Estate agents playing a game....

cart1984

Hi All - after a bit of help and hope someone can give us some guidance.

Me and my partner viewed a property recently and really like it, placed a couple of offers and was told they would accept £149k. We offer £149k which is accepted.

The estate agent pesters us to go in and see them for the mortgage but i see my independant advisor who has put an AIP in place for £149k. I called the estate agent yesterday to say i need to email them the AIP and any other info to get this moving, and that i wouldnt be using them for the mortgage. His reply was "well the offer would now be £150k as you arent using us for the mortgage??" ???

The estate agent in question has some buyers incentive deal which doesnt make sense what so ever.

I'm not fussed about paying the extra £1k but i dont particuarly want to give the estate agent the sale. The property is up with another agent - would it be legally okay to make the offer through them??

Also the agent asked for proof of deposit, which i told him was coming from parents, to which he asked for a bank statement from them? surely this isnt normal practice!?

pinkteapot

William H Brown (or another member of the Sequence group)? They do that ridiculous £1,000 buyer's incentive. You get it if you use their mortgage broker and solicitor, and the seller pays them the money, so the seller's paying to market their services! I hate it.

Tell them that when you made the offer you didn't say you wanted the buyer's incentive. Your offer was £149k and that's what you're paying. I highly doubt the seller is going to say no over £1k and it's the idiot agent's fault for assuming you were taking the incentive without checking!

Unfortunately you can't offer through the other agent. The seller will have to pay commission to whichever agent introduced the buyer, which in this case is the one you've already offered through.

We moved recently and both sold and bought through William H Brown. I'm never touching them again.

Running_Horse

Normally I wouldn't encourage people copying in the vendor, but perhaps you need to make sure they know the sale of their house is at risk from such shenanigans.

cart1984

thanks - yeah it is manners and harrison who are part of the sequence group.

I honestly dont understand how they can do what they are doing - its basically trying to force me to use them for the mortgage!

I have said we are paying 149k to which he came back and said the seller cant sell unless we give them 150k if we arent using the EA? they have been very particular in what they need to be able to get the property they are after all along, which is understandable. But the bit i dont get is - if they accept £149k using the EA for the mortgage, why wouldnt they accept £149k with us using our independant? bizzare.

thequant

Running_Horse wrote: »

Normally I wouldn't encourage people copying in the vendor, but perhaps you need to make sure they know the sale of their house is at risk from such shenanigans.

Absolutely, I don't think many vendors realise that by using the sequence group they have buyers who walk away because of this group tricks in respect to mortgages.


Not sure why people go with them, but ultimately the vendor is never going to get best price where the ea has a vested interest in only putting through offers from those willing to use their mortgage services.

Doozergirl

If what pinkteapot says is correct, then the vendor already benefits to the tune of £1k if you don't use the EA mortgage and solicitor! If anything, you could reduce your offer!

I think you need to speak to the vendor.

In your situation I would also speak to the overall manager of this EA - if it's a chain, then the area manager. The agent you are speaking to is clearly obstructing and not representing the best interests of their client. If that doesn't come to much, I would speak to the other agent. I know there is a grey area with regard to commission but I would speak to their manager, explain the circumstances and see if a work around can be found.

thequant

cart1984 wrote: »

thanks - yeah it is manners and harrison who are part of the sequence group.

I honestly dont understand how they can do what they are doing - its basically trying to force me to use them for the mortgage!

I have said we are paying 149k to which he came back and said the seller cant sell unless we give them 150k if we arent using the EA? they have been very particular in what they need to be able to get the property they are after all along, which is understandable. But the bit i dont get is - if they accept £149k using the EA for the mortgage, why wouldnt they accept £149k with us using our independant? bizzare.

It's all lies from them, I'm another victim. With me it was Barnard Marcus (yes another part of the sequence group)


Property was on for £250K, I got offer accepted for £243k


I was then pressured to use mortgage services, Went along just in case they got a better deal. My mortgage deal was 2%, best they could do 3.5%


Told them I was not taking there mortgage as they were essentially miss selling me a more expensive financial product.


They then came back with "Vendor says if you don't use our mortgage service, then the price goes back up to £250k"


As if the vendor gives two !!!!s about where I get the mortgage from.


Cut a long story short, vendor never said such a thing. The sale eventually fell through, costing me a purchase, the vendor a sale. All because Barnard Marcus wanted to get their grubby hands on some mortgage commission.


The other one to watch out for, is they will do the same by "recommending" you use their solictor

thequant

Doozergirl wrote: »

In your situation I would also speak to the overall manager of this EA - if it's a chain, then the area manager. The agent you are speaking to is clearly obstructing and not representing the best interests of their client. .

Speaking to someone higher up wont make a difference as its company policy and this group is already under investigation for these practices.

googler

thequant wrote: »

Speaking to someone higher up wont make a difference as its company policy and this group is already under investigation for these practices.

Under investigation by whom.. ?

betmunch

cart1984 wrote: »

the seller cant sell unless we give them 150k

This is a lie, the £1000 buyers incentive is funded by the vendor, so they will get the same £149k whether you purchse for £150K and use the in house advisor, or £149k and use your own.

Incidentally you will also have to use their solicitors which are useless.

If you can, go straight the the vendor and advise them you are at the top of your budget and tell them what the EA is trying to do.

thequant

googler wrote: »

Under investigation by whom.. ?

When they attempted it with me, I did some digging and found that some official body was investigating them.


Also this issue and specifically this company has been brought up in a parliamentary committee.