Who is lying: 'cash' buyer or EA?

6am

Several weeks ago we have accepted an offer from the 'cash' buyer on condition that they will wait until we find the house we want to buy. We made several unsucessful offers. All this time we were telling that we have a 'cash' buyer for our house and are able to proceed. Our agent got calls from other agents to verify that this is true.

Today we got a call from our agent that the suposedly 'cash' buyer is struggling to sell their house and unable to proceed and do we want to remarket our house.

I have a feeling that somebody is lying. Is the agent incompetent and did not check that 'cash' buyer has money? Or did the agent lied to us that the buyer is a 'cash' buyer? Did they lie to other agents as well? Why would the 'cash' buyer call out of blue and inform that they do not have money? We were filling a little bit guilty that we cannot find a house.

[Deleted User]

They are both probably "massaging the true facts"

Bonfire_Bride

I had it the other way. House was advertised "no chain"...

we spent hundreds on mortgage fees, searches etc...to be told 2 months down the line that they were looking for a forward purchase and didn't expect anything to come on the market before Christmas. They had no intention of going into rented. Lies lies!

Luckily, they were using the same EA as we used to sell our house. I've put a complaint in now so i'm expecting some sort of reduced fee for the sale of our house.

I understand peoples' circumstances change but we were not kept up to date with any of this and caught the EA blatantly lying.

If you have grounds to complain, then do. If you don't...It's just a case of waiting for them to sell...or pulling out of the chain.

Although it may not seem like it most of the time, EA's are expected to act professional at all times and should not be withholding information that results in financial loss.

flea72

Cash buyer, is also used to describe someone who doesnt need a mortgage. You are confusing cash buyer, with chain free

G_M

Different people use the term 'cash buyer' in different ways:

* buyer has loadsa cash and does not need either a mortgage, or to sell a property
* buyer has no existing property to sell (but may need a mortgage to raise the cash)
* buyer does not need a mortgage (but has to sell a property to raise the cash

Which did the agent mean......???

Alternatively, EA may have simply passed on what the buyer said.which may have been a porkie.

Let's face it, when buying/selling property, nothing is as it seems, and nothing is certain until Exchange except that there will be changes and delays.....

Cakeguts

Next time you will know to ask whether they are a genuine cash buyer with the money ready in the bank or whether they are just not needing a mortgage when they sell the house they are in now.

glasgowdan

As someone above said, cash buyer means no mortgage.

If they sell their house they'll have cash, they're a cash buyer. It doesn't mean they've already sold.

This is normal house buying/selling and there's nothing you can do other than move on.

Mickygg

Any half decent EA on condition of accepting an offer will ensure proof of available cash is produced before the sales memo is drawn up.

Never take what a buyer or seller takes as the truth, you need to DYOR and insist on proof for the crunch things such as whether really a true cash buyer, chain free, valuation, subsidence etc. I have been lied to so many times that I learnt this a long time ago.

Hoploz

On the bright side look at it this way - you haven't had an offer accepted on your dream home yet. If one of those offers you made had been accepted, you'd be feeling worse than you do now.

EA can only pass on what they are told, however they should have made checks to ensure the offer was genuinely as it seemed. Poor service. Hopefully once a chain was complete they would have put the effort un carried out the necessary. They might just not have bothered as you weren't in a position to proceed anyway.

AnotherJoe

glasgowdan wrote: »

As someone above said, cash buyer means no mortgage.

If they sell their house they'll have cash, they're a cash buyer. It doesn't mean they've already sold.

This is normal house buying/selling and there's nothing you can do other than move on.

Except they can't move on as they haven't got a cash buyer

OP how do you expect anyone here to know what the situation is out of all the possible options?

Ask the agent why they didn't do due diligence, remarket as they suggest, consider dumping them when the contractual period you signed up for ends (since they are meant to check this stuff) , and next time dig into the buyers circumstances yourself as much as you can with directed questions to find out the true situation, though if course they can still always lie to some extent.

It's a harsh lesson, not your fault, happened to me third house I sold, trusted what the buyer said about being able to get a mortgage and let it drag on too long.

ognum

I have 'cash' bought a few properties and have always been asked for proof on funds, bank statement, letter from broker etc to prove that is my position.

In my area EAs will not accept a 'cash' offer without sight of this and I am happy to provide. Next time ask how the EA verifies the offer