Fibbing Estate Agents!!!!!!

Pigletfeet

Ok, so here's my rant - 3 weeks ago we had a viewing on our property, first-time buyer, mortgage in place, looking to move quickly.
3 days later they put a cheeky low offer in, so we haggled up to 3k under asking price.
Estate agents confirmed that mortgage was sorted, all buyer had to do was take in ID and house was under offer, the buyer also wanted to be in for Christmas... eek! So we accepted the offer, with the house going under offer once ID was confirmed.

Last week we decided as it was all going ahead (quickly too) to throw a little caution to the wind and house hunt (can't be out in 8 weeks if we have nowhere to go) Found a gorgeous semi rural house, views of fields, log fire, galley kitchen, etc etc (downsizing as kids are now late teens/early 20's) anyhow, found a hotel, stayed over and done a silly o clock drive by, checking for crack dens, illegal raves, rifff raff, nova/fiesta meets with 90's happy hardcore blasting from distorted bass boxes and fizzling amps etc etc.... not a sausage, remote, silent and lovely! PERFECT! Put an offer in next day £1.5k under asking price, accepted and sellers were moving into rented so the chain stopped there, perfect, perfect, perfect.
We get back, instruct our solicitors, our house now under offer, moving forward....

Last night, our estate agents rung, to tell us our buyer DOESN'T HAVE A MORTGAGE, HAS NO DEPOSIT AND CANNOT AFFORD OUR PROPERTY! :mad::mad: What the hell?
They assured us on the viewing he had everything in place, then again at the offer and again when we checked he'd brought his paperwork in and was moving forward.

Argh! Slightly peeved as the house we saw was perfect, well 85% perfect, it wasnt a detached but can't have it all!
More peeved with the cost of 2 days away from our business, a hotel, 500 miles of petrol and wear and tear on the car - am I right to be miffed with the estate agents? If they'd have said the offer was subject to mortgage approval or notice of interest subject to finance checks then I'd have held back from house hunting and viewing until we had a solid offer, but they assured me it was as solid as it could be, buyer was extremely keen, had cancelled his other viewings and wanted to get a survey done ASAP to then be told all that... basically he was a tyre kicker, or is that skirting board kicker? Oh I dunno, it's 2.30am I've got wicked insomnia, I'm mega peeved and I have another viewing today at noon from a couple who've sold and looking to buy quickly... argh, dunno what to believe, part of me feels like taking the house off the market (I'm not in any rush to move, we're downsizing and relocating to kind of semi retire, so no rush) We've been fibbed to from the start, firstly they told us we'd get 10-15k more for our home, had no interest so I said should we drop it 10k to see if that gets us a better response, the reply from the estate agents was that the price initially listed wasn't realistic, and 10k less would get us some interest! What on earth? Why let us list it for that then? We went on their advice and their valuation... morons!

I'm rambling, sorry! Needed to vent. anyone else had similar?

**APOLOGIES IF THIS IS BADLY WRITTEN, ITS SILLY O CLOCK, I'M TIRED AND STRESSED LOL**

Mickygg

Unfortunately a lot of people lie in house buying. I doubt the EA lied, probably more the buyer. I would be annoyed though as waiting 3 weeks to then find out that is taking the pee.
I would go back and ask the EA what proof did they obtain. defo have a moan but remember you still need to work with them to sell so don't get into an argument over it.
Make it clear to the EA this is unacceptable to be told this 3 weeks later and you demand that full proof on any future offers of affordability is sought within say 1 week of offer.

Davesnave

Yes, EAs lie and so do the general public, although most people only bend the truth a bit, until they get into a jam, and then they bend it a lot!

The main thing you should learn is that around 30% of purchases fail for some reason, so nothing's reasonably certain until exchange. You cannot therefore insure yourself against disappointment, as you're trying to do.

However, if I was going to move 500 miles, I'd not buy in the new area immediately. No matter how often you've visited, it won't be like living there. Outside fast-moving, urban markets, it makes good sense to rent first, explore and get a real feel for the area. You'll also be unencumbered when it comes to striking a good deal on the new place, maybe giving you the edge.

Worked for me. Semi-dee in the city to smallholding on 5 acres in the country, with a vendor needing a fast, uncomplicated cash sale.

ThemeOne

There are two possibilities - the buyer may simply have lied to the EA, or they may have had a mortgage agreed in principle - but even that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be able to go ahead with the purchase "in practice" (as you've found).

From selling a property earlier in the year I found out many people simply can't raise the money to buy when push comes to shove, no matter how keen / positive they may seem.

The EA is probably as angry as you are - their time has been wasted too (though they'll be used to it) and they don't make a penny until it's been sold.

