Effective offer letter

DVardysShadow

newhome4us wrote: »

Suki1001 my post didn’t refer to this single post by the DVardysShadow, but to his continuous insistence and his almost bullish approach towards OP, suljka from the very beginning of their thread.
Whereas DVardys questions might have been valid, it is questionable in the context of the original post by suljak if the answers to those questions are indeed necessary or essential in order to provide help that the OP has asked of us.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if someone is asking for some hints on how to write an effective offer letter, do we really need to know their whole history in order to provide those helpful hints, as in providing an effective template offer letter. If they are asking for a template, by definition a more generic type of a letter, which is more useful to others as well as everyone can adjust it to suit their own needs and circumstances.
All those property TV programmes suggest that putting an offer in writing is a good idea and may give you a bit more clout with both the EA and the vendor, many other posts on this forum suggest the same, yet when OP asks all of us for some constructive help his post gets more less hijacked by DVardys and his need to be well, simply put, nosy. DVardys insistence that OP is not telling us the whole story and therefore they must be hiding something, therefore they need telling off, therefore they really don’t deserve our help is frankly uncalled for, because we simply do not need to know the whole story in order to provide the template letter the OP is asking for, do we?!

OPs problem goes deeper than following the advice on the TV. Most people here don't seem to believe that an offer letter is the norm. We did have a spate of people saying here that you should do an offer letter, but I now think they were just repeating what they had heard on TV. These days, it is mostly FTB's who seem to think offer letters are required.

We have tantalising hints that the Agent is not doing his job. In my judgement, a simple offer letter will not shake him loose from whatever he is up to. And the simple offer letter is the one Daisy proposed. But it is so straightforward that the OP could have written the same.

My honest belief is that it is a waste of time to send such a letter, because it does not address the problem. I have bought and sold a few houses in my time and there are many experienced posters here who, if more detail is provided, will have a jolly good go at teasing out what the issue is and providing suggestions on how to move the offer forward.

So i will correct you, because I do believe you are wrong. The issue is not one of providing an effective offer letter. It is one of getting the Agent to take the offer forward.

suki1001

newhome4us wrote: »

Suki1001 my post didn’t refer to this single post by the DVardysShadow, but to his continuous insistence and his almost bullish approach towards OP, suljka from the very beginning of their thread.
Whereas DVardys questions might have been valid, it is questionable in the context of the original post by suljak if the answers to those questions are indeed necessary or essential in order to provide help that the OP has asked of us.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if someone is asking for some hints on how to write an effective offer letter, do we really need to know their whole history in order to provide those helpful hints, as in providing an effective template offer letter. If they are asking for a template, by definition a more generic type of a letter, which is more useful to others as well as everyone can adjust it to suit their own needs and circumstances.
All those property TV programmes suggest that putting an offer in writing is a good idea and may give you a bit more clout with both the EA and the vendor, many other posts on this forum suggest the same, yet when OP asks all of us for some constructive help his post gets more less hijacked by DVardys and his need to be well, simply put, nosy. DVardys insistence that OP is not telling us the whole story and therefore they must be hiding something, therefore they need telling off, therefore they really don’t deserve our help is frankly uncalled for, because we simply do not need to know the whole story in order to provide the template letter the OP is asking for, do we?!


Yes, normally you’d only need to put in your offer verbally and yes EA response should be more formal one as you suggest it was in your case. As much as I am happy that you have obviously dealt with a decent EA who has conducted business in a professional manner, not everyone is that lucky, myself included. Yes in the ideal world verbal offers are the way to go; in the ideal worlds all EA do their job following the rules and you get your offer confirmed in writing; in the ideal worlds EA passes your offer to the seller as you have asked them to. In the world I live in my offers were not passed on to the seller, they were not even recorded by the EA correctly, they were never confirmed in writing and the result is one botched sale, one complaint to the EA and one complaint to Property ombudsman as a result… and everything being so much more difficult to prove because things were done verbally, as it were, putting trust in EA.
I have learned a hard way and therefore I speak from experience when I say that written offer are a way to go and all my offers in future will be conducted in writing, be it via email or snail mail.

