Would an EA completely make up the existance of a buyer?

Scallie

Ok, I know the answer to any question starting "Would an EA..." is always going to be "yes", but I just want to sound this out to see how far fetched it could be.

Our house was on the market for a few months and we said to the EA that we intended to take it off at the end of October if we hadn't had any offers. Suddenly lots of viewers were arranged, and one of them made an asking price offer. We didn't meet this person as the EA showed them round, and they didn't ask for a second viewing.

The buyer "really wanted our house" but hadn't put his on the market yet as he wanted to find a house first. I said we were happy to accept the offer, but not to take the house off the market given the circumstances. Apparently he was quite happy with that, and the EA then arranged a HIP for him so he could put his house on ASAP.

That was two weeks ago. The EA told us where the house was, but I haven't seen it come up and according to the EA it is still being processed. The offer was never put in writing, as the EA said there was no real point as he wasn't in a position to move yet. Do you think it's possible this person might not exist at all?

maninthestreet

Sounds fishy - especially the refusal of the EA to issue the offer in writing.
Get back to the EA and tell them you need the offer in writing, or the offer will not be taken seriously and you will want the house to be marketed to other potential buyers.

Milliewilly

Yes they do make up buyers see my other post on this where the EA tried to get me to bid against myself and cost the vendor his sale.

MORPH3US

(Some) EA's will mug their own grandma to make / keep a potential sale.

Milliewilly

maninthestreet wrote: »

Sounds fishy - especially the refusal of the EA to issue the offer in writing.
Get back to the EA and tell them you need the offer in writing, or the offer will not be taken seriously and you will want the house to be marketed to other potential buyers.

Yes tell them if the offers not in writing by the end of next week you are taking the house off the market as planned. Did they ask you for your solicitors details when you accepted the offer? They should have.

23rdspiral

Do you think it's possible this person might not exist at all?

um, well, we ARE in the same position as the 'fake' person you are talking about!!! and we are real, i promise!

we asked to view a house even though we weren't on the market yet and were honest about it. we loved the house, but the EA wouldnt let us put in an offer untill we'd sold ours, which is fair enough. so we put it on the market, which took just over 2 weeks and the EA wont let us put the offer in writing as we havent sold ours. all the EA has said he'll do is tell the vendor we are 'keen'.

your post makes me wonder if we should contact the vendor in person so that they know we are real!!!!

lynzpower

Surely EAs should be having "qualified" viewers- ie they should only really be looking at showing people round who are at least on the market. Many EAs will refuse viewers if they have something to sell that they need to sell, top protect vendors from this silliness.

franklee

lynzpower wrote: »

Surely EAs should be having "qualified" viewers- ie they should only really be looking at showing people round who are at least on the market. Many EAs will refuse viewers if they have something to sell that they need to sell, top protect vendors from this silliness.

The EA should be taking instruction from the seller on this point and show round the viewers the seller wants round. It is the seller paying after all.

asajoseph

It's possible - I had someone who, according to my agent, was 'definitely making an offer'. Agent kept banging on about how something was definitely happening, so I was confident enough to put an offer in on somewhere, and told the vendor's agent to speak to my agent to discuss the details (same firm).

Surprise surprise, the very next day it was, "unfortunately, the 'definite buyer' has spoken to the mortgage broker and can't get the money, oh well!". Could be honest and innocent, of course, but it did seem mighty fishy to me. And sadly, that was the last viewing I've had on my place!

MORPH3US

I work in sales myself (though not residential property thankfully) and the golden rule is... "Until you have everything signed off and the money (deposit?) in the bank, there is no sale"

not_loaded

It’s tricky though. In the current state of the market you don’t want to be restricting viewings that MAY get to a sale.

I suppose it all hinges on how close to selling the viewer is. But can anyone tell how close they are to selling? It’s chicken and egg isn’t it, for all of us?

I find that we’re getting some unlikely buyers viewing, and some highly likely. It’s possible that the highly likelys won’t want my house, and one of the unlikelys will sell and be ready to buy.

This buyer, whether fictitious or not is actually NOT a buyer, they’re an unproceedable offerer, which is fairly useless to you.