Wont accept my offer - any advice?

princessamy86

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1951531&highlight=offers

There's a great post from chickmug on there, detailing exactly what the agent should and shouldn't be doing with regards to offers and financial appointments.

delmar39

I would say that if you want to proceed then you need to take responsibility for getting hold of the info the EA needs for you to proceed. Don't get involved in them arranging a mortgage for you. You could say to them that until they accept your offer you cannot proceed with a mortgage application and therefore a credit check won't be carried out until they accept. However, I've read on here that EAs will continue to market repos until the completion date so just beware of the risks.

ruggedtoast

experience wrote: »

I've seen a repossessed house and made an offer on it - the estate agent called me in to the office to see my agreement in principle and said they couldnt accept it as it wasnt one where a true credit check was carried out. So their in house mortgage advisor said he could apply for the same mortgage their and then but unfortunately he couldnt find the same mortgage that i wanted so i left saying i'd call the bank to get an agreement in principle where a credit check was carried out. I called Natwest - however Natwest wont do it unless my offer is accepted and confirmed. She explained that it looked like the estate agent was trying to get me to apply for one of the mortgages the estate agent offered instead - has anyone else had this hassle?

Yes with knobs on - The EA (a nation wide chain) was trying to pressure us into using their broker and conveyancer before I had even been to the second viewing.

In the end their mortgage broker called and spoke to my wife - he wasnt pushy at all and said he just wanted to know about our finances so he could check we were in a proceedable position, and that they are getting a lot of people making offers who think they can get 100% mortgages etc.

However now they know how much we can afford and I dont think this has really helped with negotiating on the house we offered on. Obviously they can't make you offer more than you want and if your overall offer is better than the others, it should go to you.

None of the brokers I have spoken to think it is necessary to get a mortgage in principle beforehand.

If you have an offer accepted you then apply for the mortgage and forward them the mortgage 'promise' from your broker - if they wont even wait the 24 hours it takes to do this then theyre not showing much motivation as a seller anyway.

Edit - I spoke to my broker about this and he said he'd be happy to email them or call them if needed, and that EAs will try and bully you into using their services.

princeofpounds

However now they know how much we can afford and I dont think this has really helped with negotiating on the house we offered on.

This is the main problem for buyers, there is a clear conflict of interest as the mortgage broker can tell the EA exactly what you can afford, and your EA can use that to help negotiations for the vendor.

Totally illegal, but happens a lot (this was one of the main thrusts of the Foxtons scandal) and can't recall anyone ever being punished for it.

DVardysShadow

princeofpounds wrote: »

This is the main problem for buyers, there is a clear conflict of interest as the mortgage broker can tell the EA exactly what you can afford, and your EA can use that to help negotiations for the vendor.

Totally illegal, but happens a lot (this was one of the main thrusts of the Foxtons scandal) and can't recall anyone ever being punished for it.

Agree. And as buyer, never, ever use any financial services provides by the agent. As seller, too, they can cause you grief if you have a buyer who does not want their services - by not passing offers.

experience

Thanks for the advice - i rang the EA 9.15am this morning and was told the agent dealing with this property was too busy but he'd call me back soon so i left my details. He rang me back at 3.30pm but i was out of coverage - he left a message asking me to call him so he could see what types of properties i was interested in buying - even though the message i left was specifically about the repo. So tonight i've hand delivered a written offer asking for written confirmation that this has been passed on to the vendor so we'll see what happens over the next couple of days!

whitestripe

I made an offer on a repo property on Friday morning, I called the agent Tuesday morning to ask for any news and was told that someone else had made an offer at virtually the asking price & would I increase my offer.

The house had been on the market 3 months (with no offers to my knowledge) and then within days of my offer another arrives - I don't believe the EA even put my offer forward and suspect they are just trying to get me to increase my offer.

maninthestreet

googler wrote: »

Why would they do that?

If they sit on your offer, they don't get paid because the house doesn't sell.

If they put your offer to the vendor, there's a possible sale and the possibility that they get paid.

What would you do?

...and this, in a nutshell, is represents the conflict of interests that arises when EAs try to sell financial services to a potential buyer of a property for which they are acting as selling agents for the property vendor.

Hectors_House

experience wrote: »

I've seen a repossessed house and made an offer on it - the estate agent called me in to the office to see my agreement in principle and said they couldnt accept it as it wasnt one where a true credit check was carried out. So their in house mortgage advisor said he could apply for the same mortgage their and then but unfortunately he couldnt find the same mortgage that i wanted so i left saying i'd call the bank to get an agreement in principle where a credit check was carried out. I called Natwest - however Natwest wont do it unless my offer is accepted and confirmed. She explained that it looked like the estate agent was trying to get me to apply for one of the mortgages the estate agent offered instead - has anyone else had this hassle?

Yes, we were told we had to use their mortgage provider to 'prove we could raise a mortgage', and they tried to sell us a package including their own solicitor.

We went along with it and let them do their credit check but didn't sign up for the mortgage in principle at the time.

Then, when they came back and told us our offer had been accepted we told them our offer had now changed (from £85k to £72k) and we had our own mortgage offer/solicitor ready to go.

The reason for our change of tack:

a) the state of the house: everything had been ripped out, including the entire kitchen and grease of some kind spread in the hallway turning it into a icerink (the EA measured his length as soon as he stepped through the door so we questioned his claims that he's shown loads of folks around the house already).

b) we had already been through the process of purchasing a nearby property then pulled out so we knew the costs involved in the EAs package were at least double.

c) we'd seen the HIPS and realised the people who were repossessed had paid £19k for the house back in 1991 but had lost the property through releasing equity until their bank told them the house was no longer worth what they owed on it. I figured out what I thought the house's actual value was (I was buying the bricks and mortar, not their debts), against the wage increases I'd had since 1991 and made that my guide.

It's fair to say I had luck on my side as the house was sitting of the books of a sub-prime lender who wanted rid.

Good luck!

fisrtimebuyer

Im first time buyer, I first went to the EA us financial advisor, they got a mortgage in principle for me, 3 weeks later they accepted the offer (yes it took 3 weeks to get a response). Then I looked around. The deals they were offering were awful. I went to a independent FA with 30 years exp, and he got me a great deal. I have tried to tell the broker and the FA that I want to use the FA I found. They keep pushing and still want to see me as I need to prove proof of something??@! also they said and I quote

"we will need to speak to the repossesion company as the reason why they accepted your low offer (5,000 under asking price !)", was because you were doing the sale in house and we could control things."

Now im worried im going to lose my dream flat, I told my chosen FA and he said they cant do that, its completely illegal. The EA has a v bad rep, for this time of thing.. please can someone fill me in on the fox and sequence sandal
?


Help, can the EA mess this up for me and can I prevent it ????

Ps my broker is a rottweiler (in a good way but rather worried this may hinder rather than help)

Firstimebuyer