I guess we all take different interpretations about posts and I didn't really get the impression that dVardy was being as you described him/her. I had wondered myself. I see frequently on here, although it is more often down to the thread starters, getting very wound up at replies which are often left genuinely to find out more information to help, they're often taken the wrong way. I can see where dVardy was coming from, the op did appear a little secretive and although it may be none of our business the reasons why, it may have helped to have been a little more forthcoming for the bigger picture. People do like to delve, indeed on the debt forum in order for help the more you are open, the more people can help. It is anonymous afterall.

Anyhow, I think it's a little un nerving taking advice off a tv programme, although that is purely my opinion. I tend to avoid tv programmes, especially property ones. I once watched the "homes under the hammer one". When someone who'd bought a house at auction to be done up and sold, the presenter asked why they'd done it and the man replied, because they'd watched the tv programme! Downright dangerous things those property programmes if you ask me!

You've obviously had a very bad experience and you clearly have had a steep learning curve. I do however agree with the majority of the posters that if an ea is dodgy, and much as I don't think it is the most noble of professions, they generally follow the rules in terms offers. Most people haven't had their fingers burnt, but I guess your experience is useful to know, thank you for sharing it with us..

suljka

Dear all,

Thank you all for taking time to post in this thread. Rather than addressing individual posts, which might take a while, I'll address some of the issues that seem to have intrigued people for one reason or the other. I'm in lovable mood so will choose to ignore the somewhat questionable exchanges that took place, let's just agree to disagree.

It wasn't my intention to appear secretive, nor to hide anything I saw as relevant, I thought I made it clear enough in my OP that the agent was difficult and wasn't taking us seriously and that we'd like to put our offer in writing for that reason, reminding them of what their obligations are and clearly showing that we are not clueless push overs.

Frankly I was rather stunned to see how different people interpreted what was being said - it just goes how easy is to misinterpret something quite simple and read all sorts of scenarios into any situation.

Thanks for your concern, but I can reassure you that if EA was merely trying to protect our interests (through any of numerable scenarios offered) I wouldn’t be here asking for help with the named latter. One of the reasons I haven’t gone into greater details about the property or the circumstances is that there aren’t any real issues with the property, nor with us as buyers – the only issue is this particular agent. And I don't say that as a person who expects EA to be angels, nor one who has no previous contact with the named profession. And nor is that my wishful thinking interpretation of things, but that one of other agents, mortgage brokers etc. who are all fighting over our custom, as we are in their own words ‘a perfect buyer’ - and that ironically included thus far the EA in question!!

I have done my research and there’s no suggestion of property being unmortgagable, there were other properties in the same building sold recently and in fact that same ‘decent’ agent has previously tried to get us to view the properties that are of no interest to us and that anyone would have difficulty getting a mortgage for, including high rise properties with hefty SC and Section 20 on the table. He has treated us as clueless idiots to whom he can sell properties that no one else is crazy enough to buy, yet with this property he's been taking us round the bend, playing cat and mouse, avoiding straight answer and wasting valuable time.
He's been trying to get us to view the other properties all along, while with this one every step of the way has been struggle, even though the property is empty and therefore no usual excuses can be given, i.e. tenants are difficult, or it is not good time for the vendor.

Our offers was not confirmed in writing by him, they were in fact not really acknowledged at all as all communication so far has been a verbal one - he's been avoiding straight answer one way or the other, and if he does say anything he is blaming it on vendor being old, bit slow and difficult to reach. In the meantime days are passing...

So yes our concern is that our offers are not communicated to the vendor and that is yet another reason why we’d like to put that offer in writing. And yes we are aware of the fact that the written offer might end up in the same place as verbal one (i.e. nowhere) but at least there’s something a bit more ‘real’ to go from. As it stands at the moment even if we could contact the vendor direct (which we can’t, else I’d be doing it already – they don’t live there and we never met them, and land registry isn’t coming up with another address either, as I said we did the research before coming on here) it would end us just being our word against EA.

As couple of you have stated their bad experience, that is exactly kind of thing we are trying to prevent from happening, and yes we do think a letter might be e good place to start. It would give us something tangible to show for all our trouble with the EA and if it comes to it something that whoever that EA has to answer to can be shown. Yes, we also have doubts about the EA having a developer lined up for the property already, and whereas in some people's eyes that might be that then, give up and go elsewhere... I say no more.

