Homebuyer letter...can they withhold?!

Millsey89

Hi All, 
We have put 3 offers in on the same house, 310k, 315k both rejected. We then wrote a letter to the seller giving details about our family, why we want the house etc so he gets to know us. Within the letter we included our final offer of 325k (asking price). 
I asked the estate agent to forward it on to the seller, he didnt sound keen but he said he would....
My question is, can the estate agent lie and say they have sent it to the seller to read when they hadn't? They could of just scrapped the letter and rang the vendor with the offer of 325k? 
We know the sellers name and new address and have also found him on Facebook. So we could contact him directly if needed but dont want to annoy any party and jeopardize anything! 
I dont trust estate agents, and want the best chance of securing this house! 

Thrugelmir

Why is the letter going to influence the vendors decision? Could just be a pack of lies. 

SMR710

Vendors pay an estate agent (usually a lot for a good one!) to work with potential buyers and manage the selling process on their behalf. I wouldn't recommend contacting the vendor on Facebook or at his new address. They are paying the estate agent to act as the middle man between you and them. Your offer will either be enough or not. If it is, they'll accept. If not, they won't. 

Millsey89

SMR710 said:

Vendors pay an estate agent (usually a lot for a good one!) to work with potential buyers and manage the selling process on their behalf. I wouldn't recommend contacting the vendor on Facebook or at his new address. They are paying the estate agent to act as the middle man between you and them. Your offer will either be enough or not. If it is, they'll accept. If not, they won't. 

Thank you for your reply :-) We heard back from the estate agent friday afternoon, the seller is more than happy with our offer, but his 2 daughters are also beneficiaries and apparently he hadnt told them he had dropped the asking price and they wherent happy! So they are taking the weekend to discuss! Just thought the letter might help 🤷‍♀️ 
Will find out hopefully tomorrow. 

Flugelhorn

sounds like a probate - families can be funny over money. hope the daughters aren't going to be picky over a few K 

Marvel1

All I want is an offer, no reading letter and if you contacted me directly I would block you.  

AdrianC

Vendors are people, too... Their motivations vary. Some won't care, but others will get a warm and fuzzy.

In this case, it sounds like the deciding factor is going to be the price and the price alone, so save your ink.

lees80

I personally wouldn't read the letter. It isn't the 'norm' in terms of the whole house buying transaction. 

I understand why you want to do it, though. Not to say it is right or wrong, just not something I would entertain.

Edit: just read the bit about finsing their address etc. Totally stalkerish behaviour and if you did contact me directly I wouldn't sell to you no matter what the offer was. 

notrouble

In your position, for the reasons above, I'd not send the letter.

More to the point, this is a probate sale. Ask the agent if probate has been granted yet. If not, be prepared for a possible long wait.......

eidand

if a buyer would send me such a letter, it'd go straight in the bin. Why would a seller be interested in knowing the buyer's sob story, which could be completely false by the way. An offer, that's all that's required, nothing else. Numbers only

diggingdude

Have you been watching American home buying shows which suggest doing this?  We Brits don't tend to like talking/thinking about feelings etc. You may put the seller off, especially if you track them down like some stalker