Estate Agent 'Blocking' Purchase

Terrysdelight

Hi
I've put an offer in on a reposessed property a week ago. The estate agent made me give copies of my savings and bank accounts to prove that I have enough money to fund the purchase - they said they weren't allowed to put any offers forward unless thay had this proof. It took the agents 36 hours before they submitted my offer (which I think is unacceptable). The following day, the agent said the sellers wanted to know what my final offer was. The estate agents know my finances and were trying to squeeze me for another £5k, I finally relented and went up another £1k. 3 more business days have passed, plus this weekend without being told if my offer is accepted or not.

I'm suspecting the offer has not actually been put forward or the agent is trying to hold the property back for a 'contact or friend'.

Is there anyway I can force the estate agents hand? I think I know who the sellers are but not sure if it is a good idea to go direct to them?

Many thanks
Terri

Emmzi

nice conspiracy theory.

put it in wrriting with a date on which you will retract the offer.

LisaLou1982

Hi Terri

If its a repossessed property then the owners are now the bank.
You cannot submit an offer direct to them.

The estate agents are not blocking your offer. If it took them 36hours to submit the offer then its probably due to the fact that the person dealing with the property you have offered on wasnt there to speak to. It happens more often that you would think.

Most lenders require a cash buyer to submit proof of funds - this isnt unusual as the lender wants to be sure that a buyer is in a procedable position.

This might sound harsh but you know what, im sick of reading comments on here about estate agents not putting forward offers for a client as they might have a "friend" that they want to sell it to instead. How ridiculous. If you honestly think this is the case then why dont you ask the EA if they'll get the offer accepted for you if you give them a few £££. See what the response is.

So no, you cant force the estate agents hand, they are marketing the property, not bank rolling it. It will be sold to the highest bidder with the bank taking into account how much is currently outstanding on it and the best person who will proceed to completion.

Call the EA on monday afternoon and see if theyve heard anything. Ive waiting over a week in the past whilst the lender goes to meetings with other parties who have a vested financial interest in it (debt) so again, if you really want it and dont want to have to wait for them to make a decision, offer the asking price. Otherwise you'll just have to wait it out

A_Nice_Englishman

Here's the relevant section from The Property Ombudsman's Code of Practice

6. Submission of Offers
6a By law, you must tell sellers as soon as is reasonably possible about all offers that you receive at any time until contracts have been exchanged (in Scotland, missives have been concluded) unless the offer is an amount or type which the seller has specifically instructed you, in writing, not to pass on. You must confirm each offer in writing to the seller, and to the buyer who made it, within two working days.

LisaLou1982

Emmzi wrote: »

nice conspiracy theory.

put it in wrriting with a date on which you will retract the offer.

Makes no difference on a repo - the bank will do what they want regardless and believe it or not, it usually makes them think that youre not a serious buyer as if youre making threats about pulling out when you make the offer then its not exactly a good impression is it?

Terrysdelight

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

Hi Terri

If its a repossessed property then the owners are now the bank.
You cannot submit an offer direct to them.

The estate agents are not blocking your offer. If it took them 36hours to submit the offer then its probably due to the fact that the person dealing with the property you have offered on wasnt there to speak to. It happens more often that you would think.

Most lenders require a cash buyer to submit proof of funds - this isnt unusual as the lender wants to be sure that a buyer is in a procedable position.

This might sound harsh but you know what, im sick of reading comments on here about estate agents not putting forward offers for a client as they might have a "friend" that they want to sell it to instead. How ridiculous. If you honestly think this is the case then why dont you ask the EA if they'll get the offer accepted for you if you give them a few £££. See what the response is.

So no, you cant force the estate agents hand, they are marketing the property, not bank rolling it. It will be sold to the highest bidder with the bank taking into account how much is currently outstanding on it and the best person who will proceed to completion.

Call the EA on monday afternoon and see if theyve heard anything. Ive waiting over a week in the past whilst the lender goes to meetings with other parties who have a vested financial interest in it (debt) so again, if you really want it and dont want to have to wait for them to make a decision, offer the asking price. Otherwise you'll just have to wait it out

Hi
I understand and appreciate your comments. I know my initial thoughts may seem a little harsh, but the estate agent did deliberately mislead me saying they already had an offer on the property and so my first offer was immediately hiked up by £12k. Then the following day, on speaking to the branch manager, he confirmed that I was the only person interested in the property and they had not had any previous offers.

Also I was told all offers have to be submitted by fax, so I know it wasn't a case of trying to get hold of someone on the telephone. It took the estate agent 36 hours to send a fax.

I was thinking of dropping by the estate agents tomorrow and casually asking them to phone up to follow up on my offer whilst I waited for a response - I would of thought this was OK?

LisaLou1982

The fax confirmation sounds familiar too.......as does a certain repo company stating that they havent received it!! argh!! I used to spend hours trying to get some idiot to stand at the fax machine rather than letting it go into the shreader......! (joking on that point!!)

Not good that they told you there was an offer on the property if they didnt.....although, is it being marketed by another agent as well?? Some repos are marketed by 2 agents and this can sometimes cause confusion with offers as obviously not everything gets communicated between branches quickly.

Dropping in tomorrow definately sounds like a good idea....maybe call them in the morning and tell them you are going to come in later in the afternoon. That way they'll be expecting you and can do some chasing up in the morning too

Fingers crossed for you!

Emmzi

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

Makes no difference on a repo - the bank will do what they want regardless and believe it or not, it usually makes them think that youre not a serious buyer as if youre making threats about pulling out when you make the offer then its not exactly a good impression is it?

EAs have always given me a note in writingof offers I have made (in writing or by phone) wuth the vendors response.

So if OP reckons the offer is not getting passed on, putting it in writing is a way to make sure it gets through.

And if I wanted to know by a set date if my offer was going to be accepted, so I wasn't hanging on too long, I would put an end date on it. If they couldn't meet that date, so be it.

But then I have never been madly in love with a house - they've always just been boxes to put things in to me! So making an impression has never mattered.

Doozergirl

It is normal - honestly. If they are taking time then, to be honest, it's usually good news - it has been for me.

It's important to keep chasing as I suspect your offer is lower than they had in mind of accepting and this does mean that sometimes the salesperson doesn't take you all that seriously. It has to find the right person at the lender's end who then has to seriously consider the offer. hey're not as keen as you - it's just work to them and also it gives them time to find better offers. So please do keep chasing them; get talking to the sales manager and get some proper feedback - make sure they've found the right person at the other end.

I've had to wait a couple of weeks on at least two occassions to get the news back. If I felt my offer was aggressive, I'd be disappointed if it didn't take a while