Confused by EA

RJS86

Hi, my partner and I were looking at a property to buy as a BTL for a family member to rent off of us. The house was on the market for £120k and we arranged a second viewing for this Sat.

We got a phone call earlier saying that the viewing was cancelled as there was an offer on the property which was "close" to the asking price. He didn't say the offer had been accepted, just that there was an offer.

1. Is it normal to stop viewings after an offer has been put in?
2. Should/ could we get the EA to tell us the offer price?
3. Is this just a tactic to get us to offer full asking price without having a second viewing?

It just seems weird to me to stop us from viewing and perhaps bettering the current offer. Can anyone offer some advice or insight into what is most likely happening here.

princeofpounds

1. Normally only when accepted
2. Normally they won't do this precisely. If they think they have a proceedable sale they don't necessarily want to encourage gazumping as it's only a modest extra gain that can threaten an entire completed sale. And if they do think a sale will be easy anyway then they would be more likely to suggest sealed bids or something similar.
3. Doubt it. If they did want to inject a sense of urgency, it would be premature to do it before a second viewing. You would be much more likely to back out totally without familiarity with the property.

I suspect this means that they really have had an offer, and it's probably proceedable and good enough to get accepted.

pops5588

The EA isn't technically allowed to tell you the offer price. That doesn't stop some of them, but really they shouldn't...

I think there must be a genuine offer on the table that the vendor is seriously considering for them to cancel the viewing outright. If it was just a matter of there being interest in the property they would suck you into it too!

RJS86

Thanks for the insight, I guess we'll just have to keep on looking.