Dodgy estate agent??

Chopio

Hiya,

I'd really appreciate any advice/input on the following matter. Basically in June this year I saw and fell in love with a house that was on the market for 240k as a probate sale. It was very run down and needed lots of work so we put in an offer for 220k.

We assumed that our first (and only) offer had just been too cheeky because the estate agent never offered us another chance to increase our offer and the house was sold to a developer.

Now the developer has put the house back on the market for 250k. He hasn't touched the property at all - its still got the original junk inside. He did get planning permission to extend the property approved but for some reason he has decided to dump the project and put the place back on the market.

The thing that is making me the most :mad: is that I just found out that the developer paid £207,500 for the property when my offer had been £220,000.

Do you reckon there was some kind of dodginess going on with the estate agent? Or maybe because he was a cash buyer the estate agent just advised the original sellers to go with him for the sake of speed even though our offer was £12,500 more??

Is this kind of thing common?

BitterAndTwisted

Maybe the developer was the agent?

sonastin

Offer the developer £220k for it...

Chopio

No, they were definitely seperate people but I guess I'll never know if they were linked in some way --- as in a cash under the table kind of way.

I'm guessing that it would have been illegal for the developer to do that right? Is it allowed or do estate agents have any official guidelines that they have to follow?

Chopio

I've offered the seller 225 which they rejected... so I've just gone up to 235 and the estate agent (after bending my ear for a whole hour!!!) reckons he'll laugh at this also

Chopio

BTW the estate agent that the developer is selling the property through is different from the one he bought it through

cabbage

Might be worth asking the National Association of Estate Agents to have a look at this if the EA is a member.

It might have a silver lining though in that the house isn't worth what you offered for it. I would be inclined to make a low offer. As its just gone on the market a lower offer might be turned down but if its still on the market months later, they might accept it then.

sonastin

In a falling market like this, he's definitely the one having a laugh if he thinks he can sell it for more than he paid earlier the same year. Let him struggle to find a buyer for a while and then go back with an offer of £215k!

silvercar

Now the developer has put the house back on the market for 250k. He hasn't touched the property at all - its still got the original junk inside. He did get planning permission to extend the property approved but for some reason he has decided to dump the project and put the place back on the market.

Suggests the developer has cash flow problems, or can't see the cost effectiveness of doing the work.

The thing that is making me the most is that I just found out that the developer paid £207,500 for the property when my offer had been £220,000.

Do you reckon there was some kind of dodginess going on with the estate agent? Or maybe because he was a cash buyer the estate agent just advised the original sellers to go with him for the sake of speed even though our offer was £12,500 more??

Could be the sellers were happy to lose some potential profit by going with a cash buyer. Could be that the estate agents got a bung. You'll never know.

Chopio

I just feel like a mug .... a really cross mug.... for giving money to the developer for nothing.

The thing is though that we really love the house and we've had a wretched 6 months of looking at other houses in the area. I wish I could be confident that we could put in a low offer and he wouldn't find another higher one but basically we've been looking in this part of London for just over 6 months and every single place we've gone for has gone for the asking price or more pretty quickly.

We are looking for a standard victorian terrace for max 250k (or less if it needs lots of work) and we've been outbid on 3 properties, lost out in a contracts race, and asked for quiet cash on top of the 250k (bloomin stamp duty cut off) for a couple of places where the sellers have had multiple offers.

It just feels like there is some kind of secret game going on that I don't know the rules to. It also feels like a parellel universe to the one where everyone is talking about house prices tumbling.

Basically, if we do manage to buy this house it could go for a maximum of 265k if we did the electrics, boiler, new kitchen, bathroom, complete replastering, new windows and frames.... plus about 15k worth of structural stuff (rebuilding chimney, repointing, and fixing lots of spawled (?sp) brick work..... and that estimate of 265k is based on prices not falling much in this part of London. So if we get the house for 235 and do it up on a really tight budget then it might just be viable.

Mind you... 30k for all the fixes would be cutting it very fine...

JQ.

Is it possible to find out which solicitors were dealing with the probate? You could speak to them directly and find out if your offer was passed on by the Estate Agents, but do no more than that (no complaint and don't tell them what your offer was). If they didn't receive it, then a bit of pressure on the Estate Agent with that knowledge in your back pocket may persuade them to push your stupidly low offer through with the Developer.;)