Pushy estate agent with first house buy - help please!!

Guy_Montag

Remind them that having put in an offer they are legally obliged to pass it on to the vendor. Tell them that if they refuse, you will get in touch with the NAEA & make a complaint. & finally tell them their financial advisor can go to Hull.

Good luck, & for gods' sake don't see their financial advisor, he'll no doubt tell the EA how much you're upper limit is.

Jorgan_2

Guy_Montag wrote:

Remind them that having put in an offer they are legally obliged to pass it on to the vendor. Tell them that if they refuse, you will get in touch with the NAEA & make a complaint. & finally tell them their financial advisor can go to Hull.

Good luck, & for gods' sake don't see their financial advisor, he'll no doubt tell the EA how much you're upper limit is.

The NAEA has voluntary membership, Agent might not be a member. If the OP feels like complaining, then they would be better of complaining to the OFT via there local trading standards office.

As has already been posted, the EA could be qualifying the purchaser at the request of the vendor. The broker should not discuss the buyers financial situation with the EA, other than to inform them that the buyer should or shouldn't have a problem in obtaining the necessary funds.

andrewbrittain

I had exactly this problem buying my first house. I was a FTB, but ran my own estate agency for several years before-hand. They said I needed to be "vetted" by their mortgage advisor before putting the offer to the owner. Obviously because of my previous experience, I knew this to be nonsense. And, as rightly mentioned above, it's illegal for them to with-hold offers on such a basis.

They will of course earn a commission if you go for a mortgage with either their 'in-house' advisor or any recommended advisor - but what's more worrying is that this gives them an instant insight in to your finances and what you can really afford to pay for the house.

The advisor is not allowed to disclose these details - but they always will - it's pretty much standard practice. You should certainly tell them you know they're not allowed with-hold your offer on that basis and if you can, tell them to get lost and don't deal with them again.

The problem you might have, like I had, was that you really, really want that house and there are no others suitable on the market. In which case, you might just have to play the game and face the fact that when you're buying a house through an estate agent, you've got to swim with the sharks.

AndrewSmith

As an ex-Estate Agency broker, I would NEVER discuss the potential purchaser's upper limit with the residential staff. Merely express whether the offer they had made was within their budget.

Yes we have all seen the Alexander Hall example with Foxton's estate agents in London, however most agencies do not work this way.

The reason that everyone says different is that you will only ever hear when things go wrong. You never hear of the 'thousands' of offer checks that are transacted within estate agency branches every week, all above board and for the mutual benefit of both seller and buyer.

Think about it, if you were selling and the agent is charging you 1%. If he has the facility of an in house broker would you not expect every offer on your property to be verified before you accept it?

I know I would

Andy

Jorgan_2

andrewbrittain wrote:

I
The advisor is not allowed to disclose these details - but they always will - it's pretty much standard practice. You should certainly tell them you know they're not allowed with-hold your offer on that basis and if you can, tell them to get lost and don't deal with them again.

Its certainly not been common practice in the agencies I have worked in, be they corporate or independant.

terrierlady

think about if you are selling, would you want your agent to be sure to check the offer was firm, ie, the people were proceed able and ready to move asp or just to bury their heads in the sand and wait for the purchaser to supply details, we always check offers out, ask for details of mortgage offers arranged in principle and check them out, after all who wants to get weeks down the line to find out the purchasers were blagging?
Believe me people lie about most things when it suits them, people view properties and put wild offers in , with no intention at all of buying, I have never understood why?

jh2004

andrewbrittain wrote:

The problem you might have, like I had, was that you really, really want that house and there are no others suitable on the market. In which case, you might just have to play the game and face the fact that when you're buying a house through an estate agent, you've got to swim with the sharks.

Im in now in the fortunate position that another similar property has come on the market, so i can go to the other agent.


When we view it, ill pop round to the other vendor, and quietly mention that the EA was not as helpful when presenting the offer. This could be one of the reasons why the house hadnt sold for 12months?
Jh