Please advise.. somebody put in offer before us.

machofairy

We booked for a second viewing of a property and was told by the EA today that there has been an offer on the property, although they would still honour our viewing.

We are quite keen on this property but should we forget it and start looking elsewehere as we do not really want to nor can afford to enter into a bidding war.

Also, could the vendor actually accept more than one offer (which are subject to survey) and then pull out of one at a later stage, causing one unfortunate party to lose the money spent on servey and valuation?

At the worst case scenario, would that be the max we would stand to lose?

Any advice on how best to approach this situation would be most welcome.

thanks in advance.

silvercar

My comments in red:

machofairy wrote:

We booked for a second viewing of a property and was told by the EA today that there has been an offer on the property, although they would still honour our viewing.

You don't know if the offer has been accepted.

We are quite keen on this property but should we forget it and start looking elsewehere as we do not really want to nor can afford to enter into a bidding war.

Also, could the vendor actually accept more than one offer (which are subject to survey) and then pull out of one at a later stage, causing one unfortunate party to lose the money spent on servey and valuation?

If a second contract is issued the seller's solicitor has to inform you.

At the worst case scenario, would that be the max we would stand to lose?

At this early stage, nothing. If a later offer was accepted you may have paid out for searches, survey and some legal costs, but this would occur if the gap was weeks not days.

Any advice on how best to approach this situation would be most welcome.

Go look, forget the other offer for the moment.

thanks in advance.

mookybargirl

Ask the EA if the offer has been accepted. If it has, I wouldn't go view it as the people who made the offer will have started their proceedings potentially at a cost.

How would you feel in their shoes? I personally haven't viewed anything where an offer has been accepted and I always ask if they have had any offers....

jamminjamaica

you have nothing to lose by viewing the property. go see it. and if you like put in a offer you can aske the estate agent to lkeep you informed on the property. after all the estate agent will want to get as many offers as possible.

mi-key

If the offer had been accepted, then I'm pretty sure the agent would have told you this. If this is the case, by showing you around the agent is hoping you will gazump the other buyer, which is pretty poor.

Strong chance that there hasnt been another offer on it at all, but the agent doesnt want you to go in with a low first offer if you like the place - making you think there is another buyer interested seems to be a standard EA ploy to make you offer more for the house.

Have a look, and if you do like it, then put in whatever offer you are happy with - ignore any other buyers, real or not - until their offer is accepted then they arent a buyer, just someone making an offer the same as you.

I have heard more and more stories ( and it happened to us ) that once someone shows an interest in a property and makes an offer, the EA suddenly come up with someone else desperate for the place - often on properties that have been on the market for months without selling.

Best advice is just to offer what you think it is worth to you and not go any higher or feel pressured that someone else is interested.

Carter_2

machofairy wrote:

We booked for a second viewing of a property and was told by the EA today that there has been an offer on the property, although they would still honour our viewing.

Any advice on how best to approach this situation would be most welcome.

thanks in advance.

Hi,

I was in your vendors position when selling my own property. I had my first viewer booked in for a second but within the two days inbetween another viewer offered on my property. I still honoured the second viewing and they were told of the other offer in advance so they had the option to cancel. As it turns out I have actually gone with the people from the second viewing for a number of reasons.

On the other side of the coin, I viewed a property myself and was told that an offer was in discussion with the vendor before I went to see it but they were still accepting viewers. The EA called me the next day and reiterated this but wanted to know if I was interested too. As it turned out I wasnt. The sold board never appeared and is still on the market almost two months later.

It's awful not knowing if you are being given BS but I guess you just have to make up your own mind if you like the house and the price you want to pay at the end of the day. I wouldnt go higher on the possibility of another buyer that may or may not be there in the first place.

machofairy

Thanks for all your tips. I forgot to add that the EA said I could only have 10 mins (and no more!) for a second viewing. So, although I accepted the appointment, I smelt something fishy.

Today, I got someone to phone the EA pretending to be interested in a viewing. The estate agent told them that there was already an offer that has been accepted and if they were to make an offer, it would have to be above the asking price.

Should I now forget about this house and move on? We dont really want to offer above the asking price.

lilyann1

I wish we could complain somewhere about Ea's underhand tactics like this.
I thought that if an offer had been accepted by the vendors the Ea's should not be letting anybody look around.
I have been told this on a number of occassions,when I wanted to view property.

mi-key

Good agents will stop viewings once an offer has been accepted ( the ones we are buying from have a policy of doing this, and putting up a SOLD STC board once the offer is accepted ).

machofairy - I would leave it to be honest, the thing is you cant tell if its the agent messing about, or if the seller has told them to do it - either way they are tying to get you to gazump someone who has already had their offer accepted, and how would you feel if the shoe was on the other foot ?

plane_boy2000

If the agent told your friend that the house already had an offer accepted than I would not bother looking as it looks like the agent is just trying to create a bidding war. Just be blunt and ask the agent why they are still letting you look around. Perhaps its because the first offer is in apoor position i.e. no mortgage aranged?

Debt_Free_Chick

It is not up to the EA to stop viewings on a property where an offer has been made - whether it's been accepted or not. The EA acts on the vendor's instructions. So if viewings are still allowed, then it's the vendor that's encouraging gazumping.

If the vendor tells the EA to take the property off the market, then the viewings will stop. There's a thread about this on the board.

Let's not be too quick to label all EAs as shysters .... some vendors are pretty good at underhand tactics too :eek: