Making an offer before I have a buyer

Notsram

Wait until I have a buyer

We were very badly advised by our estate agent on this.

We had our house on the market with them and had started looking at potential properties to move to. We found one which we loved (with the same estate agent) and they led us to believe that we could put an offer in before we'd found a buyer for our house.

So, we had the place surveyed, and then told them we were ready to make an offer. They then turned round and told us that we couldn't make an offer until we'd found a buyer. All we could do until then was register interest.

I asked them why they'd let us get the place surveyed when they knew we weren't in a position to buy, and they had the cheek to say that they thought we were going to rent out our current property with them to finance the purchase, despite them knowing full well that we were trying to sell the house through them, not rent it out.

Needless to say, we didn't stay with that estate agent for long!

pinkteapot

Notsram - are you in Scotland? If not, why did you get the place surveyed before offering? Normally you'd have a survey done after your offer is accepted (though I think this is different in Scotland)...

Notsram

Wait until I have a buyer

Pinkteapot, nope, not in Scotland. We had the place surveyed partly because it seemed too good to be true for the price but mainly because the estate agent said it was a good idea to get a survey done before putting in an offer.

Stupid in hindsight, I know, but we had no reason to doubt what they advised.

As I said earlier, we didn't stay with them for long! And they didn't get any money out of me either so I didn't end up being too badly burned.

Hutchinsfairy

Thank you all for you input. We ended up not making an offer but instead explaining our situation to the seller's estate agents and expressing our intention to make an offer as soon as we were able.

This ended up with us actually discussing figures with the seller via the estate agent and essentially getting a feel for what sort of figure they were looking for.

We were lucky enough to get an acceptable offer at the beginning of this week and confirmed a price with our sellers before accepting it. We're taking slightly less than we wanted to but we don't want the other house to sell whilst we wait for a better offer!

ambioni

Wait until I have a buyer

pinkteapot wrote: »

Notsram - are you in Scotland? If not, why did you get the place surveyed before offering? Normally you'd have a survey done after your offer is accepted (though I think this is different in Scotland)...

In Scotland of course we have home buyers reports which contain a pretty thorough survey (usually enough for buyers to decide whether to offer or not), provided by the seller at their expense. In Scotland you CAN still make an offer STS but this is less common unless the home buyer report throws up some category 3's (urgent repairs needed).

duchy

Wait until I have a buyer

I don't think you understand what the spam button is for.

The report button is the correct button -as they are promoting their business

kingstreet

Wait until I have a buyer

FWIW I hit the spam button for the 12:19 post by mitpropertyconsultants too.

I suspect it won't be here long. So this may make life easier for later readers...

Davesnave

duchy wrote: »

I don't think you understand what the spam button is for.

The report button is the correct button -as they are promoting their business

I suspect you are technically right, but so long as someone notices...

kingstreet's post is more helpful, as I should not have referred to "the post above" which wouldn't be there later.

Mine isn't now....