Not certain our EA has chosen best purchaser

treecol

Hi all. We accepted an offer just before Christmas.  We ended up with 3 people offering on our house which was good. We left the EA to let them bid it out while we looked for a property to buy. Each one was coming back with higher offers and the longer we didn't give an answer the higher they all went. At that point our EA said we needed to look carefully at their chains too - we totally agreed. He suggested we should be cautious about the middle offerer as the chap was an EA and our EA felt he may loose his buyer and not inform us. The guy at the bottom he said had a small mortgage and the ones offering the highest had sold through our EA, their purchaser had nothing to sell and it was all cash plus they would handle the whole chain. 
So he said we should go to best and final offers. We did that and within 20 mins the offers were in and all only within £500 of each other and in the exact order that he said would be the best. We sent him back to them all saying we'd really like to achieve £xxx and he came back to us in less than 5 mins with a no from them all. So we accepted the highest which just happened to be the one that had also sold through our EA. 
So now we've just discovered from a couple different of people we've worked for since the new year that our EA is well known for manipulating chains to get most if not all of the chain to be buying and selling through them . We also found out once we had the sales memorandum through and discovered who our buyers were, that as our agent was encouraging us to reduce our price as after 11 viewings in 3 weeks with no offers, that our buyers had viewed ours the first week we were on, said it was their perfect house but at the time had not sold. We were told every viewer was under offer. Our EA also said he knew they would buy ours but said nothing about holding on before reducing our price as these people were just about to accept an offer on ours. Had he told us we would have waited before reducing.
Now we have also just found out from our buyer who when she had a 2nd  viewing here and we were home,  that her buyer lives in Spain and hasn't seen her property in the flesh! They view it today so they may not like it when they see it. Had we have known that it would have been a huge red flag. 
Am I being too critical? Would it not have been more likely for the offers to be further apart and possibly not our agents favourite at the top?
The reason I'm thinking about all this is because we had a 2nd viewing on the house we were going to buy and it just won't work for us. There is so little left on the market we canvnot find anywhere else so we don't know if we can proceed. Mind you the chain may collapse after the viewing today anyway. Just wanted to run it buy y'all for your thoughts please, coz I know you've all got lots of experience. Thank you.

lesalanos

How close to what you wanted were the offers?

How much did you reduce by?  Was it overpriced to start if no offers came in? I assume that this EA gave you the highest estimate of sale price

The estate agent can only guide you, you have to agree to any changes.  

There are risks in all chains, they obviously know the people buying yours so must have some confidence as they will only get paid once the sale goes through.

If the house you are buying isn't for you and nothing else appeals then you have 2 choices.  Rent temporarily or pull out.  I wonder if your vendors had you as a red flag 

steve866

Your post contains a lot of information and is a little hard to digest, perhaps it’s showing on my phone screen. 

All agents are incentivised to sell within their own listings so this should come as no surprise.

Did you reduce your asking price? What price did you achieve relative to your asking price? Did the buyer with a ‘small mortgage’ have anything requiring selling?

It sounds like you are thinking of pulling out because you’ve changed your mind on your onward purchase and want reassurance that your agent has acting immorally so you don’t feel guilty?

anselld

EA don't choose a purchaser, you do.
If you had multiple offers to choose from then ask for more information until you have enough knowledge to choose.

treecol

Thank you for replying. You're absolutely right we are thinking if pulling out, but certainly wouldn't lay any blame at the EA feet. We're to blame as we cannot find a house to move to. We achieved £45k less than original guide price and £6k over the price we reduced to. We do feel now we reduced too much too soon as we are doing a sideways move and compared to our house the ones we've looked at that are the same price as our 1st price are now where near as good. Renting wouldn't be an option either. I think putting things down I writing here helped me answer my dilemma. We don't need to move, just fancied a change. That's probably why we can't find a suitable onward purchase as we don't have to move. 
Thank you for being a sounding post.

steve866

Sounds like it’s worth staying put based on what you’ve said. Moving is a lot of stress!

treecol

You're right. What seemed like a good idea at the time could end up with us buying a house we're not too keen on or if the chain collapses at any point, we'd just waste money on conveyancing.  Last time we moved it was £1100 for all the solicitors work this time their quote was £4600 - a massive increase.Thank you though, appreciate your in put. 

GDB2222

£4600 to sell one house and buy another sounds like an awful lot. Is there something else included in that figure?

If you can't find anywhere to move to, back out ASAP, before your buyers invest too much into the property, both emotionally and financially.

treecol

No that's just conveyancing alone. We had two quotes from solicitors and the other was just over £5k. We definitely want to back out straight away as we do not want anyone spending any money unnecessarily- that would be terribly wrong. But the issue now is we've told the EA of the house we thought we'd buy and he came back to us telling us the vendor said they'd said they would pay the stamp duty for us if we don't complete before 31st March. Our EA know but TBH I don't think they have told our buyer yet. As the people from Spain are viewing today,  I think he's waiting to see how that goes first. I did insist he informed them immediately but they do seem to be a law unto themselves.
So we're just sitting here waiting for our EA to  tell us it's all officially off.

Alter_ego

treecol said:

We definitely want to back out straight away 
So we're just sitting here waiting for our EA to  tell us it's all officially off.

Why are you waiting for someone else to make YOUR decision?