Making an offer on a house

squidley

Good afternoon,

Moving for the first time in 40 years. To be honest I am dreading the whole process.

We have put an offer in for a house with the sellers estate agent. It is £35k below the asking price of £460k. In my naivety I assumed that, if the offer were to be accepted, the house would, in effect, be taken off the market. Or at least marked as SSTC. But the estate agent has indicated that as our offer is below asking price they would recommend to the seller that the house is still actively marketed. Even though an offer has been accepted. 

Is this the norm? 

Grateful for any advice.

CSI_Yorkshire

It's not unusual.

You can either make your offer conditional on the house being taken off the market (which as it is below asking they may ignore) or state that you will not be instructing solicitors/surveys/progressing with the purchase until it is taken off (and continue viewing houses - with that agent if possible - to show you mean it).

gazfocus

Personally I think it's bad form to continue marketing a house if an offer has been accepted. We've come to learn that no matter how much you try and rush the process, some things just take as long as they take, so having that extra pressure of trying to push the purchase over the finish line before another offer comes in, would be a big no no for me. 

We looked at a house recently that we wanted to buy as our first investment property. The house was really nice, relatively new build (I believe it was initially sold as a shared ownership) but the house was in the middle of a council estate. It was priced fairly and had a lot going for it, but the EA told us whilst viewing that it would continue to be marketed up until exchange of contracts. We spoke to our solicitor and she couldn't commit to a fast turnaround so we passed on the house - it's still up for sale now, has been reduced in price by £10k (we first saw it about 2 months ago), and still no prospect of it being sold by the looks of it. 

Personally, I'd either tell the EA your offer is based upon the house being taken off the market and if they refuse, as CSI_Yorkshire says, view other properties (particularly with the same EA so they get the impression you're not hung up on this one house).

Exodi

This is a consequence of the UK property system - neither party is obliged to complete the transaction until contracts have been exchanged months and months down the line. In France for example, an accepted offer is legally binding.

The owners are probably accepting your offer as a 'backup' but keeping the house up in hopes that they may get an offer closer to the asking price. I doubt they'd think twice about shafting you if one came in.

As CSI_Yorkshire said, some people make their offers on condition the house is removed from the market upon acceptance. It is all a negotiation/a game of chicken.

MouldyOldDough

In Scotland an accepted offer is  a legally binding contract - it prevents gazumping !

Exodi

MouldyOldDough said:

In Scotland an accepted offer is  a legally binding contract - it prevents gazumping !

I'm not a fan of the English purchasing system either, but out of interest, are there any extraordinary conditions to this?

E.g. if the buyer lost his job, the house burns down post offer but pre-completion, mortgage rates go through the atmosphere, etc?

CSI_Yorkshire

MouldyOldDough said:

In Scotland an accepted offer is  a legally binding contract - it prevents gazumping !

That's not quite true.

Exchanging missives is legally binding.  That's not the same as an accepted offer.

user1977

MouldyOldDough said:

In Scotland an accepted offer is  a legally binding contract - it prevents gazumping !

Only "accepted" once missives are actually concluded, not at the initial stage of a price being agreed in principle (often misunderstood, even by Scots!).

Probably of more relevance are the professional rules which prohibit solicitors from getting involved in gazumping/gazundering - if the clients want to do that, they need to go find new lawyers.

CSI_Yorkshire

Exodi said:

The owners are probably accepting your offer as a 'backup' but keeping the house up in hopes that they may get an offer closer to the asking price. I doubt they'd think twice about shafting you if one came in.

We've had both sides on here - there has been at least one previous thread asking "if an offer isn't binding until exchange, how many offers can I have accepted before I decide which house I actually want to buy?"

user1977

Exodi said:

MouldyOldDough said:

In Scotland an accepted offer is  a legally binding contract - it prevents gazumping !

I'm not a fan of the English purchasing system either, but out of interest, are there any extraordinary conditions to this?

E.g. if the buyer lost his job, the house burns down post offer but pre-completion, mortgage rates go through the atmosphere, etc?

Buyers take the risk of not having the funds, I wouldn't expect any seller to accept the contract being conditional on a mortgage offer not being withdrawn. Given that most mortgages these days are at fixed rates, whatever happens to variable rates shouldn't have any immediate effect on a purchase.

If house burns down then generally either party is entitled to walk away from the contract.

Fredw56

The agent is trying to keep you on your toes. It’s nasty but that’s agents. There are agents who show everything as for sale until the contract is exchanged. Others mark it SSTC but carry on in secret. All agents are liars but they only have responsibility to their client and that’s not you. When you are the seller, you see it all very differently. 

There was a time when then agents just settled for easy money and made no waves. No longer it seems. 

I agree with every criticism of the English system. Licence for dishonesty. The Scottish system is not the great exemplar that people claim though.