I'm getting seriously peed of with that sort of attitude, no matter how well intended, fed up with reading about small people constantly loosing out because "nothing can be done" and "if the agent is difficult, go elsewhere" and "be prepared to walk away" and "unfortunately that's just the way things work" and any other numerous one-liners that are meant to leave us in the exact same !!!!!! place. Most things that are worth fighting for are not easy, that's why they are worth fighting for. So let's stop taking it in our stride that EA are "like that"... let's show them the buyers are not "like that"...

Yes - I'm prepared to fight, so come on people, help!!! Power to the people, I say!!!

MissMotivation

suljka wrote: »

Dear all,

Thank you all for taking time to post in this thread. Rather than addressing individual posts, which might take a while, I'll address some of the issues that seem to have intrigued people for one reason or the other. I'm in lovable mood so will choose to ignore the somewhat questionable exchanges that took place, let's just agree to disagree.

It wasn't my intention to appear secretive, nor to hide anything I saw as relevant, I thought I made it clear enough in my OP that the agent was difficult and wasn't taking us seriously and that we'd like to put our offer in writing for that reason, reminding them of what their obligations are and clearly showing that we are not clueless push overs.

Frankly I was rather stunned to see how different people interpreted what was being said - it just goes how easy is to misinterpret something quite simple and read all sorts of scenarios into any situation.

Thanks for your concern, but I can reassure you that if EA was merely trying to protect our interests (through any of numerable scenarios offered) I wouldn’t be here asking for help with the named latter. One of the reasons I haven’t gone into greater details about the property or the circumstances is that there aren’t any real issues with the property, nor with us as buyers – the only issue is this particular agent. And I don't say that as a person who expects EA to be angels, nor one who has no previous contact with the named profession. And nor is that my wishful thinking interpretation of things, but that one of other agents, mortgage brokers etc. who are all fighting over our custom, as we are in their own words ‘a perfect buyer’ - and that ironically included thus far the EA in question!!

I have done my research and there’s no suggestion of property being unmortgagable, there were other properties in the same building sold recently and in fact that same ‘decent’ agent has previously tried to get us to view the properties that are of no interest to us and that anyone would have difficulty getting a mortgage for, including high rise properties with hefty SC and Section 20 on the table. He has treated us as clueless idiots to whom he can sell properties that no one else is crazy enough to buy, yet with this property he's been taking us round the bend, playing cat and mouse, avoiding straight answer and wasting valuable time.
He's been trying to get us to view the other properties all along, while with this one every step of the way has been struggle, even though the property is empty and therefore no usual excuses can be given, i.e. tenants are difficult, or it is not good time for the vendor.

Our offers was not confirmed in writing by him, they were in fact not really acknowledged at all as all communication so far has been a verbal one - he's been avoiding straight answer one way or the other, and if he does say anything he is blaming it on vendor being old, bit slow and difficult to reach. In the meantime days are passing...

So yes our concern is that our offers are not communicated to the vendor and that is yet another reason why we’d like to put that offer in writing. And yes we are aware of the fact that the written offer might end up in the same place as verbal one (i.e. nowhere) but at least there’s something a bit more ‘real’ to go from. As it stands at the moment even if we could contact the vendor direct (which we can’t, else I’d be doing it already – they don’t live there and we never met them, and land registry isn’t coming up with another address either, as I said we did the research before coming on here) it would end us just being our word against EA.

As couple of you have stated their bad experience, that is exactly kind of thing we are trying to prevent from happening, and yes we do think a letter might be e good place to start. It would give us something tangible to show for all our trouble with the EA and if it comes to it something that whoever that EA has to answer to can be shown. Yes, we also have doubts about the EA having a developer lined up for the property already, and whereas in some people's eyes that might be that then, give up and go elsewhere... I say no more.

