what conditions can I give when buying.

Bluefusion

Out of the blue we have seen a house we like with a local estate agents, the house has been on the market for a while, and the estate agent has already hinted the sellers will accept an offer.

At present our house is not on the market, but I have had the same estate agent round who we will hopefully be buying from to value ours and he thinks it will sell easily.

So on Monday, I will be rining the estate agent and put in an offer on the house we want to buy, and also instructing the same estate agent to sell our property as well.

Now, what conditions can I give to the estate agent in terms of us buying:
Can I request as advised on this site that:
1. All future and current viewings are cancelled
2. The property is withdrawn from the open market immediately and we have exclusivity over it
3. The sold board goes up within 48 hours

Can I request the 3 conditions above, with our situation, is this reasonably?
Is there anything else I should do , or be aware of?

Thank you
J

Astaroth

You can really put any conditions you want on the offer however the more you do the less favourable your offer appears... now if it has been on the market for some time it may well be that the conditions dont bother them any where near as much as if it had only just been put on the market.

Doozergirl

You can't really impose any of those restrictions until you have an offer on your own home. You can ask, but virtually any agent would advise the vendor against doing this. You can't walk into a shop with no money and reasonably ask the shop keeper to take it off the shelf for you.

In fact, I would only ask the agent to tell the vendor of my interest but not make an offer at all. IME, people who haven't sold offer high straight awayto try to make up for the fact that they haven't sold. If they do sell, as a vendor, you know how much they can afford and I have taken advantage of this when a potential buyer has come back and offered lower after they have sold.


Get yourself in the best position. Don't go with the same agent just because the house you want is with them. Again, they can take advantage of you on price because they know you're desperate to sell. Get three quotes as you should do, and go for the agent that is professional, gives you best advertising/internet coverage and knock them down on the percentage. Also, choose one with a wide angle lens for photos - any decent agent will have one.

stockmarket-diva

This property may have been on the market for some time but even though the Agent may be selling your property too, they will be expected to give best advice to the vendor of the property you are after.

At the moment your house isn't even on the market, least of all has an offer on it or a complete chain.

In most circumstances, the conditions you cite would only be acted upon if you had an offer on your own property with a complete chain.

Imagine, if they advised their vendor to take the property off the market for you and then they missed the likeliehood of someone coming along in a better position.

In circumstances that are often the fairest, you could ask the Agent to ask the vendor of the house if, as an act of goodwill, they would take if off the market for a time limit ie 2 -4 weeks to see if you get an offer on your own property. If that doesn';t happen then they would put it back on.

Don't forget, no one will have incurred any expenses because at this stage you would not have incurred any feees becuase you would not be instructing solicitors and your estate agent won't take their costs until completion.

As I have said, as an act of good will, the vendors of the property might take it off the market for you for a time limited period to see what happens.

I hope it goes well.

cattie

Estate agents tell everybody their house will sell quickly & the sellers of the house you have your eye on were no doubt given this spiel.:o

Untill you've got a buyer for your house then vendors of the house you're interested in have nothing to gain, but a lot to lose by accepting any of the conditions you wish to lay down, or your offer at this point.

Another proceedabale buyer could come along at any time while you wait to get a buyer for your house & the vendors would be foolish to pass up on such an opportunity. More so if somebody with no property to sell were to come along.

I certainly wouldn't accept an offer in such a situation, I'd want to wait for you to secure a buyer first.

Probably best to just to stress to the estate agent that you are really interested in the property.

AndrewSmith

You can ask for any conditions you like however until you are proceedable your offer is not likely to buy you many of them.

After all an offer is only considered a sale once the chain is closed from below.

Don't hold you breath, the agent will most likely advise the vendor to continue marketing until you have sold.

AndrewSmith

Astaroth wrote:

You can really put any conditions you want on the offer however the more you do the less favourable your offer appears... now if it has been on the market for some time it may well be that the conditions dont bother them any where near as much as if it had only just been put on the market.

It depends on the reciprocal conditions that you offer back.

When placing an offer with the conditions I list in my Housebuying thread, it is vital that you stress to the agent that there are conditions that will work in their favour too. Such as:

Solicitor instructed within 24 hours
Mortgage paperwork completed and survey paid for within 24 hours
Twice weekly chasing of your solicitor to speed things along

It is more about how the conditions are put across as opposed to the conditions themselves. It depends whether you put them over as 'glass half empty or glass half full'.

If your offer and any attached conditions are expressed in a positive way then it will be recieved as such.

I have never had an estate agent react negatively to a proceedable offer with the conditions attached to it going both ways. Quite the contrary, the agents will see you as someone who is serious and likely to push for a quick completion.

stockmarket-diva

Wy would anyone want a solicitor instructed within 24 hours when the parties can't proceed with the sale.

This would just cost everyone unnecessary expense.

AndrewSmith

No-one is suggesting that, not until the chain is closed and they are proceedable.

Why don't you read the last paragraph of my last post, and the one before it and you will see that I am referring to a PROCEEDABLE offer.

stockmarket-diva

Yes, I do understand what you mean by proceedable offer but of course that is not the situation here.

The situation here is entirely different. The question posted was about someone putting in an offer when they hadn't sold their own property.

In most cases, when a proceedable offer is accepted, any normal vendor would agree to it being withdrawn from the market, sold board etc. If not keen at first, then at least once the survey has been done.

Doozergirl

I thnk Andy was quite clear in his advice to the OP; you both appear to be saying the same thing to me. Think there might be a stick and a wrong end somewhere.