Accepting an offer & house being taken off market, but it's still on the market!

eve824

So, our house was listed for sale on the 8th August. On the 19th, after 8 viewings and 2 offers, we accepted the higher off the two offers (which also happened to have a shorter chain). Offer was from a family we know of who already live in the village, short chain and good price - we were delighted. However...!
A few days later I noticed that our house was still for sale (I expected it to be marked 'under offer' shortly after we accepted). I thought, hmm, if I was the buyers I would be cheesed off at the delay, and moved on. Another week later (last week), I noticed that the house was still for sale, so asked my EA about it.
She said, that our buyers were selling their house privately (we knew this, to friends) and they were just getting the chain info, then would mark house as under offer. I specifically asked if the buyers finances had been checked and she assured they were, they only needed a small mortgage and 60% of the funds were coming from equity. They had spoken to his financial advisor and everything was in order. They were chasing them for the chain information. She told me they have told the buyer until the solicitor confirms the chain details to them they will continue to market the property, which they claim they are doing, although there has been no viewings booked since we accepted the offer. Coincidence??

Today, they have still not marked the house as under offer. Should I be concerned? We don't want to start threatening to rescind our acceptance of their offer as they have a short chain and offered a fair price and we do want to sell to them, just getting a little concerned at how long it's taking.

We are looking for our onward purchase, and haven't found anything yet, so part of me is saying any delay is good as it means we have more time to look and less pressure. So don't chase it! But at the back of my mind I am concerned at what the hold up is on confirming the sale.

Racky_Roo

I would ask your EA. Mine was still showing as for sale 2 weeks after the memorandum of sale was issued and it turned out the feed to Right Move to update the status hadn't worked. 5 mins after my call to the EA and it was updated.

eve824

Funnily enough they called me about 10 minutes ago to see if we would accept a viewing - said they had indeed been telling people who called to view that it was sstc so I have said absolutely not. It's on the market and available to view for anyone until at which point the buyers get their paperwork in place. Maybe now they've started booking viewings again it will give them the kick they need to get it sorted. Not impressed with how the EA has handled all of this really.....

eddddy

eve824 said:

They were chasing them for the chain information. She told me they have told the buyer until the solicitor confirms the chain details to them they will continue to market the property, which they claim they are doing, although there has been no viewings booked since we accepted the offer. Coincidence??

It's not completely clear what your 'complaint' is.

Is it that your buyer's solicitor hasn't confirmed chain details?

If so, you (or your EA) need to chase the buyer, and tell them to instruct their solicitor to get moving. 

Do you suspect that your buyer is fibbing, and they don't really have a buyer for their property yet?


Edit to add...
You seem to think it's the EA's fault that the buyer's solicitor hasn't sent the letter. Why are you blaming the EA?

eve824

Not really a 'complaint'. Just a 'what do you think' / 'should I be concerned' sort of scenario. 

I will paraphrase. Buyer gave us offer which we accepted. Buyer has since been elusive as to their chain and EA has not been able to confirm chain in order to take property off market. EA has been rejecting other viewings since offer accepted - that is the bit that is the EA fault. How many alternative buyers have slipped through the net in the last 2 weeks!

My gut feeling is that the private sale they had claimed on their property either never existed or has fallen through, and they are trying to drag it out to give them time to sell theirs. That's obviously worst case scenario but I can't at this point, see any other viable reason why they don't just sort it out. The worst part is we turned down another viable offer when we accepted theirs.

eddddy

eve824 said:

Not really a 'complaint'. Just a 'what do you think' / 'should I be concerned' sort of scenario. 

I will paraphrase. Buyer gave us offer which we accepted. Buyer has since been elusive as to their chain and EA has not been able to confirm chain in order to take property off market. EA has been rejecting other viewings since offer accepted - that is the bit that is the EA fault. How many alternative buyers have slipped through the net in the last 2 weeks!

My gut feeling is that the private sale they had claimed on their property either never existed or has fallen through, and they are trying to drag it out to give them time to sell theirs. That's obviously worst case scenario but I can't at this point, see any other viable reason why they don't just sort it out. The worst part is we turned down another viable offer when we accepted theirs.

