First time buying....estate agent lies!

Cakeguts

You don't know for sure that the investor offered the asking price on Saturday all you know is that the vendor knew that they had an asking price offer on Saturday. The investor might have made the offer on Friday and then the estate agents may not have been able to tell the vendor until Saturday.

Do you have a house that you have to sell to buy this property? The seller is probably after two things. The most money possible and a sale that doesn't fall through. When you put in a better offer the estate agents did their job and went back to the investor to see if they wanted to increase their offer. This is what the vendor is paying the estate agent to do.

You do not know what the vendor said to the estate agents and you also do not know if there have been any other offers apart from the investor.

You are reading things into what the estate agent said to you on Friday. It is possible that when they said that they would get hold of the vendor that they couldn't at that time. The vendor may not have been at home. This is not the fault of the estate agents.

The person who gets to decide who to sell this property to is the vendor. Not the estate agents and not you. The vendor decides and they will sell it to the person whose offer suits them the most. The job of the estate agent is to ensure that as many people make offers as possible and that is what they have done to the vendor's satisfaction.

I don't think that it is odd that the vendor has decided to take the investors offer. The vendor can probably see that the sale will complete with very few problems. In any case it is his house and he can sell it to who ever he wants to.

Melgiles66

Cakeguts You don't know for sure that the investor offered the asking price on Saturday all you know is that the vendor knew that they had an asking price offer on Saturday. The investor might have made the offer on Friday and then the estate agents may not have been able to tell the vendor until Saturday.

I don't know for sure but the vendor told me they had been calling him all day on the Friday regarding viewings.


Do you have a house that you have to sell to buy this property? The seller is probably after two things. The most money possible and a sale that doesn't fall through. When you put in a better offer the estate agents did their job and went back to the investor to see if they wanted to increase their offer. This is what the vendor is paying the estate agent to do.

No we don't have anything to sell. Yes the EA went back to the investor for a higher offer but kept us out of the loop and not allowed us to increase our original offer.


You do not know what the vendor said to the estate agents and you also do not know if there have been any other offers apart from the investor.

we have been told by the EA and vendor that the investor is the only offer on the table as it was taken straight off the market after they offered the asking price

You are reading things into what the estate agent said to you on Friday. It is possible that when they said that they would get hold of the vendor that they couldn't at that time. The vendor may not have been at home. This is not the fault of the estate agents.

I am not reading into it at all. The vendor told me personally that they had the keys to the property and they were allowed to bring people round as and when.

The job of the estate agent is to ensure that as many people make offers as possible and that is what they have done to the vendor's satisfaction.

the EA have not done their job properly and certainly not to the satisfaction of the vendor as he has told me personally he has complained about them telling people it's been sold before they told him they had even had an offer. Correct me if I'm wrong but even if a vendor receive asking price, it's there decision whether to take it off the market or see if they get any more offers...!?

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

If I were you I would just deal exclusively with the vendor, and mention to him that he would be well within his rights to break his contract with the Estate Agent. If they told you that it was sold and wouldn't arrange a viewing, that is game over., They are in big trouble if he reports them. Effectively they were trying to defraud him by allowing a friend to buy his house under value.

This is not just estate agent's games. This is very serious, if true.

pinkshoes

I remember something very similar. A local property (run down and priced to sell) had around 40 viewing and 15 offers. It sold within days, before we had chance to view.

The vendor was using the same solicitor as us, so whilst I was in the solicitors dealing with our sale, i overheard the solicitor discussing the sale of that property had fallen through. The secretary then confirmed this.

I phoned the EA later that day to book a viewing, only to be told it had not fallen through and he had no idea what I was talking about.

Low and behold, the sale went through, and it was bought by non other than the EA himself, and £10k under the asking price. Very odd, as I know two people who offered the asking price.

The EA was then banished to another branch when the village found out about this.

I would guess that this investor is the EA himself, or a friend where he might have a financial interest.

Could you get the direct contact details of the vendors? Let them know that their EA is refusing to let you try and beat the offer.

HouseBuyer77

but I doubt the EA would directly lie in a barefaced manner like that (an EA using underhanded tactics to sell to preferred investment buyers would be far more subtle to avoid getting caught).

Maybe I'm wrong and you do have a dishonest EA who is also very incompetent at being fraudulent.

I would suggest you phone the EA back, state you want to put in an offer, which you want forwarded to the vendor, be firm ('I know you say it's sold, please forward this offer to the vendor anyway'). See what they say. Record the conversation (note you don't need to inform them you're recording it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4801072.stm).

Then seperately talk to the vendor, find out if they actually received your offer, give it to them directly. If the EA lied to you and then didn't forward your offer to the vendor (and the vendor never told them to stop forwarding all offers) I think they have a very good case that no fee is due to the EA.

It's important you have the conversation with the EA first as you want to gain direct evidence the EA is acting dishonestly (the current situation may be explainable by a serious of miscommunications).

Melgiles66

I have just had a call from the director of the EA office.

He has told me there has been some 'things' going on regarding this property which he is not happy about. He asked us if we wanted to increase our offer (which we have) and that he would speak to the vendor.

Fingers crossed everyone!