Any advice on using Barnard Marcus's conveyancing services for buying a property?

SouthLondonUser

Yep. But also people whose solicitors didn't do their job of properly flagging these expenses and these risks. It seems the risk that solicitors might do a sloppy job increases if the solicitors receive business from the estate agents. Who would have thought?

newsgroupmonkey_

AFAIK, Barnard Marcus (Who part of Sequence / Connells) don't have their own conveyancer. They'd use whoever the local branch has cut a deal with (or could be a number of branches clubbed together).

Either way, wouldn't touch them. As above, use someone independent of the EA. More than anything, because you're likely to get a better deal as no-one is skimming.

emily9

Thank you everyone for your opinions. It feels like we got a great smack over the head, what a wake up call! It definitely sounds like a bad idea and unsafe idea to use their internal conveyancer.

We actually just heard back from the EA yesterday, turns out the property is not just an average sale, it's one that's being sold by a new-build company after a part-exchange and they are looking for a real quick sale (completion before Christmas). They've asked everyone who's made offers (6 including us) to submit their final and best offer. We did think the property was suspiciously underpriced, so we suspected the owners were looking for some form of bidding war, but not this.

I don't know if this is common practice, but this was certainly the first time we even heard about the 'best and and final offer strategy'. Are we right to think the vendor company deliberately underpriced the property so they could get all attention possible and force out everyone's maximum budget and then take their pick? Our broker said this company will pressure us to hell to meet the deadline, which is unreasonable and unrealistic.

We decided to give up on this property which is a great disappointment, it would have been decent for the EA to make clear of all this from the outset.

AdrianC

emily9 said:

We actually just heard back from the EA yesterday, turns out the property is not just an average sale, it's one that's being sold by a new-build company after a part-exchange and they are looking for a real quick sale (completion before Christmas). They've asked everyone who's made offers (6 including us) to submit their final and best offer. We did think the property was suspiciously underpriced, so we suspected the owners were looking for some form of bidding war, but not this.

I don't know if this is common practice, but this was certainly the first time we even heard about the 'best and and final offer strategy'. Are we right to think the vendor company deliberately underpriced the property so they could get all attention possible and force out everyone's maximum budget and then take their pick?

Does it matter, really?

Bid as much as you want to pay. If somebody else wants to pay more, then let them.

Our broker said this company will pressure us to hell to meet the deadline, which is unreasonable and unrealistic.

Perfectly fair and reasonable - so long as you know in advance, which you do.

What'll happen if you can't meet the deadline? They won't find anybody else to complete more quickly.

Basically, it's like any corporate sale - a repo, PX, whatever. They want to get it shifted asap for as much as possible. Sentiment doesn't come into it.

We decided to give up on this property which is a great disappointment, it would have been decent for the EA to make clear of all this from the outset.

The agent is paid by the seller to sell the property. They are not your friend in any way. Not that it makes much difference... Any seller could put similar pressure on the process. After all, every seller wants to get the sale out the way asap, for as much as possible... right?

The main difference is that you expect it of a corporate sale, whereas you might be disappointed that that nice Mrs Miggins has suddenly turned hard-headed, when you thought she really liked you and really wanted you to live in her old home...