Did estate agent keep offers from me

owly11

I sold my house in 2021 when the market was very buoyant - it was in a highly desirable area of London and so I always knew it would sell easily.  However, I never expected to get a top price for it as it only had a few period features, was pretty much a DIY kind of house (including the kitchen and bathroom) and it was in need of modernisation.  Within hours of it going on the market it generated a lot of interest and there was an open day for it with approx 23 viewings booked in.  However, the estate agent told me that after the open day there were only two offers - one was very low and the other was ok.  I was a bit surprised at the lack of offers, and got quite anxious that something dodgy was happening, but the agent put the offers in writing and the offer didn't seem hugely low so I accepted the higher of the two offers.  The other thing that was weird was that the agent told me that the buyer was looking for an area with good schools and that was why he was moving to the area - however, a long time later I found out that the buyer was actually a property developer and had bought the property to rent out. 

When I look at the zoopla price estimates for my house for the last two years, you can see a sizeable dip at around the time I sold - whereas every other property that sold in that area in that time period shows rising prices as you would expect, even some that were very run down and in need of way more modernisation than mine.

I feel like a total idiot and it's eating away at me that the estate agent may not have passed on all offers.  I keep going over and over in my mind of how I could have made so many different and better decisions at the time.  Of course I will never know and can't do anything about it now anyway, but I am finding it difficult to move on from.  We are talking a high value property and potentially a hit of £50k+

I am not even sure why I am posting this - I have seen others posting about suspicions that estate agents don't always pass on all offers, but usually that's from the buyer's perspective.  Is there any way at all of finding out if there were any other offers or anything I can now do?

aliby21

why do you think an EA would not pass on higher offers?

TheJP

owly11 said:

I sold my house in 2021 when the market was very buoyant - it was in a highly desirable area of London and so I always knew it would sell easily.  However, I never expected to get a top price for it as it only had a few period features, was pretty much a DIY kind of house (including the kitchen and bathroom) and it was in need of modernisation.  Within hours of it going on the market it generated a lot of interest and there was an open day for it with approx 23 viewings booked in.  However, the estate agent told me that after the open day there were only two offers - one was very low and the other was ok.  I was a bit surprised at the lack of offers, and got quite anxious that something dodgy was happening, but the agent put the offers in writing and the offer didn't seem hugely low so I accepted the higher of the two offers.  The other thing that was weird was that the agent told me that the buyer was looking for an area with good schools and that was why he was moving to the area - however, a long time later I found out that the buyer was actually a property developer and had bought the property to rent out. 

When I look at the zoopla price estimates for my house for the last two years, you can see a sizeable dip at around the time I sold - whereas every other property that sold in that area in that time period shows rising prices as you would expect, even some that were very run down and in need of way more modernisation than mine.

I feel like a total idiot and it's eating away at me that the estate agent may not have passed on all offers.  I keep going over and over in my mind of how I could have made so many different and better decisions at the time.  Of course I will never know and can't do anything about it now anyway, but I am finding it difficult to move on from.  We are talking a high value property and potentially a hit of £50k+

I am not even sure why I am posting this - I have seen others posting about suspicions that estate agents don't always pass on all offers, but usually that's from the buyer's perspective.  Is there any way at all of finding out if there were any other offers or anything I can now do?

What possible gain would the EA get in not passing higher offers? The answer is 0. Move on.

owly11

aliby21 said:

why do you think an EA would not pass on higher offers?

My fear is that it may be a dodgy estate agent who took a bribe from the property developer.  The fact that he tried to pretend the buyer wasn't a developer just seems suspect.

MorningcoffeeIV

Perhaps the EA's bank account was full and wasn't able to fit any more commission into it.

owly11

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Perhaps the EA's bank account was full and wasn't able to fit any more commission into it.

The commission is tiny and presumably doesn't go directly to the personal bank account of the estate agent.  Whereas a bribe would.  I have definitely read about people who have experienced offers not being passed on.  It's a thing and it does happen.

Greatgimp

Are you thinking he could have favoured the safe buyer purchase (cheap) as opposed to the difficult buyer purchase (expensive)?

user1977

owly11 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Perhaps the EA's bank account was full and wasn't able to fit any more commission into it.

The commission is tiny and presumably doesn't go directly to the personal bank account of the estate agent.  Whereas a bribe would.  I have definitely read about people who have experienced offers not being passed on.  It's a thing and it does happen.

So how would you propose to investigate whether it happened? And even if you found out that it did happen - what would you do about it? You'd presumably then have to prove that whoever made a higher offer would actually have followed through with it (a huge proportion end up chipping away at the price or just pulling out).

tooldle

owly11 said:

aliby21 said:

why do you think an EA would not pass on higher offers?

My fear is that it may be a dodgy estate agent who took a bribe from the property developer.  The fact that he tried to pretend the buyer wasn't a developer just seems suspect.

Or, the buyer was untruthful about their motivation because they didn't want the seller to know of their intent to develop the property. 
More likely that most viewers were willing to consider a property needing work, and having seen the property decided it was either too much work for them, could not be done within their budget, or was in some other way unsuitable.
Whatever happened, it is now in the past. Don't let it drain your energy, and let those thoughts go.

owly11

Greatgimp said:

Are you thinking he could have favoured the safe buyer purchase (cheap) as opposed to the difficult buyer purchase (expensive)?

I am thinking more, in a worse case scenario, that he personally pocketed £5k from the developer who in turn saved himself £50k.  1% commission on £50K is only £500 so totally irrelevant.  But yes, in a kinder universe that's another explanation.

owly11

user1977 said:

owly11 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Perhaps the EA's bank account was full and wasn't able to fit any more commission into it.

The commission is tiny and presumably doesn't go directly to the personal bank account of the estate agent.  Whereas a bribe would.  I have definitely read about people who have experienced offers not being passed on.  It's a thing and it does happen.

So how would you propose to investigate whether it happened? And even if you found out that it did happen - what would you do about it? You'd presumably then have to prove that whoever made a higher offer would actually have followed through with it (a huge proportion end up chipping away at the price or just pulling out).

I don't think there is any way to investigate it other than trying to ask around.  I suppose I keep thinking in the internet age there must be some way of trying to find out who viewed the property - those who viewed it and didn't get it may subsequently have secured a different property in the same or next road.  It's a very tight knit/small community that people are desperate to move into so it's possible someone knows something.  I still have contacts there.  I wouldn't need to prove that the higher offer would have been gone through to completion - only that the estate agent withheld it - because that's illegal and I could make a complaint about him then.