Estate Agent ShennanigansI (maybe?!)

looknohands

I have a friend who has just put in an offer on a house, they need to sell their house still.
The house they offered on was offers in region of £230,000 - £240,000

My friend put in an offer of £252,000

The EA said, this is the highest offer received, as soon as their house is on the market they will withdraw the property from the market.

My friends house went on the market within 4 days of the offer being put forward.

The estate agents then changed their mind. As there are apparently 3 other interested parties who are all selling too all on the market, so now instead of accepting a highest offer they are racing to have an offer accepted on the property they are selling basically first to sell gets the house.

However I thought it seems a touch unfair that they are now on a level playing field despite having the highest offer. I'm convinced that my friend should be able to explain this and say we want to be on a level playing field, we will match the lowest offer we are competing with, then it will also mean they can sell their house for 10k less, enabling them to sell theirs in no time.

So now being in the strongest position actually puts them in a weaker position.
If they are selling to the first person to sell there is no advantage gained in having the high offer?

Davesnave

Your friend still has to sell so they are not what's called proceedable at present. By the sound of it, the other potential buyers are in the same position.

In that situation there is little point in the vendor favouring anyone who makes promises or bargains as you suggest, so a contract race may ensue.

Look at it this way; the vendors probably want to buy-on, so they will sell to whoever becomes proceedable first. If they don't, they may lose a property they've set their sights on.

In that situation, maybe £10k either way wouldn't make much difference. It wouldn't to me. 'Fairness' is irrelevant.

Edit: The EA can say what they like, but the vendor decides.

looknohands

I see what you mean, so really that then opens the door to negotiating after they've had an offer on their house accepted and become proceedable. Then they're actually in a good position to say, ok well we only want to give you £230k now we're ready to go.

MistyZ

I suspect that if your friend gets an offer on their house they will be the vendor's favourite. If your friend then feels confident in their buyer and is in a short chain etc., basically if they are in a good position for selling, perhaps that would be a good time to submit a reduced offer.

There's a lot of 'ifs', the biggest ones being that this could work out fine IF your friend wanted to sell ASAP anyway, which presumably they did if they are house hunting, and IF they would be happy to spend £252,000 on the house. Of course there's always a chance that the other would-be buyers could up their offers to try to improve their position.

I don't envy your friend, but he or she needs to keep their nerve ..... or get out of the situation if they dislike it that much. But it seems like anything goes these days in the whacky world of selling / buying so a thick skin and steady nerves are pretty much de rigeur.

Bonfire_Bride

it took me two years to sell our home!

kingstreet

I have no idea why anyone accepts an offer from a buyer who isn't proceedable.

"Thanks for your offer. It's good. Go away, sell your house and then we'll talk again. If someone else comes along in the meantime who is proceedable, you'll understand if we accept their offer as we'd like to move house sooner rather than later...?"

Multiple offers from unproceedable buyers? What's the point? This agent is shooting itself in the foot.

Davesnave

looknohands wrote: »

I see what you mean, so really that then opens the door to negotiating after they've had an offer on their house accepted and become proceedable. Then they're actually in a good position to say, ok well we only want to give you £230k now we're ready to go.

They can offer whatever they like, once proceedable, but of course there comes a point where a seriously low offer becomes unattractive.

When we last sold a house in a tough market, there were 4 couples who wanted to buy, but we wouldn't discuss offers because none was in a position to proceed.

One couple then reduced their property radically, gaining a buyer immediately and placing an offer of £20k under asking price on ours.

As we'd already reduced, we were minded to say 'No,' but after careful consideration, we accepted their offer. They had a genuine reason for offering low and we were very keen to move into rented before the market fell further.

Seven years on and neither we, nor they, have any regrets.

ognum

I went to see a property a week ago, the agent told me it had an offer at asking price. I asked when the offer was made and why it was still for sale.

The offer was in March, the prospective purchasers could not proceed with out selling, they haven't. My offer of substantially less than asking was accepted, cash offer, evidence shown to EA. offer accepted and property was removed from market.

It's not the biggest but the most able to proceed that often succeeds.

looknohands

Ok, makes sense, I assume you are only proceedable if the entire chain below you is, you can't accept a non-proceedable offer and tell the vendor above you've got a buyer.

The vendor waiting for my friend to sell has found somewhere they want to offer on also, so really they've also got the same problem and left themselves non-proceedable? As their vendor wont be able to accept it their offer.

Does this become less of a problem higher up a chain? Assuming they're moving somewhere more expensive, which is less likely to attract more buyers, the vendor maybe happier to wait?

suited-aces

On the plus side, if you are in a position to proceed before they are, you know you can drop your offer by £20k

Hoploz

Anyone can say "I will give you £500k for the house, I just need to sell my current house for £300k more than the market value first, then I'll be right back to you!"

ANY offer which is not proceedable is totally pointless.

The seller here has no buyer until one or more of them sell their house. Then these potential buyers will have a better idea how much they can actually afford, and be able offer to buy accordingly.