AlexMac

As I said in an earlier post...https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5378172

...This is extremely unusual behaviour by an estate agent. After all, EAs are all members of an honourable profession, requiring extensive qualifications, skills and experience, highly regulated and with rigorously enforced standards. After all, it's not as if anyone with a shiny suit, hair gel and a liveried Mini-Cooper can call themselves an Agent is it?

...Oh... hang on a minute

AdrianC

I don't think this is the agent's fault, either.

Most agents will check the buyer's proceedability before viewings, certainly before offers are accepted. Most likely is that the buyer had a DIP, then the actual property made the lender run for some reason - or maybe their situation had changed between the DIP and the actual offer.

DaveSnave makes a very good point on the rural move, too - it's coming into winter, so you can probably find a holiday home looking for a winter tenant.

kingstreet

What does an EA achieve from an aborted sale?

EAs aren't the best regarded businesses in the world, but you have to ask what would be their motive in processing a sale which would go nowhere...?

Perhaps they should have insisted the potential purchaser come in to see their mortgage advisor.

lessonlearned

kingstreet wrote: »

What does an EA achieve from an aborted sale?

EAs aren't the best regarded businesses in the world, but you have to ask what would be their motive in processing a sale which would go nowhere...?

Perhaps they should have insisted the potential purchaser come in to see their mortgage advisor.

:rotfl:

Yes and we know a request to meet with their mortgage advisor goes down so well......especially on these boards.

EAs just can't win....I should know I was one for long enough. :rotfl:

Try and check out someone's finances and you get called out for being nosey, intrusive and get accused of trying to flog them mortgages for your own gain. Take the purchaser on trust that they do actually have funds in place and you run the risk that they are liars and chancers.

I was so glad to leave my EAs office and switch to working as a negotiator directly for builders on site. I had had enough of both Vendors and purchasers alike. :rotfl:

DAve is right. Roughly 1 in 3 sales collapse.

PIgsfleet......I second Daves advice......if you are moving to a new area, especially 500 miles away, it is advisable to rent first.

hazyjo

Even if they did have an AIP, it's dependent on the house they buy. Nobody can guarantee they will get a mortgage until they apply. The AIP is just a general affordability, etc. The application is far more indepth. Also, some people are unaware they can't borrow deposits, etc and say it's in place when it's not (especially naïve FTBs).


Good luck.


Jx

Pigletfeet

Estate agent has admitted it was their fault! We had a viewing yesterday at 12noon (a no show) so rung them up and asked what was going on, a catalogue of errors from day 1...

Firstly the house took 3 weeks to go live as the pics THEY took were too blurry, I sent them my own only to be told they were in the wrong format for the IT department (scary stuff if the IT department can't change a GIF to a JPG!) Anyways I changed them to what they wanted, the resolutions etc etc.
They then listed my home so it didn't appear to have any parking, searched my local area and put in 3 bed semi, parking, gardens, my house didn't appear, took out the Rightmove filter of garden and parking and there it was! Argh, this took them almost a week to put right! Then it changed overnight to feature the big lettering CHAIN FREE er, nope, we have to sell this to move on, so that's a chain my dears!
Next the estate agents said they'd do all the viewings - nope we did them all, they said they'd only put through people who were in a position to move, we then had a viewing from the people that lived here before us who wanted a nose to see what we'd done... ARGH! We found this out with them in the kitchen going well it's changed since we lived here.. UNCOMFORTABLE OR WHAT! (When we bought it the tenants moved out - yup the people in our kitchen, so they'd put through people who didn't have a mortgage, nor a property to sell, who we effectively made homeless, awkward!)

Yesterday's viewing had SOLD their house and was nearing completion and they were looking to move ASAP, on enquiring they told me that actually the sale had fallen through, hence the no show (cheers for telling us guys!)

Then there was the issue of price, listing it 10k higher than what we could get for it, to be told, no wonder you have no viewings,it's too high, so I suggested reducing it by 10k (we are now the cheapest 3 bed semi around here) I then mentioned to them that the fees they suggested at 10k higher now don't seem as competitive at 10k lower, they stumbled and stuttered and said we should never have been told to sell at 10k more, it would NEVER have sold at that price. OMG OMG OMG.

Sorry, ranting and rushing.

So now, well we're at the end of contract with them and I am tempted to just pull it off the market and give it a year or so... my other option was to multi agent it, oh I dunno. I don't want to be an adult anymore!

marksoton

Multiple agents smacks of desperation.

You say IT dept, is it large corporate firm? If so try going in and speaking to a smaller local firm who specialise in selling property in your locale only.