Corporate Seller - Will not take property off the market until exchange!

hyeomans

I'm a FTB and have found a property that we are really interested in.
However I have found out by the estate agent that the seller is a corporate company who will not be removing the property from the market until contracts have exchanged!!

This seems so risky to me, I could end up paying for solicitors/surveyors ect...

Is this right they can do this? Or does anyone have any suggestions what to do as we love the property?

Thanks

Comms69

Yes they can do this. Ofcourse they can. (nothing is ever really 'removed' from the market)


If you want it go for it. But you may end up paying more, but you may not.

davidmcn

"Corporate seller" tends to be jargon for "repossession", and yes, normal practice (in England & Wales anyway) is that they continue marketing until exchange. Allegedly because of their obligation to get the best price, though if that were true then why doesn't every seller do it? Anyway, you need to take the risk.

Slithery

hyeomans wrote: »

This seems so risky to me, I could end up paying for solicitors/surveyors ect...

So just like any other property purchase then. Until exchange either party can pull out for no reason.

Goath

My wife, and I where once interested in buying a repo, and as it was a corp customer we would put an offer in, and then a couple of days later we would get a call asking if we could better it (presumably someone else put an offer in as well), we did up our offer and then again we got a call from the ea. "can you better your offer" etc


Anyway we decided that we where not getting into a bidding war and (although applies to normal house sales well) the risk of being gazumped close to right up to exchange was not worth it.


Yes this is the norm for repos /corporate, because the bank wants to get the best price they can for the property to get their money back


However with a "normal" house sale I think the risk is somewhat reduced. because EA's usually don't entertain offers when there is a sale going through.

Davesnave

Goath wrote: »

However with a "normal" house sale I think the risk is somewhat reduced. because EA's usually don't entertain offers when there is a sale going through.

It isn't up to the EA. They are duty bound to pass on any offers they get, unless the vendor has requested otherwise.

They may reccommend rejection, but that's different.

Every purchase carries a level of risk, which is why around 30% of transactions that begin, don't complete. The only way to ensure little risk is to buy something no one else wants!

david1951

This is quite common. I used to sell residential properties for a corporate and we were obliged to get the best price.

Bear in mind that nothing is set in stone until you exchange, in any case.

It means the property remains advertised. On the plus side, the thinking is quite rational. If you think you have paid more-or-less the market value, then you will probably be fine. The risk comes when you (somehow) paid less than market value and someone comes along with a much higher offer. However, bear in mind that this is a corporate seller and they would rather get the property off their books than faff about with another buyer.

So, in reality, the risk of gazumping is quite low, and (I would say) less than if you were buying from a crazy/irrational private seller who has 'taken it off the market' (whatever that means).