Had an offer accepted - how long before its taken off the market

rrtt

princeofpounds wrote: »

haha yes this was a trend around my area after the financial crisis. Nothing much was moving, so the agents were all keen to demonstrate they could sell stuff.

Cue almost every single board going up with a 'sold' or 'under offer' sign immediately. But on the websites and in the office the properties were all still for sale.

I suppose the logic was that buyers would search the net or speak to them directly, whilst potential sellers would just be looking around to see who had the most presence.

None of the properties I tracked did sell in the end. Most came off the market before re-appearing a year later and then selling.

I would say that's a very dangerous ploy - my fav way of finding houses that I was interested in was simply driving around the area, finding the 'for sale' boards, and deciding whether I liked the location, whether the garden would be big enough and have enough privacy, which way the house faced for sunshine etc - all things which you don't get from brochures or internet.

All the other varying comments and experiences just go to show how very much the process of housebuying is anindividual happening and not something which (in England/Wales except in exceptional circumstances) can be defined as a definite formula. It all depends which EAs you use and how trustworthy each vendor and buyer is - and they can be as various as there are adults in the country. I'd be very careful about swapping personal contacts with your buyer or seller - they may seem eminently reasonable to begin with and things may start out on a friendly enough basis at first, but if the going gets sticky and people get stressed or start showing their ugly true colours, you could be faced with abusive phone-calls, emails or worse.

I've experienced the good (vendor agreeing agent putting up the 'under offer' sticker the instant my offer was accepted; then SSTC the instant I'd booked survey and my solicitor sent them his contact details); the bad (vendor/agent not putting even 'under offer' sticker up despite survey having been done, OK given and solicitor near completion of searches); and the really ugly (vendor jacking previously agreed price up by £70K on day we were supposed to exchange contracts, then making abusive phone call to me when I refused to up my offer!!).

One decent method which I didn't pursue because I found out the location had a major drawback for me, was the 'Best and Final Offers' invited for a unique property which there was huge interest in. Perfectly fair, and you knew where you stood - in practice it would go not simply to the highest bidder, but to the highest bidder in the best position - ie not in chain, cash in the bank or mortgage in place and ready to move immediately. Wish there were more like that (Scottish system in effect I guess) - would resolve a lot of problems and remove a great deal of stress from the process.