Which prospective buyers get to cherry pick the EA's properties?

MissMotivation

harrup wrote: »

Yes, they ought to, we told them often enough.
We don't get calls...only emails with houses not matching our criteria
No
yes

Its obvious that the sticking point is #3!!!

EA's want to deal with easy buyers, they want to be able to tell the Vendor that the sale will proceed with the minimum of hassle......they do not want to look like an idiot 2 weeks down the line when it comes to light that the buyer cannot afford it/can't get a mortgage.

I reckon you will see a difference in their attitude if you show them proof of your finances.

harrup

princeofpounds wrote: »

To be honest, if you see a continuous pattern of this sort of pre-marketing behaviour why not ask the agents why you appear to be missing out? They must have some sort of explanation.

Actually....I did.

A couple of months ago I asked the MD of our most prominent EA ( in terms of sales and # of offices in the area) whether we had somehow done something which got us blacklisted. And if so, how could we rectify it.

He just laughed and said that it was nonsense. That there was zero reason that they would purposefully withhold any properties from us.

Aside from not unrequestedly divulging our finacial assets, I couldn't see any reason for it either.

Several properties later which suddenly were "SSTC" or "under offer" and were never advertised and which would have matched out criteria precisely, I wonder. Hmm....

To be clear, they weren't just not offered to us - they seemingly weren't offered for sale to the "general public". Those houses went from owned to sold or " under offer" in one step and, in 2 cases, in one day.

The answer is clear - its a case of "show me the moneeeeeeeeeey!"

harrup

googler wrote: »

How many EAs would you say you've experienced this with?

How many EAs are there in your local area (or your target buying area, if not local?)

Only one....but that one is the one with all the choice properties!

There are 4 other EA's locally, but they rarely get the property we are after. Correction: one of them sometimes does. But it is widely known that they
a) overprice the properties
b) their target market are buyers from London or the SE. To be fair to the EA, I personally know a couple of people who said they asked the EA to discourage locals as much as possible.

PasturesNew

When somebody is selling their house, the EA goes round and they sign the paperwork. The EA then knows it's for sale, but they still need to get the HIP ordered, take the photos, type up the details, get the details signed off by the seller.... all of which might take a week or so. So an EA will know some considerably amount of time before all the paperwork's done that a house is coming up for sale.

So, you just need to tell him you know this and he needs to give you the heads up on what WILL be coming to market shortly. Let him know you're proceedable and he will then be keen to let you know so he has less paperwork to do and less effort to make.

The EA just sees you as like anybody else on their list at the moment, so he's calling people who understand that the ink's not dry on the details sheet yet.

marcg

Just because you have the money to pay more doesn't mean you have to. If you are willing to be hard-nosed - "no more means no more" then having extra just gives the vendors comfort that no hitches are going to occur along the way.

Hitches that happen to non-cash buyers such as:
Mortgage co valuation comes in low.
Survey turns up £3000 worth of damp-proofing (which you can afford but the others can't)
etc etc

You could get this across to an EA with a conversation but apparently you've already tried this - maybe you just aren't very convincing?

Money talks - show them the money.

googler

harrup wrote: »

Several properties later which suddenly were "SSTC" or "under offer" and were never advertised and which would have matched out criteria precisely, I wonder. Hmm....

To be clear, they weren't just not offered to us - they seemingly weren't offered for sale to the "general public". Those houses went from owned to sold or " under offer" in one step and, in 2 cases, in one day.

SSTC or Under Offer where?

On their websites? On Rightmove or other portals? Could it be that they're advertised where you're not seeing them (sale boards, EA's windows, other avenues) and you're seeing them when they appear on RM, and by the time that happens, they've been sold without RM's help?

harrup

Cissi wrote: »

I completely agree with you - no WAY would I let an EA (or anyone else) see all my financial cards! ....Now granted, we had sold our previous house a few years earlier and were renting; in your situation you may need to provide some proof that you can indeed raise the necessary finance. I'd keep it as vague as possible though!

To start with, why not go in to the EAs in question and have a frank chat about your situation, stressing how proceedable you are and that any purchase will be completely independent from selling your current house. Who knows, this may help?

Thanks, Cissi. We have done the latter. Maybe we simply have to keep beavering away at it.

As to providing proof and at the same time keeping it vague - it's a great idea.

Only tiny problem - HOW? I'm stumped. How can we demonstrate that we got the funds without telling them exactly how much we have. Its all very well showing them we have XXX but only want to spend up to XX. I can guarantee you the house they'll show us will be match the funds. To the penny! :rotfl:

harrup

googler wrote: »

SSTC or Under Offer where?

On their websites? On Rightmove or other portals? Could it be that they're advertised where you're not seeing them (sale boards, EA's windows, other avenues) and you're seeing them when they appear on RM, and by the time that happens, they've been sold without RM's help?

Googler, quite possibly.

I don't check the EA's sales board or web sites daily... or sometimes when we are busy ...even weekly.

Since all local EA's have our phone nr, email addesses, snail mail address, etc, etc.. I presumed they would simply call, mail, send smoke signals, whatever when they had a property that we would be interested in. A naive assumption, evidently.

Clearly, I'm not proactive enough and have to pester them MORE. And show them funds. AND buy them sweeties and offer them my husband as a sex slave.

Cissi

harrup wrote: »

Thanks, Cissi. We have done the latter. Maybe we simply have to keep beavering away at it.

As to providing proof and at the same time keeping it vague - it's a great idea.

Only tiny problem - HOW? I'm stumped. How can we demonstrate that we got the funds without telling them exactly how much we have. Its all very well showing them we have XXX but only want to spend up to XX. I can guarantee you the house they'll show us will be match the funds. To the penny! :rotfl:

Fair point! We had our money split up in a number of different places and I guess if we had to we would have shown them some of these but not all. Also possibly getting our stockbroker to sign a letter to the effect that we held "at least X" amount with them.

harrup

PasturesNew wrote: »

So, you just need to tell him you know this and he needs to give you the heads up on what WILL be coming to market shortly. Let him know you're proceedable and he will then be keen to let you know so he has less paperwork to do and less effort to make.

The EA just sees you as like anybody else on their list at the moment, so he's calling people who understand that the ink's not dry on the details sheet yet.

Thank's Pastures New - good advice.

Because that's EXACTLY the scenario we seemingly encountered - the the properties have changed hands before they are even on the market. And unless the EA tells me that they are on the market...or just about to go on the market....we are perpetually left in the dust.

To compound this - unfortunately ( or luckily, depends on your viewpoint) we live in an area which attracts heaps of buyers from far afield. There is NEVER a shortage of buyers for certain properties and EA's can be as choosy as they want for those.

Sigh.....