I'm getting seriously peed of with that sort of attitude, no matter how well intended, fed up with reading about small people constantly loosing out because "nothing can be done" and "if the agent is difficult, go elsewhere" and "be prepared to walk away" and "unfortunately that's just the way things work" and any other numerous one-liners that are meant to leave us in the exact same !!!!!! place. Most things that are worth fighting for are not easy, that's why they are worth fighting for. So let's stop taking it in our stride that EA are "like that"... let's show them the buyers are not "like that"...

Yes - I'm prepared to fight, so come on people, help!!! Power to the people, I say!!!

Thanks for the really long post but I still don't see where you have said what it is that the agent has said/hasn't said and how they are being difficult.

I'll throw in my opinion too and add that there is next to no point putting your offer in writing. I would take your offer more seriously if you came into my office and had a sensible, grown-up conversation with me and told me what the issues actually were!

suljka

MissMotivation wrote: »

Thanks for the really long post but I still don't see where you have said what it is that the agent has said/hasn't said and how they are being difficult.

MissMotivation wrote: »

I'll throw in my opinion too and add that there is next to no point putting your offer in writing. I would take your offer more seriously if you came into my office and had a sensible, grown-up conversation with me and told me what the issues actually were!

MissMotivation – I hope I’m not jumping to the wrong conclusions here when I assume, based on your posts, that you are in fact an EA yourself? With that assumption, I do feel for you and I appreciate you are finding it offensive when people bad-mouth EA as you obviously don’t consider yourself one of the bad ones. It must be a difficult position to be in, and I really do not mean to generalise when I speak of bad EA, but unfortunately I have so far met a single one that I could honestly say I had full trust in what they were saying, unfortunately that one was very new to the business (which might go to explain things or two about their openness) and she has actually left the profession since as she couldn't cope with all the scheming and dealings that job entitled (her words, not mine!) Sales jobs are ruthless and it is in EA job’s description to be deceitful and all the rest that most other people find so unfair and difficult to deal with. But it is a job and I would like to believe that even EA when they go home to their normal lives are loving, trustworthy people, who leave their job at the office.
So on these premises please do believe me when I say that this EA was being difficult beyond the call of duty. I might have not spelled it out just how exactly, please forgive me as I didn’t think and still don’t think it is necessary to go into all the fine details as I have summarised it in my post, I quote:

“He has treated us as clueless idiots to whom he can sell properties that no one else is crazy enough to buy, yet with this property he's been taking us round the bend, playing cat and mouse, avoiding straight answer and wasting valuable time.
He's been trying to get us to view the other properties all along, while with this one every step of the way has been struggle, even though the property is empty and therefore no usual excuses can be given, i.e. tenants are difficult, or it is not good time for the vendor..”

Meaning – he has been very proactive showing us properties that are other properties that don’t fulfil all the criteria, or trying to get us to view the others that are simply are of no interest whatsoever, but with this particular one it took absolute ages to arrange the viewing as the EA was giving all possible excuses that made no sense whatsoever, personal favourites are… can’t find keys!, I’m totally booked out for the week, while at the same time leaving a message to ask if we’d like to see another property the following day!!, etc.. The only way we actually managed to arrange the viewing was through a junior agent who my OH pretty much tricked into showing us the property by confusing him with a different name to the one we’re registered with, as we’re registered in my name seeing how I’m normally one arranging the viewings. Which begs the question, why is the EA being so difficult, why reluctance in showing this property if he is keen to make a sale and in his own words we are their dream buyer? Smells very much like a developer in a pipeline, don’t you think? Or have we suddenly stopped being that dream buyer, by showing we actually have a thing or two up in our heads?

As I said: “Our offers was not confirmed in writing by him, they were in fact not really acknowledged at all as all communication so far has been a verbal one - he's been avoiding straight answer one way or the other, and if he does say anything he is blaming it on vendor being old, bit slow and difficult to reach. In the meantime days are passing...”

After the viewing it took a whole week to get in touch with the EA, we left numerous messages for him, on his mobile and with his collegues, and yes we tried to put in an offer through other agents only to be told that so and so EA is dealing with this property so we need to speak to him. Finally once we managed to catch up with him a week later and have put our offer in we got nowhere again. Again days of chasing him only to get voicemail that vendor is not getting back to him, he is very difficult and old etc.… days pass and then finally we catch him on the phone for him to say, oh, your offer wasn’t accepted… When I questioned why he hasn't told us so he gave some excuse about being very busy and how he thought he did. When we asked for feedback re offer again not getting much. So I put in a revised offer and the whole scenario is being repeated again... And that's where we are….

