"Public Notice" House Sales - My Experience

Hoof_Hearted

Strange that our EA friends are steering clear of this thread.

The dishonesty of many EAs was one reason that I chose to sell with an online agent. Because of the flat fee structure, they remain fairly neutral and the vendor makes the decisions.

The other reason, of course, was to save thousands....

Bluemeanie_2

I am still highly suspicious as to what went on with that Maisonette I wanted to buy. It has never been listed on the land registry as sold. Something dodgy must have gone on.

domcastro

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

Strange that our EA friends are steering clear of this thread.

The dishonesty of many EAs was one reason that I chose to sell with an online agent. Because of the flat fee structure, they remain fairly neutral and the vendor makes the decisions.

The other reason, of course, was to save thousands....

They are probably laughing at you all for being fools. When people are gazumped, everyone says that EAs are evil. Now, this thread is about EAs NOT gazumping and this makes them evil too. Can't win situation.

ik1

hhmm...similar thing went on another repo last year that I wanted to bid on...one agent puts it on for £195k...second agent somehow hijacks the sale and lists it for £240k and allegedly sells is for £237k and it has never appeared on the land registry database as sold and I have driven past it and don't think anyone is living there. very strange and sad fact is the EAs will do one over another EA!

Bluemeanie wrote: »

I am still highly suspicious as to what went on with that Maisonette I wanted to buy. It has never been listed on the land registry as sold. Something dodgy must have gone on.

dinofabio

domcastro wrote: »

They are probably laughing at you all for being fools. When people are gazumped, everyone says that EAs are evil. Now, this thread is about EAs NOT gazumping and this makes them evil too. Can't win situation.

In my OP I was not advocating or encouraging gazumping - it's a practice that should be made illegal. Most decent estates agents discourage gazumping and rarely let you view a property in 'normal' marketing conditions when an offer has been accepted.

However, with a repo/probate sale the rules are vastly different. The EA is duty bound to achieve the best possible price for their client (corporate or otherwise), possibly with certain riders eg within a set time-scale, people who can exchange quickly etc.

My gripe is that in my case, I was stone-walled for two weeks to block me from viewing the property, just so that a 'preferred' buyer could proceed unhindered and without (maybe) having to up their offer. I can only assume there is some 'reward' to the EA for acting like this - otherwise why would they do it?

From the seller's perspective the EA has done them a disservice bordering on fraud. The EA has place a public notice requesting any other interested parties to make a higher bid before exchange of contracts. I contacted them as soon as the notice was place (I have an RSS update). I was never given the opportunity to even view never mind place an offer! The chances are there was other people interested in the same property and probably got the same treatment as me.

As I said before, this was a done deal from day one. The EA never had any intentions of letting me view, they were just fobbing me off until exchange.

The only people happy with this sort of arrangement is the buyer who got a very well priced property and the EA, who probably had a very nice xmas present from the buyer for their 'help' in the purchase.