Had Offer On House But..

wild_2

This is our selling story thus far,plus advise needed on a offer we have had?We put our rather large 4 bed ex council property up for sale with a local agent,not the pushy one who proclaimed he was the best in town! So rightly demanded full 2% selling fee then getting the hump when i put my 1% in writing and 1 month total sole agency on the table. He practically told me to !!!! off,so we did.There then followed letters,phone calls up to 10 a day telling us they had queues to view our house? I told them to go away. (yeah right).
Anyhow they skulked off and we put the house up with the more laid back guys in Town for 1.25% and 1 months sole agency.
There then followed a succession of calls to view,the first 2 in evenings,no shows? Annoying that,finally live people through the door. In a week we had 4 views so not bad. Then the call came for a viewing from developer. At first the agent talked like he had dealt with these guys before,and i raised my concerns of thier intentions as the house is ex council and planning is hard to gert on thee properties.
They arrived in the evening,one really nervous chap,one who spoke to us and the others never said a word. No questions other than who owned the house round corner that was obviously empty?
They went away and then we had another couple who really liked the place,and it looked like offers were forthcoming.
2 days later we had an offer from the group,10g below asking. Plus same from couple. We turned these down.
The group made another offer 7g below asking, i again turned down.The couple dropped out.
We now have another offer of 3g below asking but heres our dilema?
IF this was private buyer then the offer would now be accepted.With the offer coming from these guys who are really pushing the agent,who in turn are pushing us to sell to them?
We are not happy with this situation,reasons being that if we go ahead and we find a place,will the fun and games start to get us to drastically reduce our selling price once the balls rolling and it nears completion.
Friends of ours have told us not to accept thier offer and wait for a family who wants the house.The agent denies they had any dealings with this group and should accept the offer to the point of getting narky with me on the phone! Since thier last offers gone in,we have had no more viewings? Strange that?
What would you out there do if in your shoes?
Personally i dont want to sell to this lot as i know it will end in tears and a waste of everybodys time and money. Then again maybe i am being paranoid but i don`t feel comfortable with this offer,and the agents banging on my door but its my house isn`t it? I dont wish to fall out with the agent but its getting tense and i want to buy in same town.
I really can`t make mind up on this one.
thanks for listening.

Nicki

I've just had something similar. We have a three bed terrace house, guy turns up saying he is a BTL and talking about being able to get 8 people in to rent. We like our neighbours and knew they would not like to live next door to this + it would make parking a disaster area. Made an offer for full asking but said if valuation was less, he would want us to sell for what the valuation was. We felt nervous about turning him down but just didn't trust him not to gouge us either after valuation or on the brink of exchange. Happily a nice family came along and made an offer a few days later which we accepted with relief

Doozergirl

Well, as a developer I am personally less likely to try to knock you down after agreeing a price because I know what I'm looking at! I can tell what needs doing to a place or what I would want to do to it and would make my offer accordingly. I have finance in place, a good solicitor, no chain and I've been through the process enough times not to flip out over the small things...

I really don't see how a developer would be any more likely to mess you around than anyone else People change their minds, get freaked out by surveys, can't get mortgages. Anyone is just as risky as the next person.

I should imagine that your agent is only pushing you to sell to these people because they've made the highest offer.

If you want to accept their offer, then simply don't allow them to beat around the bush. You can tell them as developers you expect them to know what they're doing and therefore will not be renegotiating the price. Give them 10 days to survey or thehouse goes back on the market and 28 days to exchange. If they're even half decent, they should be able to pull it off.

ds1980

unfortunately doozer i think your being a little short sighted. Many developers try and knock people as this where their profits are. Ive seen it hundred times.

Of course there are the nice ones which you may or may not be but in general there trying to make money and dont really care about anything else.

The latest one last week was knocking an old man of 85 (in a home) for £20k on exchange. Son is dealing with it and the developers know that they need to sell to pay for the old mans care home fees.

That is a typical story and yes they all dont work like that but many do.

The advice on quick completion etc etc etc thath you outline is spot on. Do not be bullied by these people but do take their offer as genuine and then lay out the terms as you see fit.

david29dpo

I too am a developer, and would never try this on. Not very fair to tar us with the same brush. I need a quick sale, so the last thing i would do is blackmail, and after all the buying costs?

leftieM

I had a similar thing to the OP, a developer came around and offered full asking and I really didn't want to sell to him - I felt he'd gazunder further down the line. He was obviously a professional BTLer/ developer. He was a nice guy but I suppose in business if you appear vulnerable you're more likely to get taken advantage of!

nelly_2

Just tell them that if they start any nonsense thire out of the picture and wont ever return to the fray.