Zoopla Won't Change from Under Offer to Sold STC

steve866

AdrianC said:

When we bought this place, it didn't get any flags at all right up until it being pulled totally weeks after completion. That didn't mean the vendor was fishing for a gazump... It simply meant the EA couldn't figure out how to change the flag on RM. They said it was "company policy", but we all know that's almost as big a cop-out as "health and safety" or "data protection".

There are quite a few agents in London that leave the property listed without any tag, to try and generate leads for other properties. This was a few years ago, I'm not sure if this is still the case.

Jumblebumble

Ramkin42 said:

Hello everyone, 
I hope you can help me out here.
I made an offer on a property a month ago on condition that if the offer is accepted, it would be taken off the market. The estate agent (EA) emailed me to say offer is accepted and property is taken off the market. My mortgage was approved this week, a Building Survey that I paid for was completed yesterday, and I have instructed and paid a solicitor to do the conveyancing searches, etc.
I can see that the property now says Sold STC on the EA's website and on Rightmove. However, it still says Under Offer on Zoopla. When I questioned the EA about this he told me that Zoopla won't allow for a property to be changed from Under Offer to Sold STC until and unless contracts have been exchange. This seems very strange to me as, surely, once contracts are exchanged the property is no longer Sold STC but rather Sold! 
Does anyone know if this is really Zoopla policy or if the EA is telling me fibs to encourage gazumping? I've spent all this money now on mortgage advisor fees, building survey and conveyancing fees and the last thing I need is for someone to make a higher offer on a property. I'm so stressed out and I have no way of finding out if the EA is lying about Zoopla or not.  Could you please help? Does anyone know if this is indeed Zoopla policy? Does anyone have similar experiences?
Many thanks! 

Can you tell us why you are asking here rather than asking Zoopla direct?
Answers here may  be guesses 
My guess  is on the EA making this up 
They may have cashflow issues and this may be a delaying tactic
It seems inconceivable that Zoopla dictate the status of the sale

HomeownerDreamer

Tell them to remove the ad altogether then. My house was marked sold stc on the EA website and Rightmove as soon as my offer was accepted and it's been deleted completely from Zoopla so it can be done.

eidand

HomeownerDreamer said:

Tell them to remove the ad altogether then. My house was marked sold stc on the EA website and Rightmove as soon as my offer was accepted and it's been deleted completely from Zoopla so it can be done.

of course it can be done. During lockdown my EA went missing as in I had no one to talk to. I wanted to remove the ads completely so I emailed zoopla and rightmove, proved I was the owner of the property and the ads were removed very quickly. Zoopla does not decide when the status of an ad changes.

theartfullodger

If you're bothered about other offers simply by the place, swiftly, for cash.  Can do exchange & completion same day.  Job done.

Otherwise, of course a vendor would want to hear about better(**) offers..

** "Better" can be a better price, swifter deal, no mortgage, no survey ..... etc etc etc...

Your choice how you proceed in the market.  Unfortunately, contrary to the myths puffed out by certain parties, capitalism has defects.. it ain't fair. 

eidand

theartfullodger said:

If you're bothered about other offers simply by the place, swiftly, for cash.  Can do exchange & completion same day.  Job done.

Otherwise, of course a vendor would want to hear about better(**) offers..

** "Better" can be a better price, swifter deal, no mortgage, no survey ..... etc etc etc...

Your choice how you proceed in the market.  Unfortunately, contrary to the myths puffed out by certain parties, capitalism has defects.. it ain't fair. 

I think you're missing the point the OP makes. Nobody wants to have an offer accepted, instruct solicitors, spend money, do the mortgage application, start surveys, only to find out that the seller later chose someone else. Think about it

Grumpy_chap

I really can't see any practical difference between " under offer" and SSTC in the majority of cases. 

Even the differentiation identified of " under offer" mean " offer in consideration" against SSTC means " offer accepted". EA's just do not update the website that speedily.

The only practical purposes where the two could be meaningfully different is Executor or bank sales where they have to demonstrate best price received and then list with something like "an offer for £x has been received, any higher offer by Y date"

hazyjo

eidand said:

theartfullodger said:

If you're bothered about other offers simply by the place, swiftly, for cash.  Can do exchange & completion same day.  Job done.

Otherwise, of course a vendor would want to hear about better(**) offers..

** "Better" can be a better price, swifter deal, no mortgage, no survey ..... etc etc etc...

Your choice how you proceed in the market.  Unfortunately, contrary to the myths puffed out by certain parties, capitalism has defects.. it ain't fair. 

I think you're missing the point the OP makes. Nobody wants to have an offer accepted, instruct solicitors, spend money, do the mortgage application, start surveys, only to find out that the seller later chose someone else. Think about it

If the seller is going to allow more viewers when under offer, it's not going to make much difference what the bleedin' listing says lol.

As above, it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference. It’s been suggested many times that you get someone to enquire. See what the agent says. Have you done that yet?

AdrianC

steve866 said:

AdrianC said:

When we bought this place, it didn't get any flags at all right up until it being pulled totally weeks after completion. That didn't mean the vendor was fishing for a gazump... It simply meant the EA couldn't figure out how to change the flag on RM. They said it was "company policy", but we all know that's almost as big a cop-out as "health and safety" or "data protection".

There are quite a few agents in London that leave the property listed without any tag, to try and generate leads for other properties. This was a few years ago, I'm not sure if this is still the case.

Trust me on this, not only are we about as geographically and temperamentally un-London as it's possible to get and still be within Englandcestershire... but these particular agents really are so utterly incompetent they probably had to get help to even turn their computer on, let alone look at RM.