Estate agents not letting house go on the market after offer!

Soot2006

I think I met someone just like the OP when I was buying last year. The agent (A) was so done with them. I then found out from my EA (B) that they had marketed the house 3 years earlier ... and one other agent (C) nearly burst into hysterical tears after a successful viewing when I told them which house I was intending to buy as they too has attempted to sell it two years ago and couldn't face the prospect of working with the sellers again, in any capacity.  A very frank discussion with the agent A made me decide not to waste anyone's time. I was sad, as it was a nice house, but since the agent marketing the house had lost faith in the seller and couldn't promise me that thing would ever proceed let alone quickly, we withdrew our offer.

Four months later, when our chain of 5 had completed and we were in our new house, I popped into all the local EAs that had helped with the search to say thanks and to ask them to remove me from their mailing lists ... agent A admitted he didn't think they would ever move. 12 months later that house is still on the market, priced higher than last summer despite a pretty stagnant market round here .. and with a new agent!

GDB2222

Rinzler said:

Sorry I forgot to mention the house was on the market for 1 year but we had little no to interest even with planning permission agreed.

We agreed an offer with a landlord who asked us to take the house off the market (for 2 years) for him to tell us last minute that he didn't want it. Which is why we are quite apprehensive to agree to this buyer.

In those two years we saw many houses that we liked but missed out.

We put the house on the market again  after taking a break from being so disappointed and upset over the time wasted. We only had offers of £40k under the asking price. We then eventually reduced the price by £20k and now the last few weeks these offers and interest has flown in.

In the two years wasted by the landlord the planning permission has expired and we are in the middle of reapplying for that.

The agent is asking us to move into council houses which is only what we can get at the moment with the money offered for this house. I have been looking every single day but the houses are in really bad areas.

We have lived in this house for over 30 years it is a great house but the area has been taken over by students and landlords. I do not want to sell this house only to go to another bad area which is why we are really taking our time with finding a house.

Tldr: The house was started on the market 3 years ago. 2 of which were wasted by a landlord pulling out of a personal agreement.

Well, I totally agree with you, even though nobody else seems to. You are clearly right in what you are trying to do. The agent just wants to sell your house and get his commission. But you don't want just to sell your house. You want to move home! 

So, unless you can find something reasonable to buy with the budget released by the sale of your current home, I don't see any point whatsoever in selling. You are better off with the property you know than a new property that you don't like.

If you sell now, without anywhere to move to, that's an awful risk to take. Property prices might drop, in which case your money in the bank will buy you more. Or prices may race ahead. Nobody knows. Possibly, you'll be in a stronger bargaining position as an unencumbered buyer, but you'll also be in a weaker position because the rent you'll be paying will be eating into the money in the bank.

As to your current agents, you should obviously sack them. Tell them that you are not accepting the offers they have received, and as they refuse to continue marketing the property they should resign. You can always threaten them with their ombudsman if they insist on notice. Ask them for a list of people they have introduced to the property, as they are almost certainly entitled to commission if you ever sell to any of those people.

Thrugelmir

GDB2222 said:

Rinzler said:

Sorry I forgot to mention the house was on the market for 1 year but we had little no to interest even with planning permission agreed.

We agreed an offer with a landlord who asked us to take the house off the market (for 2 years) for him to tell us last minute that he didn't want it. Which is why we are quite apprehensive to agree to this buyer.

In those two years we saw many houses that we liked but missed out.

We put the house on the market again  after taking a break from being so disappointed and upset over the time wasted. We only had offers of £40k under the asking price. We then eventually reduced the price by £20k and now the last few weeks these offers and interest has flown in.

In the two years wasted by the landlord the planning permission has expired and we are in the middle of reapplying for that.

The agent is asking us to move into council houses which is only what we can get at the moment with the money offered for this house. I have been looking every single day but the houses are in really bad areas.

We have lived in this house for over 30 years it is a great house but the area has been taken over by students and landlords. I do not want to sell this house only to go to another bad area which is why we are really taking our time with finding a house.

Tldr: The house was started on the market 3 years ago. 2 of which were wasted by a landlord pulling out of a personal agreement.

Well, I totally agree with you, even though nobody else seems to. You are clearly right in what you are trying to do. The agent just wants to sell your house and get his commission. But you don't want just to sell your house. You want to move home! 

So, unless you can find something reasonable to buy with the budget released by the sale of your current home, I don't see any point whatsoever in selling. You are better off with the property you know than a new property that you don't like.

If you sell now, without anywhere to move to, that's an awful risk to take. Property prices might drop, in which case your money in the bank will buy you more. Or prices may race ahead. Nobody knows. Possibly, you'll be in a stronger bargaining position as an unencumbered buyer, but you'll also be in a weaker position because the rent you'll be paying will be eating into the money in the bank.

As to your current agents, you should obviously sack them. Tell them that you are not accepting the offers they have received, and as they refuse to continue marketing the property they should resign. You can always threaten them with their ombudsman if they insist on notice. Ask them for a list of people they have introduced to the property, as they are almost certainly entitled to commission if you ever sell to any of those people.

Fortunately most people have empathy for others. If everyone took your stance an already stressfull situation would most certainly become a nightmare. 

GDB2222

Thrugelmir said:

GDB2222 said:

Rinzler said:

Sorry I forgot to mention the house was on the market for 1 year but we had little no to interest even with planning permission agreed.

We agreed an offer with a landlord who asked us to take the house off the market (for 2 years) for him to tell us last minute that he didn't want it. Which is why we are quite apprehensive to agree to this buyer.

