Offer accepted! but surprise across the street

unforeseen

A decent estate agent could be expected to have a fair amount of local knowledge

Define 'local' 
Around me an estate agent will cover an area of around 150 square miles involving 2 towns and numerous villages, split over 2 counties for PP purposes. There is no way that the EA can have any sort of meaningful local knowledge of that sort of area. 

Woolsery

CADL said:

We're still early in the process and haven't even done the Survey yet, but what advice would you give me?

Don't start a futile game of trying to prove what knowledge was inside the EA's head when you viewed and offered.

Look at the situation calmly and decide what the house is worth to you in the light of the new information. Re-negotiate if you consider you're overpaying, but don't expect others to see things the same way.

Rosa_Damascena

unforeseen said:

A decent estate agent could be expected to have a fair amount of local knowledge

Define 'local' 
Around me an estate agent will cover an area of around 150 square miles involving 2 towns and numerous villages, split over 2 counties for PP purposes. There is no way that the EA can have any sort of meaningful local knowledge of that sort of area. 

I disagree. Anyone who wants to get good at their job would have their finger on the pulse of the environment. When you are in sales for high value items, credibility and trustworthiness are make-or-break factors to your professional success.

TripleH

The new development could have been local knowledge for a while hence why information wasn't volunteered.

Do you know what was there before? Whilst in the medium term it might be detrimental it could add more value replacing waste land that attracted antisocial behaviour.

The seller may also have priced the property to reflect the building work planned.

Woolsery

Rosa_Damascena said:

unforeseen said:

A decent estate agent could be expected to have a fair amount of local knowledge

Define 'local' 
Around me an estate agent will cover an area of around 150 square miles involving 2 towns and numerous villages, split over 2 counties for PP purposes. There is no way that the EA can have any sort of meaningful local knowledge of that sort of area. 

I disagree. Anyone who wants to get good at their job would have their finger on the pulse of the environment. When you are in sales for high value items, credibility and trustworthiness are make-or-break factors to your professional success.

I don't disagree iro my favourite EA, whose knowledge goes back 35 years, but he's the exception rather than the rule.

Credibility and professionalism aren't words I'd associate with our closest EA, but people use her because she's a local, and without wishing to be rude, most of her customers are seriously naive.

None of this really matters to the OP though; they had no choice about the EA.

user1977

And even if an EA has vague knowledge that the site across the road is ripe for development or that somebody's thinking about it, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll know that planning has actually been granted. There's no implication that the EA ought to be monitoring neighbours' properties for planning applications. 

eidand

Make a quick decision, do you want to continue or not?
There's nothing else to it.

lincroft1710

There are 2 sites in my hometown where pp has been granted for redevelopment, yet both keep having details changed and whereas one has had some steel framing in place for a few years the other is still bare land. A 3rd site, 5 yrs since pp granted has the existing business still trading.


So it may in fact be years before any redevelopment work starts. 

Woolsery

lincroft1710 said:

There are 2 sites in my hometown where pp has been granted for redevelopment, yet both keep having details changed and whereas one has had some steel framing in place for a few years the other is still bare land. A 3rd site, 5 yrs since pp granted has the existing business still trading.

So it may in fact be years before any redevelopment work starts. 

Two substantial sites with PP exist in my village, including one for 10 affordable homes approved only last month. This month I was informed the latter won't be started any time soon due to the uncertainties in the building & building materials industries.
My personal view is that we're going into a deep recession, so I'd not be buying now anyway.

Ath_Wat

BikingBud said:

Ath_Wat said:

BikingBud said:

pinkshoes said:

Estate agents sell many properties so won't generally know things like that.

If you don't like the idea of living opposite a building site for 4 years then walk away.

If the EA is not aware of significant developments close by I would suggest they have little proximity to reality and are really not worthy of anybody's business, buy or seller.

I am not sure you know what an estate agent is.  They are a negotiator who the seller employs to get as high a price for their property as possible, without having to market it and negotiate with the buyer themselves.  That's pretty much it.  Nobody should be relying on them for any information.  

I am perfectly happy that I know what an estate agent is but if as @pinkshoes intimates they are not aware of significant developments occurring in the area how can they possibly expect to achieve the highest possible price for their client.

By browbeating them and , if not telling outright lies, using "sales tactics". 

An estate agent tries to get the highest price out of you the same way a market trader or a car salesman does.    None of these people are going to point out negatives you might only find out when you are too far in to quit.  Even if you don't quit, worst case is you negotiate tot he price you would have paid anyway.

Sales has nothing to do with being a knowledgeable professional.