Estate agent favouring developer offer

Erizen

Around this time last year an ideal house came up in a lovely road which could have been our forever home. My husband and I listed our own house and decided we would go for it. The house we were after was sure to capture attention due to its potential. It was listed with a guide price and my husband and I put in a strong offer. When talking to the agent I mentioned the vendor may favour a family rather than a developer but he joked he would favour a developer as he could sell the house again in a few months. Anyway I thought nothing of it, we eagerly waited and were told the vendor had accepted a higher offer from someone with nothing to sell. We were given no opportunity to increase our bid, despite offering to do so. I eagerly watched on rightmove to see what the property went for and when it sold. Surprisingly it didn’t appear on rightmove but I saw on zoopla today that it went for the offer we had presented and the sale went through months later (in fact I sold my own house and moved before.) I feel really annoyed and wonder if there was foul play, did the agent perhaps take a bribe? Anyway guess I’ll never know, just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Slithery

Estate agents don't accept offers, vendors do.

da_rule

If it was sold to a developer then there may be future payments (overage etc), which wouldn’t appear on the sold price information.

babyblade41

Also you were not in a proceed able position at the time of your offer so if I was the vendor I wouldn't take an offer from someone who hadn't sold.

You went onto buy somewhere else so everyones happy

Davesnave

Slithery wrote: »

Estate agents don't accept offers, vendors do.

Often on the advice of the agent, who will try to assess which offer comes with the least risk.

Yes, we had a similar experience, when a vendor decided a bid from an unencumbered neighbour they disliked was more acceptable than ours. With money, pragmatism usually trumps sentiment.

Doozergirl

If you hadn't sold, then almost nobody would have considered your offer seriously.

The fact that you completed before they did is only apparant with hindsight. On the face of it, you simply weren't proceedable.

Mr.Generous

I'd guess the agent gave the vendor some facts. 2 offers, one has a house to sell and may mess you about, the other is a developer who will just get on with it.

They probably told you it was a higher offer just to fob you off, or rather than tell you something you didn't want to hear.

There are buyers and buyers. Once you've accepted a couple of offers from buyers who faff about you must become more wary. Agents must come across the worst of every character trait just because of the number of transactions they deal with.


I doubt many developers are problem buyers, its a job to them and unless sales go through you're left twiddling your thumbs.

AnotherJoe

If you did not have an offer on your house when you made your "strong" offer, it wasn't strong at all.

Erizen

Wow I'd never heard of that

Erizen

I guess what shocked me is that I was given no opportunity to increase my bid, I was expecting the house to go way over asking price, when I saw it had sold what I had offered I was genuinely shocked. It is true that the developer was in a better position but I feel most sellers would want the highest price.

letitbe90

Erizen wrote: »

I guess what shocked me is that I was given no opportunity to increase my bid, I was expecting the house to go way over asking price, when I saw it had sold what I had offered I was genuinely shocked. It is true that the developer was in a better position but I feel most sellers would want the highest price.

Wouldn't matter about your bid, because at the end of it, there is a high chance of it not proceeding as you hadn't found a buyer. People hate chains, let alone incomplete chains!


I recently won a property bidding ~£15k less than the other buyer, they went ahead with my offer on the basis I had no chain. They had already had 2 sales collapse due to chain issues so they didn't want to deal with another chain.