Mortgage offer- advice with estate agents sneaky tactics

AmieR

Hi

Little bit of background we are first time buyers and viewed a property at a open house at the weekend. We fell in love with t and that evening emailed the estate agents to put in our offer
Now we have probably done this all wrong as we put in asking price (before anyone says oh my god the property we feel is priced correctly for the area , type of house and going off the previously sold house prices in the area)
We also did this because we have put In offers on other houses in the past and been gazumped playing what we can only describe as a bidding war going round in circles
So full asking price is offered we have our AIP which we sent over , no chain , 10% deposit possibly more and sorted out a solicitors quote
In my eyes we are in a great position ..... however the estate agents have come back and are chasing a family up who showed interest but are seeking advice before putting in a offer first(they waited all day for this family to phone but they didn't!)
I get it has to be fair if they want to put in a offer but at what point do they stop chasing this family
Also why hasnt our asking price offer been snapped up with our position

I'm beginning to wonder are they thinking they can get more for this property and we have ruined it by going in at asking price
Any advice appreciated shall we chase the estate agents can we ask for proof there's another family if we feel we're being tricked into increasing an already asking price offer ??

Mossfarr

The estate agent is just doing their job. They work for the vendor (not you) so must do everything they can to get the best price for their house.
That's just the way it is.
You are still in a strong position as you are chain free first time buyers. You need to keep your fingers crossed that the other potential buyers have a house to sell so the vendor chooses to go with your offer.

AmieR

Thank you , yes I completely understand they are just doing their job but I've caught them out once on a bit of a sneaky lie
If they have had asking price and want to get the best price for the house then I'd have thought they would of marked it up to offers over £xxx ??
I almost feel like asking price is now not good enough
And they are searching around for who ever is willing to go higher , just very deflated with the info they have given us

dunroving

AmieR wrote: »

Thank you , yes I completely understand they are just doing their job but I've caught them out once on a bit of a sneaky lie
If they have had asking price and want to get the best price for the house then I'd have thought they would of marked it up to offers over £xxx ??
I almost feel like asking price is now not good enough
And they are searching around for who ever is willing to go higher , just very deflated with the info they have given us

Sorry, what's the sneaky lie?

Whether asking price is enough depends on how marketable the property is and what people will pay for it. If the house is very marketable, offering asking price may not be enough.

hazyjo

Not saying 'OMG' - but I would never offer asking price.


The vendors will now think they should have put it on for more (which is prob why they haven't snapped it up and why they're now chasing the family thinking it will end up in a bidding war). Also means that if there are a few things wrong with it, your surveyor may end up valuing it slightly less (I've seen this time and time again, especially with FTBs).


I would also ring rather than email when offering (by all means put it in an email after if you really feel it's necessary).


Absolutely not - don't ask for proof. They won't give it and will just make you look even more desperate.


You need to learn how to fix your poker face. Never go gushing in saying something's perfect or wonderful - always make out like there's a compromise somewhere, and always go in under the asking price, even if you end up actually paying the asking price in the end.


The family may not be proceedable and yes they may be playing you off against each other. Best thing you can try to achieve is to find out the family's position. Have they got a complete chain beneath them? Large deposit? They are under no obligation to tell you. If they are in an unformed chain, you are by far the better buyer at the mo.

ExNicotineQueen

Not looking to buy in West Sussex are you? The market is insane there at the moment. We went to an open house a few weeks back along with 28 other couples. When we rang EA on Monday to put an offer in he said of us 29 who viewed, half put in offers for the full asking price, 5 had put in offers up to £20k over asking, and a further 5 had upped it to £45k over asking - so unless we were willing to match those offers of up to £45k over, there was no point in wasting our time.

And before anyone jumps in and says EA was lying, this is typical of the area we've been looking at. Been searching for well over a year and plenty of properties here sell for a lot more over asking price (saved ones on RM checked later on LR to see what they sold for).

What is the area like that you're looking to buy in? Is it a seller or buyers market?

hazyjo

PS


You need to understand that an asking price is not (usually) a fixed price. There is no magic formula to obtain it. It depends on the market and who's looking for that type of property. The EA makes an informed decision as to price - but they can only guess really.


If two of you are looking for the same type of thing (as in this instance) when it comes to market, it's likely to achieve near or over its asking price. If nobody is looking for it at that time, it will sit on the market until the right buyer turns up. It doesn't necessarily make it worth less, or mean it was over or underpriced to start with, property is all about supply and demand. And it is very unpredictable.


If you were selling a house and someone offered the asking price on the day and you'd had several other viewers too who'd also expressed an interest, would you not want to see if they would want to offer too?

Surrey_EA

Struggling to see where sneaky tactics are in evidence here.

The EA is simply doing their job, as has already been pointed out, and providing the vendor with a summary of all possible interest allowing them to make a decision on how to proceed. When a seller has multiple people who may be interested it is difficult to blame them for wanting to know exactly who is considering putting in an offer before deciding, so that they can be sure they have sold their property for the maximum possible.

An extra £5000 makes very little difference to the commission that an EA receives. I realise it can be a stressful time when you have seen a house that you are particularly fond of, but you are unlikely to be ‘tricked’ and just need to be patient.

AmieR

First lie was they told us they had put our offered forward on Saturday , spoke to another person in their office and turns out they didn't put out offer forward until Monday late
Then they told us no other offers had been submitted and it looked great for us they were just waiting for seller to accept
Then within 20 minutes we got a call saying they were waiting for this other family to ring them to put in an offer and that 2 other offers had been declined
They also told us that the seller was extremely genuine and if the rift offer was put to them they would take it off the market straight away
The stories we keep getting are not matching up and they said we would have a phone call latest this morning .... still sat here waiting to hear

ThePants999

I think you've spent too much time on eBay or something. This isn't a "best offer or Buy It Now" situation - you don't automatically get the house just because you've offered asking price. The "asking price" is merely a starting point for negotiations - guidance as to the sort of number the seller is looking for. Obviously, if they get a lot of interest and think they can get more than the asking price, they'll try to do so.

AmieR

Completely understand that everything needs to be fair and that they are doing their job but in our eyes we are being told conflicting information which don't match up

My questions really were aimed more towards how long do estate agents chase people for offers do they give you a rough guide to when your offers need to be in by ?

Are they allowed to pretend there are other buyers (as I mentioned there collegue told us there was no other buyers interested from the open house) then 20 minutes later there was this mystery family

As a first time buyer I personally don't want to be duped into panick and raising my bid when there may be no other family