Problems with Offer

Clueless_Shopper

Hello Everyone,
I hope you can advise me with a problem I am having.
After years of saving up I have finally managed to get enough money to buy a place.
I saw a place that I like which was priced at £198000.
I came in at a low offer of £190000 which was rejected.
Then offered £192000.
I was told by the estate agent that two people have offered £195000 but were in a chain so the seller was not interested and since I am a chain free buyer if I offered 195000 the seller will accept
Being the gullible fool that I am I assumed this was true and asked my parents to help and offered £195000 which was accepted.
A few days later another estate agent rang me get to my mortgage broker and solicitors number.
While chatting to this guy he revealed that only two other people saw the property but both rejected it.
I am now fuming at being tricked and I don't know what to do.
I feel cheated and thought of living in the house with that knowledge makes my stomach turn.
But I still like the house and want to buy it. But I am not sure how I should handle it.
Any suggestions???

Thanks for your help,

MissMotivation

Unfortunately it's a tactic that "some" estate agents use to get you to increase your offer to a level that is acceptable to the vendor. There is very little you can do about it, you could try making a complaint to the Manager of the EA but this isn't going to get you the property any cheaper.

You still like the house and haven't paid asking price for it so I would basically chalk this up to experience and when buying next time (if you ever do lol) just be more wary.

chatta

This happended to me 21 years ago not moved since, unfortunately its welcome to the world of estate agents. Sorry that nothing has changed sinced then. Hope you get sorted despite them.

Careful_girl

I think you are right to be annoyed even just at the lack of professionalism. You could withdraw your offer. You could manke a fuss about things which come up on the survey and demand a reduction. However You do like the house and before the phone call were happy to pay the amount.
If you think about it from the vendor point of view it may ease your annoyance. They have said get me £195000 or no sale. They may have huge debts or have to get the £195000 for some other reason. The estate agent has tried to do it in the quickest time for the best price. No question it is underhand.
Buy the house make it even more lovely and enjoy living in it. Recommend that your friends don't use the EA. Write a letter of complaint. But don't lose out for £3K.
Buying houses is a game. Sometimes you win.....sometimes you just don't give a monkey's and don't let anyone else believe that you are not one step ahead all the time.
Ah and next time perhaps say you will think about it and procrastinate a bit.
Then again there are no rules to the game!!
Good luck and shucks to the unprofessional EA.
CG.:j

weirdy_papoose

My partner and are buying our first house at the moment (hoping to complete in the next few days!) and I think this may have happened to us.

Saw the place, on the market at £182k, we offered £175k (no chain, cash buy). Immediately got told by the EA that the vendor had another £175k offer through the other agent they were using and would we consider £177K

Really hard to know what to think. We knew the property had been on with another agent (for longer than the agent we were going through, but at the same asking price). The other agent hadn't shown it to us (possibly because it was under offer?) so didn't know what to think. The other agent wasn't open over the weekend, so we couldn't do any sneaky research about the 'other' offer...

On the other hand. The place was in the perfect location for us, was exactly the sort of house we wanted, had great fittings and was in a great state of repair - we figured it was worth offering the extra £2k given the lack of compromise we'd be making on anything else.

Of course when the EA called back and asked if we could offer another £750, we told him - politely, but effectively - to stop taking the **** and that that was our final offer.

The survey came up positive and we're looking at moving in less than 8 weeks after we first saw the house. Definitely worth paying 'over the market odds' for.

I'm not saying we didn't get taken for a ride, but *fingers crossed* it seems like it was worth it.

JennyW_2

Careful_girl wrote:

I think you are right to be annoyed even just at the lack of professionalism. You could withdraw your offer. You could manke a fuss about things which come up on the survey and demand a reduction. However You do like the house and before the phone call were happy to pay the amount.
If you think about it from the vendor point of view it may ease your annoyance. They have said get me £195000 or no sale. They may have huge debts or have to get the £195000 for some other reason. The estate agent has tried to do it in the quickest time for the best price. No question it is underhand.
Buy the house make it even more lovely and enjoy living in it. Recommend that your friends don't use the EA. Write a letter of complaint. But don't lose out for £3K.
Buying houses is a game. Sometimes you win.....sometimes you just don't give a monkey's and don't let anyone else believe that you are not one step ahead all the time.
Ah and next time perhaps say you will think about it and procrastinate a bit.
Then again there are no rules to the game!!
Good luck and shucks to the unprofessional EA.
CG.:j

I totally agree.

We put our house up for £238500 and told the EA that I could not accept anything lower than £235000. sometimes us vendors have a figure that we are not able to go below

mi-key

I'm in the position now of getting ready to make offers.

Thought long and hard about it, and have decided I will work out what the property is worth to me, and not go above that.

If the agent says they have a higher offer than I'm prepared to give, I'll tell them 'OK, I'll leave it, if the sale doesnt go through, and the house is still on the market in a month or so I may resubmit my original offer if I havent found somewhere else'.

I think the danger is restricting yourself to only one house that you want - if the agent knows you have a shortlist of a few places, and arent overly bothered which you buy, they cant pressure you on any one place, or use dodgy tactics to try and get you to up your offer if they know you wont go for it.

Knowing how the market is in a lot of places now, I'd be very surprised if a house gets lots of offers close to the asking price at the same time ( unless it is a real bargain ) - if the house has been on the market for a couple of months, what are the odds of two other buyers suddenly coming along at the same time as you and putting offers in ?

Also, in the OP's case - I wouldnt be too sure that all the blame is with the estate agent - greedy sellers will instruct agents to try and squeeze every last penny out of potential buyers. Often this can backfire if the buyer just walks away and the seller cant sell, but if someone a bit naive believes what the EA tells them, then the only winners are the seller and the EA as they both get more money !

JennyW_2

mi-key wrote:

Knowing how the market is in a lot of places now, I'd be very surprised if a house gets lots of offers close to the asking price at the same time

depends where you are. It seems to be a seller's market where I am. Houses go very quickly and pretty near their asking price, if not the full amount

greedy sellers will instruct agents to try and squeeze every last penny out of potential buyers.

that's a bit of a sweeping statement - we certainly didn't try and squeeze our buyer dry. As I said above, we had a minimum figure we couldn't go below or else it wouldnt be feasible for us to move - we all have our limit - buyers and sellers alike

mi-key

JennyW - agree it does depend on the area - around me was one of the first places to start rocketing up in price, so its also one of the first places to stall and reach saturation with the prices.

Also agree some sellers will have a minimum figure they can accept, but these are the ones who are likely to get stuck not being able to sell in areas where the market cools off ( so they are also in a catch 22 - they have to ask X amount for their house, but if no buyers think it is worth that, they cant sell it ) - but - I think there are people who are a bit obsessed with how much they think their house is worth, and believe the valuation the EA gives is what it will sell for.

Kaminari_2

Why say "We have 2 other offers" when you could easily say "that is below the vendors minimum, try again if you are interested". Honest and to the point, without any deception.

No wonder so many EA have a bad name and are seen as dodgy.

gerryh_2

Bit of a naughty ploy, but you could try Guzundering. Just before you are due to exchange contracts, say to EA that you want to pay £2k less. As the vendor is also exchanging with others, & others are waiting in chain, he may accept to avoid loosing the sale. If not, you are no worse off as you continue at original price.:p