So you see as much as I love your idea of going to speak to him, first, it is not really possible to do that unless I take a whole day off and camp in front of agents in order to catch him there and then hoping he’ll actually have time to see me, not to mention he'd be just as likely to find a way to avoid me unless I go for a full blown confrontation in front of an entire office, probably biting myself in the !!! in the process!
So yes I do think writing an offer letter is really the only way to get somewhere, bar writing a letter of complaint, as with the offer letter I can also copy the manager into it, especially if it is justifiable to do so - which it would be if there's no response from the agent.
I'm sure you'll appreciate that it is much more difficult to ignore the email your boss has been copied into, than it is to avoid answering someone’s numerous phone calls.

Would that be enough detail?

serious_saver

suljka wrote: »

MissMotivation – I hope I’m not jumping to the wrong conclusions here when I assume, based on your posts, that you are in fact an EA yourself? With that assumption, I do feel for you and I appreciate you are finding it offensive when people bad-mouth EA as you obviously don’t consider yourself one of the bad ones. It must be a difficult position to be in, and I really do not mean to generalise when I speak of bad EA, but unfortunately I have so far met a single one that I could honestly say I had full trust in what they were saying, unfortunately that one was very new to the business (which might go to explain things or two about their openness) and she has actually left the profession since as she couldn't cope with all the scheming and dealings that job entitled (her words, not mine!) Sales jobs are ruthless and it is in EA job’s description to be deceitful and all the rest that most other people find so unfair and difficult to deal with. But it is a job and I would like to believe that even EA when they go home to their normal lives are loving, trustworthy people, who leave their job at the office.
So on these premises please do believe me when I say that this EA was being difficult beyond the call of duty. I might have not spelled it out just how exactly, please forgive me as I didn’t think and still don’t think it is necessary to go into all the fine details as I have summarised it in my post, I quote:

“He has treated us as clueless idiots to whom he can sell properties that no one else is crazy enough to buy, yet with this property he's been taking us round the bend, playing cat and mouse, avoiding straight answer and wasting valuable time.
He's been trying to get us to view the other properties all along, while with this one every step of the way has been struggle, even though the property is empty and therefore no usual excuses can be given, i.e. tenants are difficult, or it is not good time for the vendor..”

Meaning – he has been very proactive showing us properties that are other properties that don’t fulfil all the criteria, or trying to get us to view the others that are simply are of no interest whatsoever, but with this particular one it took absolute ages to arrange the viewing as the EA was giving all possible excuses that made no sense whatsoever, personal favourites are… can’t find keys!, I’m totally booked out for the week, while at the same time leaving a message to ask if we’d like to see another property the following day!!, etc.. The only way we actually managed to arrange the viewing was through a junior agent who my OH pretty much tricked into showing us the property by confusing him with a different name to the one we’re registered with, as we’re registered in my name seeing how I’m normally one arranging the viewings. Which begs the question, why is the EA being so difficult, why reluctance in showing this property if he is keen to make a sale and in his own words we are their dream buyer? Smells very much like a developer in a pipeline, don’t you think? Or have we suddenly stopped being that dream buyer, by showing we actually have a thing or two up in our heads?

As I said: “Our offers was not confirmed in writing by him, they were in fact not really acknowledged at all as all communication so far has been a verbal one - he's been avoiding straight answer one way or the other, and if he does say anything he is blaming it on vendor being old, bit slow and difficult to reach. In the meantime days are passing...”

After the viewing it took a whole week to get in touch with the EA, we left numerous messages for him, on his mobile and with his collegues, and yes we tried to put in an offer through other agents only to be told that so and so EA is dealing with this property so we need to speak to him. Finally once we managed to catch up with him a week later and have put our offer in we got nowhere again. Again days of chasing him only to get voicemail that vendor is not getting back to him, he is very difficult and old etc.… days pass and then finally we catch him on the phone for him to say, oh, your offer wasn’t accepted… When I questioned why he hasn't told us so he gave some excuse about being very busy and how he thought he did. When we asked for feedback re offer again not getting much. So I put in a revised offer and the whole scenario is being repeated again... And that's where we are….

