How soon for house to be marked SSTC?

eddddy

DullGreyGuy said:

As to the OP's question... Estate Agents typically leave it as long as they can get away with it just in case someone else comes along who's willing to out bid the existing offer. Normally it's the buyer that wants it marked off as quickly as possible to stop this happening. As such agents will often put several hurdles in the way to justify why they've not done it yet

I very much doubt that's the case. Estate Agents don't like gazumping - it wastes their time and effort, for a miniscule return.

For example...

• If a buyer has accepted an offer of £250k - maybe the estate agent is in line for a £2,500 fee (1%) in 12 weeks time (on average)

• No estate agent is going to do, say, an extra week's worth of phoning around, arranging viewings, negotiating offers, financially evaluating another buyer, etc  - just to secure an offer of £255k - in order to increase their fee to £2,550

An extra week of grafting, and delaying receiving their fee by a week, just to earn an extra £50 doesn't make good business sense.

dander

my estate agents did it when the memorandum of sale went out. That depends on people having their solicitors in place which can take a little while - so could that be what's happening in your case?

Scotbot

Usually once the memorandum of sale has been issued. This requires the buyer to provide ID and solicitors details.

booksandbikes

Memorandum of sale has not yet been issued, and I don't actually know if he had a solicitor lined up when he offered. At this rate, I don't actually mind how long it takes, as we are struggling to find anything we like to buy!!

booksandbikes

eddddy said:

I very much doubt that's the case. Estate Agents don't like gazumping - it wastes their time and effort, for a miniscule return.

I would tend to agree, but we are trying to book a viewing for a house which is not marked as SSTC and has an Agents Note on the listing which states "This property has an offer accepted subject to contract but is still currently available to view." 

So that is just inviting gazumping, which is a bit odd, and I'm surprised the buyer hasn't kicked up a fuss (unless maybe they offered without being proceedable).

DullGreyGuy

eddddy said:

DullGreyGuy said:

As to the OP's question... Estate Agents typically leave it as long as they can get away with it just in case someone else comes along who's willing to out bid the existing offer. Normally it's the buyer that wants it marked off as quickly as possible to stop this happening. As such agents will often put several hurdles in the way to justify why they've not done it yet

I very much doubt that's the case. Estate Agents don't like gazumping - it wastes their time and effort, for a miniscule return.

For example...

• If a buyer has accepted an offer of £250k - maybe the estate agent is in line for a £2,500 fee (1%) in 12 weeks time (on average)

• No estate agent is going to do, say, an extra week's worth of phoning around, arranging viewings, negotiating offers, financially evaluating another buyer, etc  - just to secure an offer of £255k - in order to increase their fee to £2,550

An extra week of grafting, and delaying receiving their fee by a week, just to earn an extra £50 doesn't make good business sense.

I was in two minds as to if to say the quoted section or not... similar is often brought up when its question who an agent actually works for, its often said that they initially work for the seller but at some point switch as they'd much rather than a sale goes through and they're on to the next deal than spend time/effort trying to get an increased offer (eg +£5k) in exchange for small reward (£50). 

It does feel they are purposely slow in marking things as SSTC which would suggest there is some benefit to them. Maybe it's not purely a +£5k offer but an overall more certain package? Or maybe it's just to grow their book of prospective buyers? They can say the property in question is SSTC but point to other properties they've got etc whereas were it marked as SSTC via RightMove they wouldn't have gotten the enquiry. 

RHemmings

booksandbikes said:

eddddy said:

I very much doubt that's the case. Estate Agents don't like gazumping - it wastes their time and effort, for a miniscule return.

I would tend to agree, but we are trying to book a viewing for a house which is not marked as SSTC and has an Agents Note on the listing which states "This property has an offer accepted subject to contract but is still currently available to view." 

So that is just inviting gazumping, which is a bit odd, and I'm surprised the buyer hasn't kicked up a fuss (unless maybe they offered without being proceedable).

Just a personal opinion, but I wouldn't even view. I'd tell the agent to get back to me if the sale falls through. 

BonaDea

It may be a repossession.  I know of one on the market currently, it has had an offer accepted but is still being marketed.  The EA told me the bank gave him 4 weeks in which to sell it for the highest amount, so he undervalued it to get a secure offer in the bag quickly but will keep it listed until the 4 weeks are up to see if they can beat that.  

RHemmings

BonaDea said:

It may be a repossession.  I know of one on the market currently, it has had an offer accepted but is still being marketed.  The EA told me the bank gave him 4 weeks in which to sell it for the highest amount, so he undervalued it to get a secure offer in the bag quickly but will keep it listed until the 4 weeks are up to see if they can beat that.  

In cases like that that I've been aware of, it's typical for the RM listing to say how much the offer is. OP, did that happen here? 

booksandbikes

No, offer is not listed. I don't think it is a repossession. It was last sold in 1998, so would be surprised if it were.