How to deal with slimy Estate Agent? Can I cut them out?

Nasarhayat

I think If you can find the owner and contact him directly that would be the best thing to do So that the communication gap among both of you will be clear. If you are not able to contact the owner, the other option is to check the nerves of the agent, If you get sure that they are doing all this to get their part then do offer them something, a small amount which you can afford.

[Deleted User]

Nasarhayat said:

I think If you can find the owner and contact him directly that would be the best thing to do So that the communication gap among both of you will be clear. If you are not able to contact the owner, the other option is to check the nerves of the agent, If you get sure that they are doing all this to get their part then do offer them something, a small amount which you can afford.

its a corporate sale.  The owner has no input. They have either passed the rights to a part exchange company or are int he process of being reposessed.

Not sure on the 2nd part of your comment, are you suggesting a buyer pays the estate agent? 

AdrianC

Deleted_User said:

Nasarhayat said:

I think If you can find the owner and contact him directly that would be the best thing to do So that the communication gap among both of you will be clear. If you are not able to contact the owner, the other option is to check the nerves of the agent, If you get sure that they are doing all this to get their part then do offer them something, a small amount which you can afford.

its a corporate sale.  The owner has no input.

The owner IS the corporate.

Irishpearce26

The property I just bought was a part exchange and was listed by two EAs. My offer took a bit of time to be confirmed and i had to submit my DIP and also get my house marketed asap. They would only confirm the MoS when I had an agreed offer on my property. Again confirming all this took time as the EA had to pass it onto their contact who then had to get authorisation from a director. 

The two EAs wasn't a problem as they were both being paid a fee then commission on who sold it, what ever way it works between the two in your case will have no bearing on the delay as its for the EAs and the seller to agree on who gets paid X and who gets paid Y.

TBagpuss

It doesn't sound as though either you, or the agents, have done anything wrong.

You re looking to buy a new home - it's important and exciting to you but it's just business to the agent and the corporate seller. They may well take days to respond .
Added to that, we are at the end of the month and the end of the stamp duty holiday - there will be a lot of completions happening today and tomorrow and quite a few combined exchange and completion. While the actual work is done by the solicitors / conveyancers, the agents are in the loop (typically they will be holding keys to release, and of course they will be wanting to get their own fees in, and they will undoubtedly be getting lots of phone calls from people who are trying to move today/tomorrow and those are all things which are much more immediately urgent that you offer, to everyone involved except you.

As others have said, y going through both agents you have probably created a situation where the buyer uis going to end up paying them both, which may require negotiation and almost certainly means that your offer is worth less than it would have been had you stuck with one.


It's frustrating, but the best thing to do is to take a few deep breaths and wait from them to come back to you.

Also - while £1000 difference on the price would have made minimal difference to the agents and most likely to the seller, if you are phoning and chasing the agents every five minutes you present as a very keen buyer - of course they were going to try to negotiate upwards. 

person2

TBagpuss said:

It doesn't sound as though either you, or the agents, have done anything wrong.

You re looking to buy a new home - it's important and exciting to you but it's just business to the agent and the corporate seller. They may well take days to respond .
Added to that, we are at the end of the month and the end of the stamp duty holiday - there will be a lot of completions happening today and tomorrow and quite a few combined exchange and completion. While the actual work is done by the solicitors / conveyancers, the agents are in the loop (typically they will be holding keys to release, and of course they will be wanting to get their own fees in, and they will undoubtedly be getting lots of phone calls from people who are trying to move today/tomorrow and those are all things which are much more immediately urgent that you offer, to everyone involved except you.

As others have said, y going through both agents you have probably created a situation where the buyer uis going to end up paying them both, which may require negotiation and almost certainly means that your offer is worth less than it would have been had you stuck with one.


It's frustrating, but the best thing to do is to take a few deep breaths and wait from them to come back to you.

Also - while £1000 difference on the price would have made minimal difference to the agents and most likely to the seller, if you are phoning and chasing the agents every five minutes you present as a very keen buyer - of course they were going to try to negotiate upwards. 

Thanks - I think waiting until the stamp duty holiday is over is a good idea as it could just be that. I agree I've made my situation worse going through both - a lesson learnt for the future.

To your last point, I wasn't pushy or needy at all until it was officially accepted, at which point I've just been proactive in trying to get the ball rolling - which I assumed was in everyone's best interest.

user1977

letsbetfair said:

person2 said:

theoretica said:

person2 said:

But the seller has accepted my offer, so what's the problem? If they wanted more, why would they confirm with the solicitor that they've accepted? And just as 1k will make no difference to the seller's commission, how is 1k going to make any difference to a corporate seller who probably turn over millions per year? It's not like my offer is below asking price?

That reads to me like you are saying you think the sale isn't so important to the seller.

In a way you're right it's probably not. However - and I didn't include this originally as it was already getting long - the seller has previously had 2 buyers fall through - the second was dragged out due to the buyer losing their job from Covid-19 / lockdown. So at this point, I think they just want to close it off.

Speed may be less important to a large corporation than a private seller. If I had £300k locked up in a property I wasn't living in, that would seriously disrupt my life and I'd want to get it sorted ASAP. For a large corporation having £300k tied up a few months longer may be no big deal

Depends what sort of "corporate" seller we're talking about (OP, do you know?). Generally they'll want properties off their books sooner rather than later - properties don't become easier to sell the longer they're left empty, and even just the insurance for unoccupied properties is pretty expensive.

person2

user1977 said:

Depends what sort of "corporate" seller we're talking about (OP, do you know?). Generally they'll want properties off their books sooner rather than later - properties don't become easier to sell the longer they're left empty, and even just the insurance for unoccupied properties is pretty expensive.

I'm not too sure - but I did see another flat in the area that has been renovated with the exact same units/fittings and so on, so I assume they're some kind of property developer? It's been on the market for a year, but only re-listed recently. Apparently (Not that you can trust a single thing the EA says) there were 2 previous buyers who's offers fell through.

steampowered

So, your offer was accepted on Friday afternoon. And the estate agent sorted out the memorandum of sale the following Monday.

That is completely reasonable!

The estate agent is not "playing games". They will need to get the memorandum of sale approved by the seller, and they will need to ask the seller for details - e.g. the details of their conveyancer. 

Its unlikely that the estate agent is "playing games" for the sake of £1k. The average selling agent commission in the UK is 1.18%, so an extra £1k on the purchase price might be worth £11.80 to the agent.

gwynlas

Slow down and smell the coffee.

Buying property takes as long as it takes even with being a cash buyer of a vacant property. The only quick route in England and Wales is by buying through a traditional auction.
Sorry but you just have to wait and realise that realistically you are unlikely to be  looking at a completion date before October. There are a tremendous number of FTBs on this site who think the process is simple, whilst individuals can and sometimes do their own conveyancing you are now caught up in a waiting game.
Let your solicitoe know that you wish to proceed asap as well as EA B but remember more than weekly follow ups is lijkely to lead to frustration on your part. Yours is not the only transaction they are dealing with and you are currently last in the queue.