Something Doesn't Add up With Our Buyer

maryanne209

We had an offer on our bungalow just 2weeks after putting it on the market,( we are novices in selling a property), and he started off offering £30,000 less but we declined and he did come up a bit. Both ours and next doors bungalow cover quite a bit of land near the town centre, the really old couple next door, sold their bungalow for a cash sum about thirty years ago but still live in it.We accepted his offer but he has only ever seemed to show interest in the Land, and road access and has even been round and made an appointment to see our next door neighbours. He never took any real interest in anything inside our bugalow, we know there is something strange going on as he says he cant say if he will definitely have it till he gets all the answers he wants.Our estate agent took it off being advertised on his say so without even consulting us. Has anyone got any ideas, we just feel we cant trust him at all (he is a single buyer)

Milliewilly

Probably trying to buy next door too to develop both properties into something else. Not good for you potentially but the buyer has a chicken and egg situation where he needs to get one property in principle before he can try for the other.

Tell him you are keeping it on the market until he has had a survey done to see if he's genuine.

MissMotivation

For a start get your EA to get it back onto the market, they work for you NOT the buyer!

I would imagine that he is hoping to get planning permission to build something/extend etc but won't commit himself until he knows if it's possible. I would be extremely cautious with this one!

Doozergirl

It sounds like he wants to build in your garden then. I don't know whether that counts as strange.

If you have accepted an offer it's completely normal for an Estate Agent to remove it from sale - it's not for sale anymore!

There's evidently a potential profit in the land either alone or with part of your neighbour's garden. If you want the most profit then I'd speak to your neighbour and to an architect about the possibility of outline planning permission. This would greatly increase the value of the land and you can sell either the house and the plot after splitting them, or the house with the plot.

What someone does after you've sold a house isn't of great importance but if there is a bonus pot of money that you hadn't considered then it's worth looking into. You don't have to build a house, just get the pp.

Lobell

Sounds like he's more interested in the development potential of the land than the property itself and he's not committing himself until he has an idea of whether he's likely to get planning permission for whatever it is he's considering developing. He may also be making an approach to the owner of your neighbour's house/land to try to secure the whole plot for development.

I would ask your estate agent to continue marketing your house...he shouldn't have stopped without your consent.

maryanne209

Thank you so much for your quick replies. Do you think maybe as we are starting to think, that he already might own our next door neighbours and do you think he may try to gazunder us. Its all such a worry over the expence as we are moving a long way away. I wish we had a way to find out about him.

DVardysShadow

You really need to get to the bottom of why the house was taken off the market. If it was because you accepted the offer, then fine. But if it is on the buyer's sayso, then you should consider sacking your agent [they may be on the take from him] - although you will have to pay their fee if you ultimately sell to this buyer.

Milliewilly

maryanne209 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your quick replies. Do you think maybe as we are starting to think, that he already might own our next door neighbours and do you think he may try to gazunder us. Its all such a worry over the expence as we are moving a long way away. I wish we had a way to find out about him.

Cant you ask your neighbours if they are planning on moving out or the name of the person who owns their house?

If he has got a foot in the door with the property next door and tries to gazunder you you are in a stronger bargaining position than he is.

Tell him you are putting an uplift clause on the property and see how interested he is then

Doozergirl

maryanne209 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your quick replies. Do you think maybe as we are starting to think, that he already might own our next door neighbours and do you think he may try to gazunder us. Its all such a worry over the expence as we are moving a long way away. I wish we had a way to find out about him.

You can't guarantee that someone is not going to gazunder you but you can protect yourself by arranging a nice big gap between exchange and completion so that you aren't directly under pressure to move immediately at the point of exchange.

As for the neighbours - do you not talk to them? Why can't you ask them if they know the man, what he asked them about - he is your buyer after all!

Could you build a house in your garden without the neighbours garden being involved?

Ultimately, a developer wanting to buy your house is not a bad thing that you need to be suspicious of, nor the fact that he offered less - you probably would expect that of someone who is confident in buying and selling property. What I'd be interested in was whether there was a piece of the cake that I wasn't getting.

Ultimately if he has not yet commited to actually buying your house and you are not interested in getting PP yourself then you should have the house back on the market until solicitors are properly involved. When you instruct your solicitor you could ask about putting a covenant on the property which allows you a % of the uplift in value of the land should planning permission ever be obtained - however this buyer mighn't be interested in that or he may up his offer to have the clause removed!

maryanne209

It was on the buyers sayso to be took off the market, but he is apparantly not having a survey, but had somebody meet him in our access drive today from the crown about having a huge tree cut down in the access road (to see if it is possible) I'm beginning to feel he already lives here as every day its something else new he wants to know about

Doozergirl

maryanne209 wrote: »

It was on the buyers sayso to be took off the market, but he is apparantly not having a survey, but had somebody meet him in our access drive today from the crown about having a huge tree cut down in the access road (to see if it is possible) I'm beginning to feel he already lives here as every day its something else new he wants to know about

Well it's obvious then isn't it?

Your house needs to be on the market until someone starts to move on the legals. If the EA thinks that you've accepted an offer then it is normal to withdraw it - do they even know that he wants the house for a reason other than to live in it? I can't see how he's in cahoots with your next door neighbours and the EA as well I think you're taking it a bit far there.

If you aren't happy with the price, don't sell it at that price. If he hasn't commited to the sale then get the house back on the market until he does.