Is action against estate agents possible? What wd you do?

m0bov

Your being playes. go back to your first offer and then walk.

duchy

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Drop your offer, tell them it's only on the table for x days then be prepared to walk away

Look, people are @ssholes. When I was selling my house, we accepted an offer, then after 6 weeks, the sale fell through. I found a new buyer, but even when they matched that previous offer; I still pushed them for another £2k. Why? Because I could; and we needed as much capital as we could get. Little did they know, but if they hadn't found that £2k, we still would have accepted their offer as we were desperate to move.

We also ended up in a position where someone accepted our offer, then 2 days later came back and said someone else had offered higher - they then forced us into a blind bid-by-email. Lost the house. We even out-bid someone by £10k at one point and we still didn't get the house.

Buying and selling a house is a game of poker. Hold your nerve. We eventually did get a new home!

Karma can be a funny thing !

florence4

duchy wrote: »

Karma can be a funny thing !

Yes, exactly! Which is why I try to behave decently, and am very unsuited to this 'game of poker'!

fiscalfreckles

m0bov wrote: »

Your being playes. go back to your first offer and then walk.

This is what I'd do.

Can't be doing with all this faffing around & I don't trust ANY estate agents. Ended up speaking directly to the buyer of my last house as I could tell they were really keen but the EA told me they were timewasters (because he was pushing another buyer that was part of a chain which benefited him!)

ValHaller

florence4 wrote: »

Does anyone have any advice?

Yes. Chill. The agent has you exactly where he wants you, flapping around like a headless chicken. The more you flap, the more he knows that you absolutely must have this property. Well, OK, If you must, you must pay. But you are more likely to get it at a reasonable price if you start from the premise that you have no right to win this property and you look on the current situation as an opprtunity.

In your position, I would tell the agent that you are not bidding any further and the vendor should accept the other offer. Tell the agent that if the other offer falls through, your opening offer from Sunday is still available. Be most charming about this.

VICSH

I could have been writing this post a couple of weeks ago, we offered on a house in the village which was our most favourable choice. We offered on day of viewing and were told the vendors were pleased then they came back on Monday and said another party has offered more we increased the offer then told again they accepted fast forward 3 days we were told best and final offer we increased again to sdlt and were told it was ours then the following day someone else had offered more we walked away and do glad we did!
Fast forward a couple of weeks we viewed another house through this agent ( much against my husbands wishes) we decided to offer directly to vendors as we deliberately chose to view on a Sunday when they would show us around. Offered and negotiated the price the same day, following day ea up to the same tricks as last time at which point when asked for best and final offers I said we will withdraw our offer then. That evening the vendors managed to get hold of my dh at his work (we had discussed where he worked at the viewing) and asked why had we withdrawn after we explained what ea was doing again he was applaud and said his hand shake the previous day was final and he was accepting our offer! All is running smoothly at the moment but like you Florence I'm not up to this game but glad we went directly to vendors and I would never recommend this ea to anyone!

japmis

florence4 wrote: »

Do people really commonly re-negotiate after survey? When I started out, various people on this board and elsewhere assured me it was a risk tactic, and it seems pretty shabby to me!
It's a horrible business! I'm not made for it, which is why I haven't moved house for 20+ years!

I renegotiated after the survey revealed major problems with the concrete gutters; I kinda thought it was like buying a second hand car e.g. it would be worth what you're asking except it needs a new exhaust and tyres so I'm knocking that off the asking price?

neverdespairgirl

florence4 wrote: »

Do people really commonly re-negotiate after survey? When I started out, various people on this board and elsewhere assured me it was a risk tactic, and it seems pretty shabby to me!
It's a horrible business! I'm not made for it, which is why I haven't moved house for 20+ years!

I would, if there was a good reason to do so.

If the survey reveals, for example, that the roof needs replacing sharpish, or the whole place needs to be rewired, then the cost of that needs to be taken into consideration.

If I offered £200k on a house, assuming that it was all in reasonable nick, and found that it would need £40k spent on it on the roof / wiring / re-decoration after the wiring, I'd not see it as remotely shabby to renegotiate, taking that into account.

florence4

ValHaller wrote: »

Yes. Chill. The agent has you exactly where he wants you, flapping around like a headless chicken. The more you flap, the more he knows that you absolutely must have this property. Well, OK, If you must, you must pay. But you are more likely to get it at a reasonable price if you start from the premise that you have no right to win this property and you look on the current situation as an opprtunity.

In your position, I would tell the agent that you are not bidding any further and the vendor should accept the other offer. Tell the agent that if the other offer falls through, your opening offer from Sunday is still available. Be most charming about this.

Haha, point taken! But to be fair, I'm flapping HERE not at the EA! They have told me they will give the other bidders a deadline of close of business today, and I have told them that I will hold off making a decision until then, but may walk away or revert to my first offer...

I'm still cross tho!

florence4

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I would, if there was a good reason to do so.

If the survey reveals, for example, that the roof needs replacing sharpish, or the whole place needs to be rewired, then the cost of that needs to be taken into consideration.

If I offered £200k on a house, assuming that it was all in reasonable nick, and found that it would need £40k spent on it on the roof / wiring / re-decoration after the wiring, I'd not see it as remotely shabby to renegotiate, taking that into account.

No, sorry, I phrased that badly; I wouldn't either under those circumstances. But as I understood it, some people were suggesting I should raise my offer now to 'secure' the purchase, intending to reduce it after survey, on some pretext or another. That seems like a step too far, to me.