved me a few hundred pounds. Turned out we were the 3rd people to survey the house and then pull out because of what the survey picked up. The buyers or EA didn't let on because we didn't ask them!

A very good point and a real test of the integrity of the agent. I remember one case where the surveyor gave a very poor report and said that thousands of pounds needing spending as it was structurally unsound. Luckily the seller felt it was wrong to ask me to keep on selling and keep my mouth shut about this poor survey. So she had her own full structural survey without telling the new surveyor about the bad report.

The new surveyor despite being probed as to the points raised by the first surveyor gave it the OK. It was sold and the new buyers had a full structural and again NO problems. My suspicion was always that the first surveyor had a financial interest in getting unecessary work done by a company he strongly pushed.