So you see as much as I love your idea of going to speak to him, first, it is not really possible to do that unless I take a whole day off and camp in front of agents in order to catch him there and then hoping he’ll actually have time to see me, not to mention he'd be just as likely to find a way to avoid me unless I go for a full blown confrontation in front of an entire office, probably biting myself in the !!! in the process!
So yes I do think writing an offer letter is really the only way to get somewhere, bar writing a letter of complaint, as with the offer letter I can also copy the manager into it, especially if it is justifiable to do so - which it would be if there's no response from the agent.
I'm sure you'll appreciate that it is much more difficult to ignore the email your boss has been copied into, than it is to avoid answering someone’s numerous phone calls.

Would that be enough detail?

Does it have to be this specific person who puts in the offer it could it be someone else from the agency. I agree with MissMotivation on this. If they are deliberately trying to stop you from putting an offer in then they are unlikely to acknowledge your letter. You are probably better off going into the branch and putting in an offer in person even if it means camping out all day.

I have also had recent experience with an EA who was at best incompetent and at worst (to put it as politely as possible) deliberately acting in a way that was not in the interests of the seller. It can be incredibly frustrating.

Of course it might be as Kingstreet has suggested (and he usually gives very good advice) and the EA might well know that the property is not suitable (i.e. it will not get a mortgage in its current condition) and is trying to dissuade you because he knows it won't go through. It's not unheard of for vendors to be in denial about the value/condition of their property. What exactly needs doing on the property? You would be amazed at the things that will cause a mortgage to be declined.

MissMotivation

suljka wrote: »

MissMotivation – I hope I’m not jumping to the wrong conclusions here when I assume, based on your posts, that you are in fact an EA yourself? With that assumption, I do feel for you and I appreciate you are finding it offensive when people bad-mouth EA as you obviously don’t consider yourself one of the bad ones. It must be a difficult position to be in, and I really do not mean to generalise when I speak of bad EA, but unfortunately I have so far met a single one that I could honestly say I had full trust in what they were saying, unfortunately that one was very new to the business (which might go to explain things or two about their openness) and she has actually left the profession since as she couldn't cope with all the scheming and dealings that job entitled (her words, not mine!) Sales jobs are ruthless and it is in EA job’s description to be deceitful and all the rest that most other people find so unfair and difficult to deal with. But it is a job and I would like to believe that even EA when they go home to their normal lives are loving, trustworthy people, who leave their job at the office.
So on these premises please do believe me when I say that this EA was being difficult beyond the call of duty. I might have not spelled it out just how exactly, please forgive me as I didn’t think and still don’t think it is necessary to go into all the fine details as I have summarised it in my post, I quote:

“He has treated us as clueless idiots to whom he can sell properties that no one else is crazy enough to buy, yet with this property he's been taking us round the bend, playing cat and mouse, avoiding straight answer and wasting valuable time.
He's been trying to get us to view the other properties all along, while with this one every step of the way has been struggle, even though the property is empty and therefore no usual excuses can be given, i.e. tenants are difficult, or it is not good time for the vendor..”

Meaning – he has been very proactive showing us properties that are other properties that don’t fulfil all the criteria, or trying to get us to view the others that are simply are of no interest whatsoever, but with this particular one it took absolute ages to arrange the viewing as the EA was giving all possible excuses that made no sense whatsoever, personal favourites are… can’t find keys!, I’m totally booked out for the week, while at the same time leaving a message to ask if we’d like to see another property the following day!!, etc.. The only way we actually managed to arrange the viewing was through a junior agent who my OH pretty much tricked into showing us the property by confusing him with a different name to the one we’re registered with, as we’re registered in my name seeing how I’m normally one arranging the viewings. Which begs the question, why is the EA being so difficult, why reluctance in showing this property if he is keen to make a sale and in his own words we are their dream buyer? Smells very much like a developer in a pipeline, don’t you think? Or have we suddenly stopped being that dream buyer, by showing we actually have a thing or two up in our heads?

