Lockdown agreement for house sale

millymilly

I am selling my house as a consequence of divorce, I don't live in the house anymore and want it sold asap.

A buyer has placed an offer today, at a decent price. However he is yet to sell his house, and has told the estate agent he will market his house with them, if I accept his offer on my house and also enter a lock-down agreement - that is, I accept the offer and take the property off the market indefinitely until he can sell and complete on his house.

Estate agent is confident they can sell his house quickly, desirable location etc etc. But if I enter this agreement it means I have to wait for him to sell up and can't accept further viewings on my house.

I can't see any benefit for me, however the house has been viewed lots and no offers so far.

I haven't sold a house by myself this was before, so I am not sure if I am thinking correctly about this or not? Can anyone advise?

CommitedToChange

That sounds like a horribly one sided agreement and I would never agree to it.

You could meet them halfway. Give them a timeframe to sell the house where you won't accept any more viewing, but you will leave it advertised and get the estate agent to get a list of interested parties to contact if his hasn't sold his after the agreed timeframe.

buggy_boy

Usually estate agents dont tend to like offers on properties unless you have a buyer... Seems like this agent is trying to butter up the potential buyer by saying they will try to get you to accept only if he markets his property with them...

I would initially go back and say you are happy to proceed but given the buyers position you do not want to take it off the market but as soon as they have an acceptable offer you will take the property straight of the market and not allow any more viewings..

buggy_boy

CommitedToChange wrote: »

That sounds like a horribly one sided agreement and I would never agree to it.

You could meet them halfway. Give them a timeframe to sell the house where you won't accept any more viewing, but you will leave it advertised and get the estate agent to get a list of interested parties to contact if his hasn't sold his after the agreed timeframe.

Thats a good idea, I think if they come back and insist then give them a timeframe.. I would be tempted to get the agent to not market the property as sold but if any viewers phone up they are told there is a possible deal but it make fall through, we will know by x date (The end of your time frame)... If the potential buyer does not find a buyer by then, inform anyone that has asked for a viewing that the buyer was not currently in a position to proceed and you are accepting viewers again.

eddddy

I think you mean "Lock out" agreement.

• It should have a time limit - maybe 3 or 4 months.

• There should be a potential benefit to you. e.g. The buyer pays a £5k or £10k deposit. If they don't buy within 3 / 4 months, you keep the deposit and can sell to somebody else.

But these agreements get very messy.

For example, what if the survey or search show problems - and the buyer decides to walk away. Should they get their deposit back or not?

If the buyer isn't prepared to pay a deposit, I'd leave the offer on the table and leave your house on the market. And if another proceedable buyer comes along sooner, go with them.

millymilly

Thank you! 3-4 months is too long a wait period for me, I need to get the house sold in the next few months and as I don’t have a house to live in until this one goes.

I like the idea of saying I will only enter a lock out agreement once they have a buyer and can proceed with the sale. I think that’s the whole point of lockouts isn’t it, to prevent the buyer being gazumped once the sale process has begun?

mchale

As in post 5 the has to be a clause to favour the seller, ie a deposit down payment, I bought once with a £5k down payment & a 6 week time frame to sell my own property, luckily it worked out ok.

eddddy

millymilly wrote: »

I like the idea of saying I will only enter a lock out agreement once they have a buyer and can proceed with the sale.

It sounds good in theory, but the vast majority of people don't bother with that.

The main reasons are that buyer and seller can easily spend a week or two arguing about the terms of the lock out agreement.

Then the agreement has to be drawn up by solicitors and signed.

So that delays the sale/purchase by a week or two or more.

Plus there's all the extra legal costs for the agreement.

Davesnave

You could lose several unencumbered buyers and be no further forward at the end of the main spring sales period by following the route you describe. Would £5k, even if you got it, compensate you for that?

If your EA has recommended this to you, it's not a great reflection on the way they protect your best interests.

If your house has been "viewed lots and no offers so far" then the price is probably too high. People are attracted to it, but when they view, their feeling is either that it doesn't represent good value at its price point, or there's some problem which they only see on a viewing. This might be to do with the immediate neighbourhood and not the house itself, but any significant down-side needs addressing through price.

If you sell tomorrow, your house will not be gone for 3-4 months, due to the legal processes, so if that's your ideal time frame, think about how to market more effectively.

Consider giving your agent the push when your contract allows, then they'll be the ones with a time frame and incentive to get you sold. After all, if this is the best they can do, it's not good enough.

millymilly

I agree the house is slightly overpriced.

The current agents have 3-months as sole agents so I can go multi agency at the end of Feb which I will let them know.

Other agents valued the house much lower - £475k vs £525k with my current agent, and so if we go to another agent we will be looking at a significant price drop.

But I do have a bad feeling about tying myself down to the whims of this buyer who seems very difficult.

I do need to sell quite quickly so my children and I can get housed properly after a long divorce and lots of upheaval but I am assuming the market will pick up over spring anyway. So perhaps tying myself in now is really not a good choice.

eddddy

So...

• Leave this buyer's offer 'on the table'
• Keep marketing the property, whilst you wait for this buyer
• If a more proceedable buyer comes along whilst you're waiting - go with them instead

That's the standard process. In normal circumstances, most EAs would recommend this.

(I think your EA is being a bit sneaky, because they want to get the prospective buyer to sign up with them, ideally with a low price.)