Agreeing to take house off the market?

boots_babe

Hello,

Hoping for a bit of advice. We've had an offer on our property, which we have rejected, but the guy is coming back tonight and has pretty much said he'll make another offer.

He did mention though, about taking the house off the market if we accpet his offer. My questions is, when is the usual time to do this? I'm sure I've read on here that it would be after the survey is done - how long should that take?

I want to be clear - we would in no way want to mess this person about, and if the advice that come back is that we should leave on market until survey completion, we would definitely not be looking to take any further viewings. We just want to be careful, as we sold once before and were badly burned by the buyer (who eventually pulled out); we found out the hard way that not everyone is as decent and honest as you might hope.

Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks.

pawpurrs

if at all possible keep the house on the market untill exchange of contracts, he can pull out untill this stage, you can tell him you will not accept any other offers for a lock out period, but if you take it off the market then you will have wasted a lot of time, should they pull out, and now is prob the best time for selling, come the summer holidays it will quieten off again.

boots_babe

Thanks for the quick reply pawpurrs. That's longer than I had thought - he is chain free, and w'll be moving into rented then looking to buy later, so as to keep things simple. But exchange would still be a fair way away, is it reasonable to expect him to agree to this? I want to be fair but obviously without leaving ourselves in a poor position either.

pawpurrs

Is up to you but in the current climate, that is what i am doing, my buyer even suguested it (not sure if thats a good sign) its certainley fair to wait untill they have their mortgage offer, as I say you can tell them that you will give them a lock out period where you wont sell to anyone else, and that you are only doing it as a back up, in case for what ever reason they pull out.

chickmug

It is not in the seller’s interest to take the place off the market the chance to get back up buyer is lost. We explained this to the buyers and 99% of the time they accept this and realise it is a question of trust on both sides. If they push the issue we usually say to them the seller would be taking a very big risk taking it off the market so what would you (the buyer) offer, from their side, as an equal gesture of good faith?

Years ago before taking holding deposits became dodgy when we had sellers often asking for a deposit from he buyer as a sign of good faith we said OK and are you (the seller ) prepared to make an equal deposit payment so if you pullout the buyer will have that money. So in actual fact we rarely took any deposits from anyone.

TV shows say make an offer subject to marketing being stopped - good for buyer but very bad for seller.

You may also be interested we had an anti gazumping clause in our contract - never been to court on it but where we have dealt with a seller who was indicating taking a higher offer we have gently reminded him of it and they have always backed off. I can’t stand gazumping. However in today’s buyers market we are not able to have a similar type of hold over the buyers who may gazunder!

The above was the advice we gave our clients but other agents will have variations on this. But the Phil & Kirsty "make an offer subect to being taken off the market" is very very bad advice for sellers.

1echidna

chickmug wrote: »

It is not in the seller’s interest to take the place off the market the chance to get back up buyer is lost. We explained this to the buyers and 99% of the time they accept this and realise it is a question of trust on both sides. If they push the issue we usually say to them the seller would be taking a very big risk taking it off the market so what would you (the buyer) offer, from their side, as an equal gesture of good faith?

Years ago before taking holding deposits became dodgy when we had sellers often asking for a deposit from he buyer as a sign of good faith we said OK and are you (the seller ) prepared to make an equal deposit payment so if you pullout the buyer will have that money. So in actual fact we rarely took any deposits from anyone.

TV shows say make an offer subject to marketing being stopped - good for buyer but very bad for seller.

You may also be interested we had an anti gazumping clause in our contract - never been to court on it but where we have dealt with a seller who was indicating taking a higher offer we have gently reminded him of it and they have always backed off. I can’t stand gazumping. However in today’s buyers market we are not able to have a similar type of hold over the buyers who may gazunder!

The above was the advice we gave our clients but other agents will have variations on this. But the Phil & Kirsty "make an offer subect to being taken off the market" is very very bad advice for sellers.

Not sure I understand what the big risk the seller is taking in taking the house off the market following survey and buyers finances being OK? Surely it can be brought back onto the market very quickly and with not much trouble if needs be. Seems to me to be the reasonable course to give a balance of trust on both sides and saves people from spending time researching and making enquiries (and possible viewings?) about a property which in all honesty there is an agreed sale on. As for being officious and making an offer subject to the house being taken off the market the imediate implication is that one does not trust the seller, not sure if someone says that they do not trust me that I feel like trusting them.

chickmug

1echidna wrote: »

Not sure I understand what the big risk the seller is taking in taking the house off the market following survey and buyers finances being OK? Surely it can be brought back onto the market very quickly and with not much trouble if needs be.

I have learnt NOT to trust anyone after working as an agent.I think peoples attitudes, to what is reasonable behaviour, has changed for the worse.

The big risk is buyers are known to pull out at all stages even when have spent a money on surveys and solicitors. OK is it more usual to pull out in the early stages but let's say the buyer had a chain and it fell apart down below. The best advice to the seller is regard the property as being available once again unless it was felt better to wait for the buyer to reform the chain. The latter isn't always in the sellers best interests as that could take a very long time. soem but few sellers are prepared for this indefinite wait.

As far as bringing the place quickly back to the market - it is true but you have still lost a lot of time in the middle trying to form a cancellation list.

DawnW

If the vendor had not taken the house off the market when they accepted my offer I would have pulled out to be honest.

boots_babe

Thanks for all the replies. Just to explain a bit more, we sold last year and had an offer accepted on another property.

The house we were buying, they refused to take off market immediately. We were diappointed but thought that was ok. Immediately our buyers wanted us to take ours off the market - this was before they even had an AIP! We said we would take off market when they had their mortgage offer.

Very long story short, and fast forward a few months and they still didn't have even an AIP but they had managed to force us to take our house off the market anyway - against my best judgment. Then eventually pulled out.

So, after all that, we wanted to make sure we did the 'right' thing this time. We don't want to annoy our potential purchaser, but also don't want to cause ourselves any unnecessary problems. I think based on replies above, taking off the market once he's done the survey seems reasonable, although until then we would definitely not be taking any more viewings as that is only fair.

Thanks everyone.

Blacksheep1979

If I'm looking to buy and am chain free, if I put an offer in and start organising everything on my side I want to be sure that the seller isn't going to suddenly announce that someone else is interested so would want the house off the market. Keeping it on only benefits one side and doesn't show good faith.

chickmug

DawnW wrote: »

If the vendor had not taken the house off the market when they accepted my offer I would have pulled out to be honest.

Poor agent that should of talked you through it and explained the reasons why. However the seller can always override the agents advice. And my advice was never written in concrete but I can't remember anyone pulling out when they realised the risk the seller would be taking by being fully off the market.

What would you offer the seller in return for their taking the house off the market to show your goodwill?

You may need to wait until you are on the other side and see how you feel then - you may change your mind on what is appropriate.