As I said: “Our offers was not confirmed in writing by him, they were in fact not really acknowledged at all as all communication so far has been a verbal one - he's been avoiding straight answer one way or the other, and if he does say anything he is blaming it on vendor being old, bit slow and difficult to reach. In the meantime days are passing...”

After the viewing it took a whole week to get in touch with the EA, we left numerous messages for him, on his mobile and with his collegues, and yes we tried to put in an offer through other agents only to be told that so and so EA is dealing with this property so we need to speak to him. Finally once we managed to catch up with him a week later and have put our offer in we got nowhere again. Again days of chasing him only to get voicemail that vendor is not getting back to him, he is very difficult and old etc.… days pass and then finally we catch him on the phone for him to say, oh, your offer wasn’t accepted… When I questioned why he hasn't told us so he gave some excuse about being very busy and how he thought he did. When we asked for feedback re offer again not getting much. So I put in a revised offer and the whole scenario is being repeated again... And that's where we are….

So you see as much as I love your idea of going to speak to him, first, it is not really possible to do that unless I take a whole day off and camp in front of agents in order to catch him there and then hoping he’ll actually have time to see me, not to mention he'd be just as likely to find a way to avoid me unless I go for a full blown confrontation in front of an entire office, probably biting myself in the !!! in the process!
So yes I do think writing an offer letter is really the only way to get somewhere, bar writing a letter of complaint, as with the offer letter I can also copy the manager into it, especially if it is justifiable to do so - which it would be if there's no response from the agent.
I'm sure you'll appreciate that it is much more difficult to ignore the email your boss has been copied into, than it is to avoid answering someone’s numerous phone calls.

Would that be enough detail?

Well first of all it's no secret that I am an EA......I think my quote at says it all really.

Secondly from just reading you posts you come across as a, and I hope I'm not jumping to conclusions here, nightmare of a potential buyer. I'm not surprised the agent isn't taking you seriously when, in your own words, you 'tricked' an employee into arranging a viewing for you by using a false name. If you had done this to my staff then I would have refused to have even shown you round....disgusting!

If the agent has said that the offer is declined then you have two choices.

1) Increase you offer
2) Buy another property

By all means put the offer in again, in writing, but I don't see this as a solution to your problem. If you don't want to go into the office then you are pretty much stuffed...sorry

This comment 'it is in EA job’s description to be deceitful'.....what planet are you on?

serious_saver

MissMotivation wrote: »

This comment 'it is in EA job’s description to be deceitful'.....what planet are you on?

OP - It's far more likely that this particular EA is just useless rather than deceitful.

I'm sorry MissMotivation, I know you're an estate agent, but for every good estate agent I've met I have come across at least 5 who don't have a clue what their doing!

Wobblydeb

Suljka, I agree that something fishy is going on.

I would send the email asking why you didn't receive written acknoweldgement of your offer(s) and copy in the owner of the business or branch manager if you can find their email address. If not, then I agree a hardcopy letter with a copy sent to head office (if there is one!) is important.

Even when I have had offers refused in the past I have received written confirmation of the offer from the EA. This stinks of bad practice at best and outright fraud at worst.

suljka

serious_saver wrote: »

Does it have to be this specific person who puts in the offer it could it be someone else from the agency. I agree with MissMotivation on this. If they are deliberately trying to stop you from putting an offer in then they are unlikely to acknowledge your letter. You are probably better off going into the branch and putting in an offer in person even if it means camping out all day.

I have also had recent experience with an EA who was at best incompetent and at worst (to put it as politely as possible) deliberately acting in a way that was not in the interests of the seller. It can be incredibly frustrating.

Of course it might be as Kingstreet has suggested (and he usually gives very good advice) and the EA might well know that the property is not suitable (i.e. it will not get a mortgage in its current
condition) and is trying to dissuade you because he knows it won't go through. It's not unheard of for vendors to be in denial about the value/condition of their property. What exactly needs doing on the property? You would be amazed at the things that will cause a mortgage to be declined.

