Estate Agent Says No Interest In 2 Months Since We Accepted Offer

chaotic_j

Hi,
Accepted an offer on our property a couple of months ago which was for sale - only on the market a couple of weeks.

Recently asked the estate agent if they have had any calls since and therefore a list of interested potential alternative buyers - they say NO!

For weeks it didn't even say 'SOLD' on the board..

I got a relative to call and express interest but not leave details..  the estate agent would be informed apparently.. I ask the estate agent again a couple of days after this any interest - they say NO!

Do estate agents typically ignore potential alternative buyers once an offer has been accepted? Isn't that a bit barmy? Thought they were working for me?

Thanks in advance.

UnderOffer

Is your sale progressing well with the current buyers? They may be in contact with the whole chain and aware that it is going well and due to exchange soon, so don’t intend to waste anyone’s time. 

Also, is this an online Agent? I ask because when we sold with an online agent 10+ years ago, they didn’t take any other details from prospective buyers once we’d accepted an offer, a little annoying as the sale did fall through but luckily a keen couple kept pestering the agent and then discovered our house was available again and went on to buy it. 

emjay2kay

What's wrong with your current buyer?

hazyjo

If your sale falls through, your property will be remarketed. It's rather frowned upon by most to consider marketing while a sale is going through.

Why on earth would they keep a list of people who have called about your property? They wouldn't have even viewed!

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi Chaotic.

Who do the EAs work for? Themselves. What do they try and do? Sell houses - as quickly as possible. Don't they try and get the best price possible for you, tho'?! Not really - it doesn't make much difference to them; they'd simply rather go for the most likely sale. Once they reckon they have a good buyer, they won't keep entertaining other offers unless you actively insist that they do. 

I'm suspect they keep one or two other interested parties quietly in reserve in case the current sale goes pear-shaped, so they'll be happy to have further interest expressed in the property and they'll note their names down "in case it becomes unexpectedly reavailable". But they aren't going to actively pursue these other interested parties as it'll risk rocking the boat with the current buyer and make them pull out; no-one likes a gazumper or a bidding war.

Why don't EAs want to try and get more money for you - isn't that their job? No, it's to find a buyer for your house, and then move on to the next one. If they, instead, tried to provoke more interest or even a bidding war, it might well get you a few extra £k, but it will also almost certainly cheese off a few other potential buyers who won't be happy with that EA. Also, anyone encouraged to make a higher offer in order to steal or clinch the deal is also - I believe - a bit more likely to pull out later as they'll have this nagging grudge about being drawn to go higher and will wonder what else they could get for that money. Whereas a buyer who feels they got a fair deal is more likely to see it through.  

Looks at the sums - imagine a house selling for £200k. At 1.5% commission, that nets the EA £3k - nice. Now imagine if the seller nags the EA to try and get more money - you'd think the EA would want this too? Well, if it now sells for £205k, this nets the customer an extra £5k - cool - but the EA pockets only 75 more quid. 75 quid for a lot more work, extra hassle, extra risk, and the chance of p***ing off the losing buyers who they'll have on their books. 

NameUnavailable

I don't understand. You 'sold' your house 2 months ago, so what is the situation now? You should be coming up to exchange of contracts assuming the chain is complete. Why are you worrying about other buyers?

AnnieGunn

Hypothetically I guess if the estate agent told you to put your property on the market at a low price to encourage a bidding war it would be frustrating to hear any new, possibly higher bidders were not being given a chance, otherwise gazumping would not exist.

It would be risky though to not accept an offer in the hope it happens, when you have a solid offer in front of you guess?

ChewyyBacca

@chaotic_j
Are you getting cold feet with the current buyers? Do you think you could have gotten more for your property?
If so, the thought should have struck you within the week of offer acceptance (or perhaps less)
Or do you think the buyer wont exchange?
These questions are pertinent, and if its the later one, keep your EA informed, they have vested interest in the deal getting through to the finished line, and will do their best to egg on the buyer.
If its the former questions bugging you, EA is very much right to give you a point blank NO. They want to see the sale through.

rik111

If I was buying your house, I would be pulling out and telling you where to stick it..... You have agreed to sell it to someone but expect the estate agent to continue marketing it ? That takes the mick....

Young_Turk

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Hi Chaotic.

Who do the EAs work for? Themselves. What do they try and do? Sell houses - as quickly as possible. Don't they try and get the best price possible for you, tho'?! Not really - it doesn't make much difference to them; they'd simply rather go for the most likely sale. Once they reckon they have a good buyer, they won't keep entertaining other offers unless you actively insist that they do. 

I'm suspect they keep one or two other interested parties quietly in reserve in case the current sale goes pear-shaped, so they'll be happy to have further interest expressed in the property and they'll note their names down "in case it becomes unexpectedly reavailable". But they aren't going to actively pursue these other interested parties as it'll risk rocking the boat with the current buyer and make them pull out; no-one likes a gazumper or a bidding war.

Why don't EAs want to try and get more money for you - isn't that their job? No, it's to find a buyer for your house, and then move on to the next one. If they, instead, tried to provoke more interest or even a bidding war, it might well get you a few extra £k, but it will also almost certainly cheese off a few other potential buyers who won't be happy with that EA. Also, anyone encouraged to make a higher offer in order to steal or clinch the deal is also - I believe - a bit more likely to pull out later as they'll have this nagging grudge about being drawn to go higher and will wonder what else they could get for that money. Whereas a buyer who feels they got a fair deal is more likely to see it through.  

Looks at the sums - imagine a house selling for £200k. At 1.5% commission, that nets the EA £3k - nice. Now imagine if the seller nags the EA to try and get more money - you'd think the EA would want this too? Well, if it now sells for £205k, this nets the customer an extra £5k - cool - but the EA pockets only 75 more quid. 75 quid for a lot more work, extra hassle, extra risk, and the chance of p***ing off the losing buyers who they'll have on their books. 

These are good points, but I think EAs do care slightly more than this suggests about getting a good price. They don't just want to sell (i.e. go under offer) as soon as possible. They actually need the sale to complete to get their commission. You note that "a buyer who feels they got a fair deal is more likely to see it through" and this is similarly true for vendors.

EAs also benefit from having a property on their books, even if they fail to sell it, or if it takes a lot of effort to sell. This is because each property they have encourages interest from buyers and sellers. Once a buyer has expressed an interest, they are more likely to view other properties. Potential sellers are more likely to list with an EA which has similar properties for sale. So whilst they probably love the easy cases where they have a few viewings in the first week, get a reasonable offer and the vendor accepts, they may do better from a property on the market for a few months which has a few dozen viewings.

An EA who valued my flat on a previous move said the same thing as your last paragraph, but that he still wanted to get the best price, as it demonstrated he was a better negotiator than others (he claimed his agency had the record price for my block, but then the next agent made the same claim!). I haven't seen any other agents using this metric, but claiming to achieve a high percentage of asking price on average seems a common one.

tweet86

Why would there be interest? What’s wrong with your buyers? If our estate agents were accepting interest still I wouldn’t be very happy.