Backhanders - & Estate Agents!

nadnad

linlin wrote:

If your sister can identify specific areas where she'd like to buy a house, why not try a leaflet drop, see if anyone wants to sell?

nice idea but I don't really think it would work in the area she's looking in - to spread out for a start, and people probably wouldn't be receptive to that idea over here!

libitina_2

nadnad wrote:

nice idea but I don't really think it would work in the area she's looking in - to spread out for a start, and people probably wouldn't be receptive to that idea over here!

Why not? Surely money has the same effect on people there as it does here?

nadnad

yeah but round here people aren't just going to suddenly think "oh here's a flyer someone wants to buy a house oh I know lets sell ours"! in fact i don't think that would work anywhere - the housing market at the minute is all for the sellers - if people wanted to sell they will put the house on the open market to make sure they are getting top price for their property.

Aside from that she's looking for a house in the countryside and it would be impossible to start dropping leaflets - people are just too spread out.

silvercar

"oh here's a flyer someone wants to buy a house oh I know lets sell ours"!

OK but I found my current buyer because they had put a note through the door and a few weeks later my first buyer dropped out. I didn't have a board outside and the house hadn't been advertised so they wouldn't have known the house was for sale.

Try all avenues!

Doozergirl

...and even if they don't respond directly to the letter, they may well be swayed to putting their house on the open market and increase the number of suitable properties available for her to buy!

nadnad

ok suddenly - i'm seeing a little bit of light - if my sis dropped a note through the doors of the houses she is interested in - suggesting that perhaps shes not keen on the EA, and that if the situation were to change with the current buyer then she'd be interested - I suppose thats worth a try. Thanks for planting the seed!

F_T_Buyer

When you make an offer, why don't you say to the EA I will put it in writing for you.

You then write a letter which you send to the EA, BUT also copy it to the vendor.

Then all this other buyer nonsense will be far more difficult to pull off. If I was the vendor I would be a little annoyed that a sale was lost due to the EA trying to bump up the price!

MortgageMamma

How about your sister instructs and independent mortgage advisor who is not tied to an estate agency of any kind, and instructs the advisor to do the bidding for her. An EA is less likely to play games with another professional.

nadnad

I have spoken to my sister - she said a lot of the houses she has seen have been empty - thus making it difficult to get in contact with the vendor - she would have to ask the EA for the vendor's details who is unlikely to give them to her.
Mortgagemamma: If she instructed an independant mortgage advisor to do this (i didn't know that they would do this) how much would they charge? or should they charge?

Altarf

F_T_Buyer wrote:

If I was the vendor I would be a little annoyed that a sale was lost due to the EA trying to bump up the price!

If I was the vendor I would be very annoyed if the EA didn't do everything they could to get the best possible price for me. I wouldn't care what they said or did to get it, provided it wasn't illegal.

People forget the EA is not working for the buyer, they are working for the vendor.

As for giving the EA a backhander. If I was the vendor and found out that the buyer and EA had conspired to obtain my house at an undervalued price... At a minimum the police would be involved very rapidly.