As I said in my post, I have tried to put in an offer through another agent, only to be referred back to the EA in question "as he is the one dealing with this property", so it is not for a lack of trying...
And yes I agree with you - the EA is unlikely to respond to a letter, but if their manager is cc'd into it someone will have to respond to it somehow... or at least I'll have something tangible to refer to need be, rather than just my numerous attempts that the EA can just dismiss. Maybe I'm being mistrustful, but so far his conduct didn't give me the great deal of confidence that he would follow the rules, when he hasn't done so far.
I think that if there's something in writing it puts me in a better position if I then need to follow it up by going into branch, or if I need to take it further.

I already explained why is it highly unlikely to be as kingstreet suggested, not because there's anything wrong with their suggestion, but because the circumstances of the property don't support it, you can find details in my previous posts in this thread. Anyway, if that was the case I think EA would be suggesting something along those lines (which he has done for other properties), but he suggested nothing of a sort for this one. It seems much more likely that he’s got another buyer lined up as it’s also been suggested. Nevertheless, whatever his reasons are, his conduct hasn’t been a professional one.

MissMotivation wrote: »

Well first of all it's no secret that I am an EA......I think my quote at says it all really.

Secondly from just reading you posts you come across as a, and I hope I'm not jumping to conclusions here, nightmare of a potential buyer.
I'm not surprised the agent isn't taking you seriously when, in your own words, you 'tricked' an employee into arranging a viewing for you by using a false name. If you had done this to my staff then I would have refused to have even shown you round....disgusting!

If the agent has said that the offer is declined then you have two choices.

1) Increase you offer
2) Buy another property

By all means put the offer in again, in writing, but I don't see this as a solution to your problem. If you don't want to go into the office then you are pretty much stuffed...sorry

This comment 'it is in EA job’s description to be deceitful'.....what planet are you on?

Missmotivation, thank you for not jumping to conclusions then and for assessing me as a nightmare buyer – I think it would be very useful for many other posters to establish what you are basing your assessment on?
So we ask questions and if we don’t like the way the agent is conducting his job we are prepared to question that, and do something about it. We don't except their lame excuses why they can't show us one property they have on their books that ticks all our boxes. We don't give up after they ignore us when putting in our offer. We are an absolute nightmare, you are quite right there – if only all buyers were a little bit more like us than maybe there’d be more EA who are not total crooks (to quote your signature) and the whole property buying wasn't such a nightmare experience.

It might be useful for you to re-read my post and tell me just where exactly did we use the ‘false name’ to get a viewing? My OH has a different name and because junior agent spoke to him it transpired they thought they were showing the property to someone else, not us… which again, begs the question why they’d arrange the viewing under that assumption but not for us? And it also begs the question why was the EA in question shocked to hear that we have actually viewed the property… I imagine it might have not ended well for the junior agent we spoke to (he definitely never answered the phone since!!).
So I thank you for judging us disguisting on your invented assumption, yet failing to address any of the much more ‘disgusting’ offences the EA has done.
You sure lived up to your signature there?!

Thank you also for your very useful suggestion to increase our offer – we have done so, only as I said it got us nowhere, we’re still playing cat and mouse with the EA who just probably forgot to let us know about the outcome. So how long do you reckon we should wait to hear from them, should we keep on calling, or should we just wait until property goes Under offer for someone else... So yeah, we should just continue trying. Or else, buy another property, one that the EA has picked for us, I take it – would you have any you’d like to show us?! Something overpriced, without any of our requirements and over our budget?!

As for the comment ‘it is in EA job’s description to be deceitful’… what planet are you on?!
If you don't like that people are viewing you lot as crooks than maybe you should give us more reasons not to - I haven't looked at your other posts but in this thread all you have done was to acuse me as nightmare, while whatever was suggested as agent's wrongdoing is somehow being justified and dismissed by you.
You might be an angel but just because you don't do any of the bad things most of your profession see as norm that still doesn't excuse you sticking your head in a sand and pretending it doesn't happen.

serious_saver wrote: »

OP - It's far more likely that this particular EA is just useless rather than deceitful.

I'm sorry MissMotivation, I know you're an estate agent, but for every good estate agent I've met I have come across at least 5 who don't have a clue what their doing!

Or to quote my personal favourite from another post “for every good EA I’ve met, hm, wait, I’m yet to meet one”