Still taking viewings after offer accepted? (First time buyer advice)

GoonerByron

Hi all,

Just wondering if anybody here could give me a bit of advice. I am a first time buyer so have never done this before and want to know if I should be worried in my situation..

A few weeks ago I had an offer accepted on a house, I have already had my mortgage agreed in principle. When I viewed the house I told there was no chain, it was being rented out and was available immediately. Once accepted, I was then told that the person was actually living there and wanted to meet with me to explain their situation before taking the house off the market.

I met the person, they said they had to go to Brazil for 2-3 weeks and would be beginning to look for a house when they returned and the face-to-face meet was to check that this was OK with me. I said that was fine and also that I would not begin to get solicitors, surveys etc going until he was back and had at least started to look for a property, I also asked if he would now take the house off the market, which he said he would.

A few days passed, the house still hadn't been taken off the market and a few more days of unsuccessful attempts to get an answer out of him or the estate agent I have now been told by the agent that he is unwilling to take the house off the market until I have began surveys and solicitors etc. I said I was wary of spending money doing this, especially with being told originally it was not in a chain and as I knew he was going away and had not even began to look for a new place. I also asked if they'd continued to take viewings since my offer was accepted and I'd met with the person and they confirmed they had.

As a first time buyer I've obviously not experienced this before, but it doesn't sound right.. Especially with still taking viewings when we've had an offer accepted and I've actually met with him face-to-face to confirm my seriousness about it, which he seemed perfectly happy with during the meeting?

Any advice? Should I be worried? Especially about starting to pay out on solicitors and surveys when I know he hasnt started and certainly wont start looking for a new place for the best part of a month?

Any opinions would be great!

Kirstyb1987

I am confused. The person who is living there, is he the owner?

I got the impression that it was a tenant.

GoonerByron

We were originally told it was a tenant living there, once our offer was accepted we were then told the person living there owned the house.

The estate agent basically just said the person on our viewing had got their information wrong..

Kirstyb1987

The owner has the right to keep the house on the market. One of the stipulations I would have said to secure the offer would have been that they must take the propert off the market.

To me this sounds like the owner is holding out for a higher offer which means you could be gazumped at any time... Even up to the day of completion:

Are you sure the house hasn't been taken off the market, if your waiting for a sold sign or an update on right move your in for a wait but this doesn't mean it's still on the market.

I am completing tomorrow and my house's sold sign only went up on Friday and right move took 7-10 days to update with STC!

bristol_pilot

If your offer was made subject to the house being taken off the market, the offer was accepted but the property not taken off the market then yes you should be worried. If it were me, I would withdraw my offer and look for another property as I simply refuse to do business with people who do not keep their word. If you continue there is a good chance of either gazumping or the price being raised at the last minute or any number of other dirty tricks that some people play.

GoonerByron

Kirstyb1987 wrote: »

Are you sure the house hasn't been taken off the market, if your waiting for a sold sign or an update on right move your in for a wait but this doesn't mean it's still on the market.

I am completing tomorrow and my house's sold sign only went up on Friday and right move took 7-10 days to update with STC!

Yes, 100% sure.. I got a call from the estate agent today and they have now told me he wants to keep it on the market. When I asked if they'd had more viewings since my offer was accepted they also said yes.

bristol_pilot wrote: »

If your offer was made subject to the house being taken off the market, the offer was accepted but the property not taken off the market then yes you should be worried. If it were me, I would withdraw my offer and look for another property as I simply refuse to do business with people who do not keep their word. If you continue there is a good chance of either gazumping or the price being raised at the last minute or any number of other dirty tricks that some people play.

Yes, this is how I feel. Unfortunately, I did not mention my offer being subject to the house being taken off the market when making the offer.

Something I forgot to add, we made an original offer of around 5% under the asking price which was rejected. After a few days we decided we did really want the property and offered asking price.. He then tried for a few days to say that he now wanted 10k more than the asking price which we refused and he came back after this and accepted our offer of the original asking price.

After all of these niggles so early on with him, I do get a bad feeling that if we continue we will either being gazumped or he will just fall through on us.

Dan-Dan

Kirstyb1987 wrote: »

The owner has the right to keep the house on the market. One of the stipulations I would have said to secure the offer would have been that they must take the propert off the market.

To me this sounds like the owner is holding out for a higher offer which means you could be gazumped at any time... Even up to the day of completion

Are you sure the house hasn't been taken off the market, if your waiting for a sold sign or an update on right move your in for a wait but this doesn't mean it's still on the market.

I am completing tomorrow and my house's sold sign only went up on Friday and right move took 7-10 days to update with STC!

Exchange , even

DevCoder

The estate agent will say whatever they want to get an increase in offer, including saying there has been more viewings etc.

Tell them your offer stands if they take the property off the market immediately. If they refuse walk away, the 10K increase etc is the vendor being a chancer.

Snakey

Leave the offer where it is, don't spend a single penny on survey or solicitor fees, and carry on looking around for your dream home. There is no reason why you have to tell the estate agent, or the vendor, what you're doing.

If, in a month's time, you haven't found anywhere else and this guy comes back and says he's ready to take the house off the market and move forward with the sale, see how you feel at that point.

Offer and acceptance usually implies a gentleman's agreement that neither of you will pull out unless something goes wrong and, as such, messing people around is considered bad form even though it's perfectly legal. But here, he's made it clear that he isn't necessarily going to sell to you and that even if he is, he doesn't know when. That's no sort of agreement, and you'd be a fool to sit around pinning your hopes on this because you feel you have to "do the right thing".

AndyT678

So you offer the guy his asking price and he says he wants more...

He agrees to take it off the market then doesn't...

He wants you to pay for survey and searches when he hasn't even started looking for a place to buy...

I don't think I'd want to deal with this guy. I guess it depends on how much you want that house and whether there are many alternatives around.

Mallotum_X

Look for somewhere else, this is going to be a difficult sale.