FTB - confused and looking for help!

animalgirl

Hi,

Was hoping for some advice..

We’re FTBs and have found a house we love. We put in an offer, which was rejected (apparently a higher offer had already been rejected) so we decided as we loved the place to offer our maximum - £210k on a house advertised at £219,950. We put the offer in on Monday last week and the agent said the vendor was ‘seriously considering’ our offer and that he would get back to us on Wednesday. Since then we have not heard a thing and our calls are being avoided, called 3 times on Friday as we wanted to give them a deadline ha, and each time the agent was out of the office or on the phone..still no word today.

We can’t figure out what game they’re playing and am personally feeling like a mug – whatever game they’re playing, we clearly don’t know the rules.

The other issue we had was that we were told we would be required to meet with their IFA if our offer was accepted (to verify our finances). I challenged this; we have a mortgage in principle and a large deposit but he insisted we would have to have this meeting if we want to buy a house from them. I’ve read a few things on here and have sought advice elsewhere – general feeling is that, at best, it goes against the Property Ombudsman Code of Practise.

So this confused mug is calling out for advice from the non-mugs of MSE..

How long should one wait to find out if an offer is acceptable or indeed, not..?

Is this agent unscrupulous and/or rude or should I just accept that this is how it works?

Any help is much appreciated..

AG

sshaw101

could phone bakc and say you need an answer within 48 hours as you have found another property you love.

Also not sure about the meeting, never come across it and dont see the point, you have an AIP. Would the IFA charge you for their time?

BitterAndTwisted

Perhaps the vendors are still considering whether to accept or reject your offer.

If you think that your offer hasn't been communicated to the vendors by the EA because you've declined this meeting with their advisor why don't you send them your offer in a note by post?

POPPYOSCAR

It may be that they are expecting some more viewings in the next few days and want to hold out until they see if they get anything higher.

Some EA can be very devious.

It all depends how long you are prepared to wait as now you have made the offer the ball is in their court.

As I see it you have two choices.

1. Keep waiting
2. Give an ultimatum that your offer is only on the table for say the next three days and then you will start looking elsewhere.

However, even if they do accept your offer now there is nothing to stop them pulling out at a later date if a higher one comes along but as a FTB you are in a strong position.

I very much doubt that the EA will lose a sale just because you don't want to see their FA, this is probably just a ploy to try to sell you something.

Good luck!

Fulham_Mark

I think there's regulation that states that any offer you make must be given in writing to the seller and you also get a letter in writing saying that this offer has been made to them. Then you get a letter of acceptance or rejection.

Right now the market is falling and sellers are likely to accept any offer whereas an agent wants to make as high a percentage commission as possible so doesn't want the seller to accept offers.

Probably your first offer was not given to the seller. Now the agent makes you sweat to see if you keep making more offers.

Remember houses never sell for the market price but what buyers are prepared to pay - based on fear usually!

Having been through this myself, I'd write or call and withdraw your offers and ask that the seller is informed that you are no longer interested.

You'll soon have the agent desperately calling you and asking you to reconsider.

There will always be more houses for sale, don't fall in love with a house because you'll waste thousands of pounds playing the estate agent's games.

hope that helps

animalgirl

Thank you for all your replies we missed out on the property; we just found out a higher bid was accepted. I imagine in the week of silence they used our offer to push up any other potential sales..that's the game then, it's all a learning process I suppose!

thanks again

jozbo

better luck next time eh
i've lost out on a handful of properties in similar circumstances over the past few months (and some where i was just plain naive!).
as a FTB i think it's par the course... and when you do clinch a deal it'll seem that much sweeter. at least you didn't overpay what you thought it was worth. better will come along, as they say, it always does!