Why does the estate agent care?

missmoose

Hi,

I put an offer on a property and got in to a bidding war, during which the estate agents asked me what deposit I have? I was very vague and just answered with a rough percentage, I don't get why they care, I have a deposit and a mortgage promise that will more than cover the property that I was interested in.
Why did they ask that?

elverson

Larger deposit = easier to get a mortgage = more likely the sale will go through = agent gets their commission.

Shakin_Steve

Larger deposit lodged at exchange = less chance of failing to complete.

AnotherJoe

larger deposit = less issue making up the difference if the valuation is a bit below the agreed price but you are OK to make up the difference

Did you get the property?

marksoton

missmoose wrote: »

Hi,

I put an offer on a property and got in to a bidding war, during which the estate agents asked me what deposit I have? I was very vague and just answered with a rough percentage, I don't get why they care, I have a deposit and a mortgage promise that will more than cover the property that I was interested in.
Why did they ask that?

Whilst i'd never disclose to an EA my full financial ability i'd have no problem discussing my deposit amount or LTV.

By being vague you may have cast doubt on your ability to carry through.

missmoose

No I didn't get it. But I'm not as sad as I thought I would be, we have seen a much nicer house that we discounted because it was in a bad area but we had a drive to it and it's not actually in a bad area just quite close to one,which isn't an issue for us.

Marksoton, I guess that's true, they were vague with me when I aked questions about property's tho so I guess I was a bit salty about them not letting me see areas of another house I viewed and not answering questions properly that I wanted to do the same to them. (Plus it was my sixth phone call with them in 4 hours I was tired of hearing her voice).

skintpaul

i smell gazumping. best price offered surely must be accepted?

Alter_ego

skintpaul wrote: »

i smell gazumping. best price offered surely must be accepted?

Seller can accept any offer they choose! Or none!

Surrey_EA

skintpaul wrote: »

i smell gazumping. best price offered surely must be accepted?

The seller is likely to go for the best offer - that doesn't always mean the best price.

missmoose

I never said i had the best offer lol. We got an email saying our final and best offer would have to be in by x time on x day and took a chance going £1500 bellow the asking price and someone else must have been higher. Either that or they're trying to get me to up my offer, the house is still on the website though and not STC so i have no clue what's going on, when my mum emailed about it pretending to be interested in it they did tell her it was sold though?
To be honest the business seems a bit of a rookie, loads of property for sale for more than they are worth. (houses that need £15k worth of updating on for only 5-10k less than updated houses on the same street)

G_M

missmoose wrote: »

.......when my mum emailed about it pretending to be interested in it they did tell her it was sold though?

I don't know.

Sorry.