I guess the EA will do whatever you instruct them to do.

Perhaps sensible instructions for the EA are:

• Contact the buyer to remind them that the property is going to remain on the market, until their solicitor provides chain details.
• Actively market the property and arrange viewings (but tell 'viewers' that there is already an offer on the table).
• If/when the letter arrives from the buyer's solicitor, take the property off the market.

Perhaps a risk is that you are essentially saying to your buyer "I won't believe that you've got a buyer your property until your solicitor writes and confirms it".  Some people would see that as reasonable, but others might be offended. If they're offended at this early stage, it might make the ongoing transaction more 'unfriendly' - or they might even walk away.

But one of the reasons you pay an EA is to deal with 'difficult' discussions like this.

AnnieGunn

I put mine on the market 13th August and accepted an offer on the 29th August - my Estate Agents have said they won't remove it from the market or mark it as SSTC until the buyers (first time buyers) solicitors confirms.

eve824

Annie - yes a similar situation - our EA won’t take off market until everything is confirmed - chain, AIP and solicitors. A few days is reasonable but 2 weeks later I’m thinking there must be a reason behind the delay now. Obviously I hope not but we are having viewings again now. 

eve824

So, things have come to light now. Buyers head firmly in the sand and trying delaying tactics, in the meantime EA found their house on RM having been listed a week after we accepted their 'proceedable' offer. So either they never had a private buyer or that has fallen through and they aren't being honest with us. Presumably as they are concerned they will lose the house.

We had a viewing yesterday - again they claimed they had private buyers so the EA would let them view. Phonecall this morning, they absolutely loved it and will pay full asking, oh but their private sale has fallen through and they are now rushing the house on the market now.

So a bit fed up really, it's clear to me people who are not proceedable are just lying about private buyers to get through the door. Which is really frustrating from my point of view. The only good thing is we haven't found anywhere yet but we went from thinking we could view properties to now realising we don't have a proceedable offer (well, technically we do have one on the table, but £15k under the asking price and they won't budge, with a long chain, so not really ideal). So it's a good job we hadn't already found our onward purchase!

Doozergirl

eve824 said:

So, things have come to light now. Buyers head firmly in the sand and trying delaying tactics, in the meantime EA found their house on RM having been listed a week after we accepted their 'proceedable' offer. So either they never had a private buyer or that has fallen through and they aren't being honest with us. Presumably as they are concerned they will lose the house.

We had a viewing yesterday - again they claimed they had private buyers so the EA would let them view. Phonecall this morning, they absolutely loved it and will pay full asking, oh but their private sale has fallen through and they are now rushing the house on the market now.

So a bit fed up really, it's clear to me people who are not proceedable are just lying about private buyers to get through the door. Which is really frustrating from my point of view. The only good thing is we haven't found anywhere yet but we went from thinking we could view properties to now realising we don't have a proceedable offer (well, technically we do have one on the table, but £15k under the asking price and they won't budge, with a long chain, so not really ideal). So it's a good job we hadn't already found our onward purchase!

If it's any consolation, we were in a similar situation 2 weeks ago with 2 buyers.  One wasn't even on the market (but said they didn't need to sell to get in the door). Both potential buyers are now SSTC and we've accepted the best offer this morning from the people who initially said they didn't need to sell.   I kind of get why people are embellishing their stories, but pretending to actually have a buyer to get an offer accepted is really naughty.  

Our previous sale collapsed at lockdown.  There was a private sale involved there which managed to hide that rather than a chain of three, we were actually at the top of a chain of six!! No wonder it collapsed - our house isn't even that expensive to be at the top of six! 

macman

I don't understand why you would want it removed? Until such time as you exchange contracts, the purchaser can walk away without consequence, or the deal can fall through for a myriad of reasons, so surely it's best if the sales momentum is maintained? It's not as if it costs you anything to keep it advertised. 
I would guess that as much as a quarter of accepted offers do not go all the way through to exchange, though if anyone knows if there are figures to support that, I'd be interested to see them.
If someone wanted to view it, you could accept or decline, it would be entirely up to you.