Advice please! FTB - is EA playing games?

portupands

Advice please. I am a FTB buying an apartment with my boyfriend. We have made an offer on a place but I'm not sure if the EA is playing games with us, so don't know what to do.

The place we have bid for was the very first apartment that we saw when we first started looking for a place around 2 months ago. We liked it a lot but without seeing other places we couldn't be sure it was right for us.

We saw some other places and in the meantime the apartment was sold. However the sale fell through (due to problems that the buyer had) and it came back onto the market a couple of weeks ago. The asking price had gone up in the meantime by 3%, but the estate agent told us to consider the original lower price since we had first seen it at that price. We went to see the place again and this time we were ready to make an offer. Last Monday we offered 91% of the original asking price (89% of the new asking price).

On Wednesday we received a response from the agent to say that the lowest price they could offer was 99% of the original asking price. They also took the apartment off the list of apartments up for sale on their website and third party websites, which made me think that they were serious about selling to us. In response to their counter offer, we told them that we thought what they were asking was too high compared to other options in the market. However we do like the place and we are interested in reaching an agreement that will allow us to buy, and so we are willing to increase our offer to 95% of the original price (halfway between what they were asking for and what we originally offered).

That was last Wednesday evening. We didn't hear anything from them on Thursday, Friday or Monday. On Monday evening we called the EA who told us that he had a meeting with the vendor on Tuesday to discuss the offer, and that he would get back to us by the end of Tuesday. We didn't hear anything from him on Tuesday so tried to call in the evening. No answer. We sent a text message asking him to let us know if there was any news. No response.

Today (Wednesday) we called him again at around lunchtime and he also didn't answer. We sent a text message asking for him to call when he could as we would like an update on our offer. No response. Before now he has always returned calls and messages quickly but so far the tally stands at one email, two phone calls and two messages unanswered, which is very frustrating. While I understand that he might not have a decision from the vendor yet, it would only take a minute to return a phone call or message to tell me so.

My question is - is this a game that EAs play? Is not responding when he promised he would, and ignoring phone calls, a tactic to increase my anxiety and try to push me into increasing my offer? The house is no longer being advertised and the EA has not mentioned anyone else making an offer, so as far as I am aware there are no other buyers involved. Any advice gratefully received please as I am not sure what to do - should I try to contact him again? Or am I reading too much into this?

Thanks in advance

marksoton

Get some irons in the fire and start viewing other places. Even if they are playing games you're not going to have any recourse.

McKneff

Complain to his boss about his behaviour,

To be honest, it is ignorance in the extreme not to return a call/text, it takes seconds to type one out.

I would copy in the seller too....

ElsieMonkey

The fact that it's no longer being advertised sounds a bit odd to me. Maybe the vendor has decided not to sell now? Or has decided to rent it out instead? Usually if an sale has been agreed with someone, an EA would want to mark it as Sold STC or UnderOffer, to advertise their achievement.

It's extremely rude of the EA to not have got back to you and I wouldn't class this as usual. This sounds like more than someone just taking a bit of time to respond. Is there someone else at the branch you can make contact with and deal with instead?

If I'm honest, I think I would write this one off. It doesn't sound like anything's going to come of it. If it does, great, but the ball is in their court now and you can't force it.

For peace of mind I'd send an email, short and professional, to confirm the offer you made on X date in writing and that it remains on the table until X day only since there are other properties of interest and that you haven't received a response to date despite trying to make contact (it sounds like it's been a while already, but up to you how much longer). Then resign yourself to the fact that if you don't hear back by that date (you can always try one last phone call on that date to reiterate your email and try and get an answer) you need to forget about this one. People can be so strange, and rude.

Does the vendor live there? Have you tried knocking on the door, or leaving a letter with your contact details, to be sure the offer was passed on to him/her? You could also do this, worth a shot.

I'd also go down the the EA in person - it's harder to ignore someone in person. Don't go in all guns blazing though, just enquire. Be aware that this might not achieve the response you want though, but you may get some self satisfaction and closure on it all. Don't be nervous that you're a FTB. Your money/commitment is as good as anyone elses.

The difference in terms of commission from your offer to 99% of the asking price isn't much for the estate agent - a lot of agents work on 1% commission now (or even 0.75%) so it would have to be a pretty desperate/strange minded/power hungry EA to bother playing such a drawn out game for not much gain. They just want a quick and easy sale and to move on to the next.

portupands

Thanks everyone for your replies. I should have mentioned that the vendor is a construction/development company, so they are definitely interested in selling. The agent is employed by the vendor directly (the agency is part of the developer's group). From what I can see they are a relatively small constructor - owned by a father and son and with about 30 or so properties on their books, so I am sure it's the owner who makes the decision personally. Does that change anything?

portupands

Oh, and the apartment is completely finished and currently standing empty.

Hoploz

It sounds to me a if there have been other offers, and they are considering which to take.

Or, they have decided to let it instead of selling it.

The most likely reason for the EA not responding is that they do not have any news for you. (impolite as that may be) The EA staff member you're dealing with could be on holiday, or the seller may be on holiday - it is half term, and was a bank holiday Monday after all.

TBH it doesn't look good, so do look elsewhere, but there might be a chance you'll get some good news soon.

ElsieMonkey

Portupands wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your replies. I should have mentioned that the vendor is a construction/development company, so they are definitely interested in selling. The agent is employed by the vendor directly (the agency is part of the developer's group). From what I can see they are a relatively small constructor - owned by a father and son and with about 30 or so properties on their books, so I am sure it's the owner who makes the decision personally. Does that change anything?

Haven't had experience of this set up before, but ultimately it's still requires someone to make an offer and a response to the offer, so can't imagine it makes a massive difference from your point of view (obviously who knows what's going on behind the scenes though).

Seriously, I'd just go down to the EA in person, if only to draw a line underneath it all. There will be other places you like just as much, hard to believe now I know. But you'll look back and be glad of this I'm sure, in time.

portupands

But if there was an offer from someone else why would they not tell me about it, as I might increase my offer because of it?


I don't want to give up on this house as I like it a lot but maybe I will have to I guess.

ElsieMonkey

Portupands wrote: »

But if there was an offer from someone else why would they not tell me about it, as I might increase my offer because of it?


I don't want to give up on this house as I like it a lot but maybe I will have to I guess.

Who knows! Unfortunately there's a lot of strange people out there making what appears to be strange decisions, especially when it comes to selling property. I've seen my fair share, the mind boggles.

Move on and look at other properties. If this one is still on your mind in a few weeks time give them another call. Don't put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to property - too much chance of being messed around unfortunately, by the weirdos and the system!!!

Dan-Dan

Estate Agents might not be professionals at most things , but leaving people hanging i think they major in