Is EA having me on?

loulou41

My second offer for 297K for a house at 304.950K has been rejected. EA said, they are looking for 300K+ and have had two offers and one of them has yet to sell their house. Since I am in a strong position, cash buyer with no chain and seller is emigrating in October. I told EA for the sake of 3k, won't it be better if seller consider my offer, he said they are not bothered about cash buyer, they want near the asking price. I also said, I do not think they will have time to complete by October and seller does not seem to be in a hurry.This seems strange I have always got the impression it is better to sell to a cash buyer with no chain and lose a few thousand pounds rather than having the hassle with buyers with chains. EA said unless I am prepared to increase offer, he will not update me of any offers. My instinct is telling me to leave it and looks elsewhere. Any advice. Thanks

lynzpower

Cor you are up against it arnt you Lou

Id say, could you approach the vendor direct, a note through the door would be an idea Saying that times ticking on if they want to complete by October, they better get a wriggle on were a week into september already!!!

I wouldnt up the offer, if they are as desperate to move as they say they are, then they might come back to you.

Doozergirl

Try not to let anything the estate agent says influence what you do. I'm with Lynzpower, try to speak to the vendor directly.

dougk_2

I would phone the EA, say you do not believe them on the other offers and that it is your final offer please pass it on to the vendor. I would also contact the vendor (maybe a note through their door) saying exactly what the EA told you and your offer.......... they may not be aware of what the EA is saying!

loulou41

EA just phoned and told me that vendor will accept an offer of 300k. Not sure whether to believe him or not. In the meantime, since I have had no luck looking where I am looking. Hubby says to look for a flat in london and 275k will buy me 1 bedroom flat in Bloomsbury + management fees, it's for daughter. Decision, decision, so hard to make. Thanks

RHemmings

dougk wrote:

I would phone the EA, say you do not believe them on the other offers and that it is your final offer please pass it on to the vendor. I would also contact the vendor (maybe a note through their door) saying exactly what the EA told you and your offer.......... they may not be aware of what the EA is saying!

Would you really recommend that someone should say to the EA that they don't believe them? While I accept that it's common for EAs to lie, it might get their backs up. The OP could simply say that this is their "final offer" then leave it at that. Though, if the EA is lying, if the OP tells them so that might embarrass the EA into acting more reasonably. The note through the door strategy is commonly recommended, but again I think it could go either way. If the EA has been passing the offers on, then getting the note is an obvious "bypass" of the EA and could make the OP look paranoid. On the other hand if the offer hasn't been put through, the vendor might become very annoyed, and be less likely to listen to the advice of the EA, who clearly doesn't want the sale to go through.

Has anyone had direct experience with these strategies? Has anyone put a note through a door and had a reaction, one way or the other, from the vendor? Has anyone accused an EA of lying and had a reaction?

tigerminxy

The extra commission the EA would receive for getting your offer up by £3k, assuming a pretty high fee of 3%, would be £90. That would be on top of several thousand pounds of commission.

So look at it from their point of view: do you think they would want to risk losing out on commission entirely (especially from a cash buyer) for the sake of £90 extra commission? Renewing the advertising the property on something like Rightmove would probably cost that much. The vendor is the one who has much more at stake here.

As a vendor, I was always suspicious about the EA telling me to accept a lower offer, because I knew it would hardly make any difference to them, but several thousand pounds difference to me. I wanted them to work for their commission, goddammit, not take the easy option.

I know estate agents aren't the most popular people around (and I'd love it if we could do without them) but people need to think about the financial maths a bit more before assuming the agents are the ones to blame here.

PosterBoy77

I think 297k is a very good offer. Sometimes people get too emotional in the process of buying a property. I would just sit it out and when they come back to you, as I'm sure they will. Then tell them that you are then only prepared to pay 290k take it or leave it. All agents try it on. You must not let them know that you really want something. Anyone emigrating in October is going to be very lucky if they try and sell to someone in a chain now!

clairehi

What is the maximum you are prepared to pay to secure the house?

Give this to the EA and tell him it is your best and final offer, and give them a short time limit to decide either way.

You are in a strong position to proceed, the EA is just trying to undermine you. I would ignore everything he says about the vendors position and other offers, as it is not reliable information!

rchddap1

I would ignore everything he says about the vendors position and other offers, as it is not reliable information!

Agreed. An EA once told my sister of a supposed higher offer on the house they were looking at. She decided that the house wasn't worth it and forgot about it. A little while later the EA came crawling back to her as they hadn't had any other offers and the vendor was angry. My sister just laughed at them as they'd found somewhere better.

gil13

I would proabably off 298k final, for exclusivity, all marketing of the property to end.