Estate Agent will not take Property of Market

Branchini1979 · 24 March 2017 at 12:56PM

Hi there,

I had an offer excepted on a Monday and have moved forward and sorted out solicitors etc and it is now friday and have already signed lots of paperwork, commenced searches but now i learn that the property is still on the market (not even showing under offer/SOLD STC) and it has been 5 days now. I did call the estate agent and they assured me they were not taking anymore viewings and that he could not take it off as was waiting for a name of a solicitor (even though knows the company) before he can draw up the memorandum of sale.
My sale is progressing very quickly, and even though i am lucky that my buyer can move into their parents for a bit, i still want to know things our progressing with my purchase.

Is this delay normal and should i not panic, ( i panic as had an offer accepted that was under so maybe waiting for a higher offer)
Any advice would be most welcome

L

walwyn1978 · 24 March 2017 at 1:22PM

Get a friend to ring up and ask about the property. If they're offered a viewing, panic. If they're told it's sold, don't panic.

fed_up_and_stressed · 24 March 2017 at 1:23PM

If your solicitors have commenced searches they obviously have allocated your case to a named solicitor already. Which is what the estate agents are waiting for. Review your paperwork the information should be on there or if not ask your solicitor firm who the named solicitor is.

always_sunny · 24 March 2017 at 1:28PM

Assuming you're in England, the land where any party can pull out of the sale until contract exchange, the situation is not odd. Do no panic at this, you will have plenty of other reasons to!

PasturesNew · 24 March 2017 at 1:28PM

This is perfectly usual/normal and nothing to get concerned about. Truth is they wouldn't want to do any more viewings on that house. On their books it's "sold" and their boss is on their back to make the next sale.

They fail to change the status because it gives them the opportunity of creating an "air of urgency" to callers by saying "Ah, that one's sold .... you really need to be a bit quicker, the market's moving like a rocket...now, what are you looking for/I'll add you to our marketing list".

Nobody has any interest in selling that house to anybody but you .... it's just estate agency "games" to lure in more people onto their books to sell them A DIFFERENT house entirely.

kingstreet · 24 March 2017 at 1:30PM

Has your vendor found a property and is the chain complete?

cashbackproblems · 24 March 2017 at 2:07PM

my condition for offer was it was taken off the market and this was done on the same day i instructed a solicitor and sent proof of deposit which was the day my offer was accepted.

Im assuming the vendor also has instructed and paid for solicitor in which case the EA might just be being lazy taking it down yet. Speak to the EA and ask why

neilio · 24 March 2017 at 2:15PM

Some vendors have an agreement that it isn't labelled as sold until exchange of contracts has happened. Others ask that it be labelled as sold as soon as they have an offer. The whole thing could fall through prior to exchange, so the seller will want to make sure it still looks available in the event that you don't end up buying it, because they will want to make sure it's still on other potential buyers' radars. That doesn't mean to say that you will pull out or the seller will allow a counter offer to usurp you.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser · 24 March 2017 at 3:21PM

You can't tell the estate agent to do anything. Only the vendor can tell the estate agent how to behave, as they are the ones that are paying them. All you can do is tell them to inform the vendor that your offer won't stand unless they take it off the market. If they say no, pull out. If you want to.

cloo · 24 March 2017 at 4:30PM

Agents will often be a little slow to mark property as sold/under offer, so that's not unusual. The 'have a friend ring up' suggestion is a reasonable way to check how straight they're being. Note that some agents will mark a place as sold and still look for other buyers, especially if it's unoccupied and there's no one to bother at the property if viewings continue.