In those two years we saw many houses that we liked but missed out.

We put the house on the market again  after taking a break from being so disappointed and upset over the time wasted. We only had offers of £40k under the asking price. We then eventually reduced the price by £20k and now the last few weeks these offers and interest has flown in.

In the two years wasted by the landlord the planning permission has expired and we are in the middle of reapplying for that.

The agent is asking us to move into council houses which is only what we can get at the moment with the money offered for this house. I have been looking every single day but the houses are in really bad areas.

We have lived in this house for over 30 years it is a great house but the area has been taken over by students and landlords. I do not want to sell this house only to go to another bad area which is why we are really taking our time with finding a house.

Tldr: The house was started on the market 3 years ago. 2 of which were wasted by a landlord pulling out of a personal agreement.

Well, I totally agree with you, even though nobody else seems to. You are clearly right in what you are trying to do. The agent just wants to sell your house and get his commission. But you don't want just to sell your house. You want to move home! 

So, unless you can find something reasonable to buy with the budget released by the sale of your current home, I don't see any point whatsoever in selling. You are better off with the property you know than a new property that you don't like.

If you sell now, without anywhere to move to, that's an awful risk to take. Property prices might drop, in which case your money in the bank will buy you more. Or prices may race ahead. Nobody knows. Possibly, you'll be in a stronger bargaining position as an unencumbered buyer, but you'll also be in a weaker position because the rent you'll be paying will be eating into the money in the bank.

As to your current agents, you should obviously sack them. Tell them that you are not accepting the offers they have received, and as they refuse to continue marketing the property they should resign. You can always threaten them with their ombudsman if they insist on notice. Ask them for a list of people they have introduced to the property, as they are almost certainly entitled to commission if you ever sell to any of those people.

Fortunately most people have empathy for others. If everyone took your stance an already stressfull situation would most certainly become a nightmare. 

I have empathy for the OP! He's in a hole because he can't find anywhere to move to. All he can do is apologise to the buyers, all of whom are professional investors, before they spend any money on fees. It would be madness to put the minor inconvenience suffered by these investors ahead of the interests of a householder who would have to start renting. 

Of course, the OP should have surveyed the market, to see what he could buy, before he started the sales process.  

onwards&upwards

I am incredibly curious about this 'personal agreement' with a landlord that took two years but came to nothing. 

Rinzler

Okay to answer some of your questions.

The private agreement we had with the landlord who wasted our time was because he promised us a very good price for the house and he already has a few houses on the road so we naively trusted him. He said we just need to look for a house. We put offers in for houses and also we're ready to buy an actual house however this landlord pulled out last minute.

(This is the second time we have had someone pull out of the purchase last minute with a house ready to buy)

So this is why we are really apprehensive in signing any contracts or agreements until we have everything ready and confirmed.

We have phoned our estate agent to take the house off the market until we get the PP because there is literally nothing we can do without it however he refused to do this as he thinks we will go to someone else.

The EA is demanding we accept the offer, take the house off the market and to get a contract with our solicitor to only sell the house if 1) we get PP accepted and 2) we find a house. So the third time an agreement like this has been offered to us.

At this point we are just stuck on what to do

Edit : PP is needed to turn the house into a HMO. We live in a predominantly student area. 80-90% rate of houses are student occupied hence why we want to move.

bucksbloke

Rinzler said:

Sorry I forgot to mention the house was on the market for 1 year but we had little no to interest even with planning permission agreed.

We agreed an offer with a landlord who asked us to take the house off the market (for 2 years) for him to tell us last minute that he didn't want it. Which is why we are quite apprehensive to agree to this buyer.

In those two years we saw many houses that we liked but missed out.

We put the house on the market again  after taking a break from being so disappointed and upset over the time wasted. We only had offers of £40k under the asking price. We then eventually reduced the price by £20k and now the last few weeks these offers and interest has flown in.

In the two years wasted by the landlord the planning permission has expired and we are in the middle of reapplying for that.

You don't need to re-apply for the planning permission if it has expired. The principle of planning has already been decided previously. Anyone could pick up your plans from the Council Planning Portal resubmit them and they would be no doubt agreed (unless any major changes to the area since last application). I don't think getting a new planning consent will add any value to your sale at all (unless the number of units are increased). 

Thrugelmir

Rinzler said:

Edit : PP is needed to turn the house into a HMO. We live in a predominantly student area. 80-90% rate of houses are student occupied hence why we want to move.

No students currently though or for the foreseeable future. Having PP is hardly going to be a major selling point. Until there's clarity as to the future. More likely to reduce your pool of prospective purchasers even further. 
Sell and rent. Then you are in ideal position to wait for the "perfect" home. 

GDB2222

Thrugelmir said:

Sell and rent. Then you are in ideal position to wait for the "perfect" home. 

Don't sell and rent. It's a dreadful risk. You're not in a position to wait at all, as you'll be tied into a fixed term rental, whilst under enormous pressure as you see your money dribbling away on rent. 

There! You've got both opinions. Please take your pick.

BTW, I've twice sold without anywhere specific to move to, but I had a delayed completion and the market was very, very different at that time. My own personal circumstances were very different, too. I wouldn't do it now!

csgohan4

I feel sorry for the potential buyers being strung along, I would have walked if you don't take it off the market as it shows the kind of seller you would potentially be

Cake and eat tbh. You sell it for an agreed price but you then want more....

Everything is wrong with the English system, least in Scotland, an agreement is an agreement

Hope you get what you deserve OP, I truly do