EA Getting Annoying....

sarah_elton

Been looking for over a year. Finally had a bargain come on the market (we're in rented on one month's notice to leave so are good buyers and we've been waiting for a keen seller) on Friday.

Our offer was accepted on Sunday. In the past, I've had agents take houses off the market once I've instructed a solicitor. But oh no, this agent won't take a house off the market until (1) we agree to use their mortgage broker or (2) we have our mortgage application approved (won't be until next week).

So, it's annoying enough that a well priced house is going to sit on the market for at least a week after we've instructed our solicitor and started to incur costs.

Just been on Rightmove though, and the EA has upgraded it to a Premium Listing. Aarrrgghhhh! What are they doing?

Not going to be happy if we get gazumped, though I know there's nothing I can do about it. :mad:

The EA also tried everything to get us to use their mortgage advisor and conveyancer. They run this scheme whereby they panic the vendor into thinking our mortgage approval will take ages if we don't use the advisor, and so convince the owners (not the EA) to offer us cashback if we use the EA's advisor/conveyancer!! If we'd used their people the owners would have given us £1k cashback.

I did speak to the mortgage guy and he couldn't better the deal our bank were offering us. And I wouldn't touch their solicitor with a barge pole. For selling, I get the cheapest solicitor I can. For buying, I use the one I and my family have used for years that I know well and trust.

Just a rant. Is it normal these days for the house to stay on the market even after solicitors have been instructed? Been 5 years since I last bought.

<sebb>

My vendor point blank refused to take my house of the market unit I either a) offered the asking price or b) had my survey done (cost of £520). I had to either accept that or walk away. I chose to accept the risk and waited til I did the survey.

He told me he took it off but I wasnt that convinced as it's been listed by 4 new agents on rightmove since then! Its got the sold sign up now, but I'm not sure whether I should test out how off the market it really is by calling up some of the other agents.

Fire_Fox

Do you have an MIP and did you enclose a copy with your offer letter? If your offer clearly stated subject to property being taken off the market then I'd argue your offer has not been accepted.

delmar39

We accepted an offer in December '09 from a buyer who had accepted an offer on their place in November. We took it off the market given the offer they put in. However, we still haven't exchanged because their buyers solicitor is awful and takes forever to do anything. We should have exchanged on Friday, but didn't, we were promised yesterday, but no news and as things stand we still haven't exchanged and we're all supposed to be moving on the 12th March!! So, to cut a long story short, from a sellers perspective you can see why some people keep it on the market given that until exchange of contracts nothing is legally binding, esp. when one of the solicitors in the chain doesn't do their job properly. We've all done the surveys and are ready to go, but the solicitor simply doesn't respond so nothing happens. Frustrating!

bap98189

Sounds perfectly reasonable. You have not had your mortgage application approved. Until the estate agent has seen evidence you have the mortgage in place, there is every chance you could be wasting their time.

Remember the agent works for the vendor, not for you.

Strapped

The EA is presumably acting on the seller's instructions. I would've thought that it was sensible not to take your property off the market without knowing that your potential buyers can indeed get a mortgage in the current climate. Sorry if that's not what you want to hear. (Although if I were the seller, I probably would've been a bit more subtle about it!)

Gwhiz

bap98189 wrote: »

Sounds perfectly reasonable. You have not had your mortgage application approved. Until the estate agent has seen evidence you have the mortgage in place, there is every chance you could be wasting their time.

Remember the agent works for the vendor, not for you.

I agree with this. Madness to remove from market at the moment. OP - if you really want it done now why not offer a deposit to take off market?

MissMotivation

I would say that the EA is only doing their job, which is acting in the Vendors best interest. At the moment they have no proof that you can even afford the property.

If you lose this property, the next time you offer on a property I would go into the office with your AIP, and, make taking the property off the market upon acceptance of your offer, a condition of the offer.

Doozergirl

Can you get this turned on it's head and instead ask for an exclusivity period of 10 days, after which they can feel free to remarket if the approval hasn't been forthcoming after that time?

That is what I would do with a buyer rather than give them palpitations over being gazumped. Ultimately, the vendor should be happy be with your offer - whilst covering their back, there are different ways of doing it. I'd speak to the sales manager if I were you or directly to the vendor if possible.

sarah_elton

They have proof of our deposit and the AIP is being sent over tonight. The offer was agreed Sunday and yesterday we paid our solicitor their deposit to start work, and put in the full mortgage application. We're borrowing 1x our joint salary and have a deposit > 50%. They know full well there'll be no problem with the approval; I went through all our finances with their mortgage advisor.

Fingers crossed, just don't want to lose it to someone else as it's just what we've been looking for for a lonnnnnnnng time.

Thanks for the tip doozer - I'll see if I can try it. The person we've been dealing with at the EA is the branch manager and a bit scary for me lol.

And yes, should have mentioned taking it off the market as a condition. I'll remember next time.

Charterhouse

If you really want to play hardball just tell them the offer goes down 1k every day the house is still on the market. They already proved they can afford 1k by offering you that sleazy cashback deal. But don't say you'll do it unless you really have the balls to go ahead.