First time buyer- sale agreed... Estate agent wants £3000 up front.

coffeel0ver

Hi there,

I was hoping for some advice. I am currently sale agreed on my first home. The estate agent has now asked for £3000 of my deposit to be sent to them as a gesture of good will/to show I'm a serious bidder.
Is this normal? Would you do it?

I asked if this means I'll be paying £3000 less of an overall deposit and they said yes. It is apparently fully refundable if they go sale doesn't go ahead for any reason.

maggiecon

I bought house last year for £124k and had to pay deposit of £2k it formed part of my 10% deposit. I made sure to get a receipt and written confirmation it would be returned if deal fell through.

jtk174

That sounds a bit steep! However, it does appear to be more common than I had imagined.

However, if the deposit is fully refundable, I would have to ask, what is the point?

I can see that it might be relevant to help prevent buyers from pulling out at the last minute, if the deposit was to be forfeited. Otherwise the money is just going to be sitting in the Estate Agents bank account earning interest!

jtk174

Just did a quick search and found this ;

Once the owners have accepted your offer the buyer may be asked to pay a small deposit to the estate agent. This is usually between £500 and £1000. It is meant to show that you are serious about going ahead with the purchase. It is repayable if the sale does not go ahead.

You can read the article in full here ;

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nireland/housing_ni/housing_moving_and_improving_your_home_e/buying_a_home.htm

coffeel0ver

Thanks Maggiecon. I appreciate you replying. We were just a bit taken aback- seems like an excessive amount of money given that we're not getting anything in return yet, none of the main agents ask for this and
that if we were buying a new build, only a few hundred pounds would secure it!

It's reassuring that you have had the same though. I take it everything went ok and there weren't any issues with it not being added into your overall deposit etc?

coffeel0ver

Hi jtk174- Thanks for the link. Yes, I'd be less taken aback if they had asked for £500 or something, this seems to be the going rate for anywhere that asks for a reserve (usually new builds though). I think it's a case of an excessively large holding deposit to earn the estate agent interest. We'll probably just have to do it if we want the house but I'll check with a solicitor just incase, to make sure we cover ourselves.

D.A.

Name and shame the estate agent please.

Old_Git

coffeel0ver wrote: »

Hi there,

I was hoping for some advice. I am currently sale agreed on my first home. The estate agent has now asked for £3000 of my deposit to be sent to them as a gesture of good will/to show I'm a serious bidder.
Is this normal? Would you do it?

I asked if this means I'll be paying £3000 less of an overall deposit and they said yes. It is apparently fully refundable if they go sale doesn't go ahead for any reason.

This is often done to keep the vendor happy if they say the sale is going slow agent can say well they have paid xyz deposit .

I would offer £500 deposit .

sill

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Name and shame the estate agent please.
Coudn't agree more. Sill

Southend1

I wouldn't trust an estate agent with a deposit, certainly not that amount. I'd tell them to shove it or if you really have your heart set on the house and they are insistent then maybe offer £150-£250 but make sure you get in writing exactly under what circs it will be retained/returned and get a reciept

Miss_Floopster

When we bought a house 2,5 years ago, we were asked for a GBP 2000 deposit to secure the site (of which GBP 500 was non-refundable), in addition to an additional 10% deposit upon signing the contract. If I remember well, this was marked in the sales brochure at the time and as such didn't come as a surprise.