Can an estate agent show my buyer new properties?

anselld

Yes the agents work for you but it is not an exclusive arrangement.  They are agents for many properties at any one time.  You must understand that it really doesn’t matter to them which property any particular buyer chooses so long as it is one which they represent and so long as it completes in the most timely manner.

Isthisforreal99

Seriously, what are you expecting the agent to say if your prospective buyer asks to see any other properties on their books? Say "No"?

They have been totally honest with you in terms of what is happening and the ball is in your court. Your buyer isn't going to wait forever.

GDB2222

jezzer_72 said:

GDB2222 said:

jezzer_72 said:

Hi all

Long story short… we accepted an offer on our property at the end of June. We had been really transparent with the buyer (we showed them around) in that we would need to find a property to move to before we could sell.

We had an offer accepted on a property about 3 after accepting our buyers offer. The seller also told us that they need to find a property and spoke directly with our estate agent to make sure our buyer was happy to wait, no issues were flagged to us at that point. About 4 weeks later the seller of the house we were had an offer accepted on took the house off the market (end of August) so we are back to looking.

Today, the estate agent that sold our house casually informed me that they had been showing our buyer properties and that they had viewed properties even though we accepted their offer.

Is the estate agent allowed or meant to be doing that? As far as I’m aware, we are paying the estate agent they ought to be working in our best interests and not the buyers. Taking our buyer to new viewings doesn’t seem to align with our interest and seems to be working in that of the estate agent.

I understand that it is up to the buyer if they want to view other properties as we are not in exchange but is the conduct of the estate agent correct? If not, what can I do about it as it’s a total lack of trust for me and makes me question if they had even marketed my house the best they could.

Any help would be appreciated. England

Your estate agent has to show some credibility with the buyer. Plus, it may be that by looking around your buyers come to the conclusion that, however slow you are being, they will stick with you.

Anyway, if I were your buyers, I'd also have given up on you by now. 

Can I ask why? 

We found a house 3 weeks after we accepted an offer, it was just that the seller decided they didn’t want to sell any more. On the same week (end of Aug) we had that house removed from the market the buyer of our house told to us about the survey and so we have booked in the contractors and undertaken the work in September. 

our solicitors are instructed from the first house we had our offer accepted.

I feel like we are pushing this forward on our end, the buyer had a the survey done on our house in August so it’s literally 1 month after being told of the issues it found. 

Granted we now need to find another house which isn’t easy… but we offered on a house on Monday but not heard if it’s been accepted or rejected yet as they had other viewings booked in. We also have 3 viewings booked in for this weekend already. 

Some people come to the forum for advice, whilst others come looking for validation of a particular point of view. You are obviously feeling a bit hard done by at the moment, as your efforts to make an onward purchase keep getting thwarted, and you have my sympathy for that. And the distinct lack of validation must be annoying. 

But I think you should accept that you are perhaps not being entirely reasonable either with your buyers or with your expectations of your agents. You keep saying that you pay the agents, but realistically you have not paid them anything yet, and they might be beginning to wonder whether you ever will. 

I fear that your buyers have lost patience, and they may well decide to buy a different house. Really, after 4 months, with no movement at all on their purchase, who can blame them? 

jezzer_72

GDB2222 said:

jezzer_72 said:

GDB2222 said:

jezzer_72 said:

Hi all

Long story short… we accepted an offer on our property at the end of June. We had been really transparent with the buyer (we showed them around) in that we would need to find a property to move to before we could sell.

We had an offer accepted on a property about 3 after accepting our buyers offer. The seller also told us that they need to find a property and spoke directly with our estate agent to make sure our buyer was happy to wait, no issues were flagged to us at that point. About 4 weeks later the seller of the house we were had an offer accepted on took the house off the market (end of August) so we are back to looking.

Today, the estate agent that sold our house casually informed me that they had been showing our buyer properties and that they had viewed properties even though we accepted their offer.

Is the estate agent allowed or meant to be doing that? As far as I’m aware, we are paying the estate agent they ought to be working in our best interests and not the buyers. Taking our buyer to new viewings doesn’t seem to align with our interest and seems to be working in that of the estate agent.

I understand that it is up to the buyer if they want to view other properties as we are not in exchange but is the conduct of the estate agent correct? If not, what can I do about it as it’s a total lack of trust for me and makes me question if they had even marketed my house the best they could.

Any help would be appreciated. England

Your estate agent has to show some credibility with the buyer. Plus, it may be that by looking around your buyers come to the conclusion that, however slow you are being, they will stick with you.

Anyway, if I were your buyers, I'd also have given up on you by now. 

Can I ask why? 

We found a house 3 weeks after we accepted an offer, it was just that the seller decided they didn’t want to sell any more. On the same week (end of Aug) we had that house removed from the market the buyer of our house told to us about the survey and so we have booked in the contractors and undertaken the work in September. 

our solicitors are instructed from the first house we had our offer accepted.

I feel like we are pushing this forward on our end, the buyer had a the survey done on our house in August so it’s literally 1 month after being told of the issues it found. 

Granted we now need to find another house which isn’t easy… but we offered on a house on Monday but not heard if it’s been accepted or rejected yet as they had other viewings booked in. We also have 3 viewings booked in for this weekend already. 

Some people come to the forum for advice, whilst others come looking for validation of a particular point of view. You are obviously feeling a bit hard done by at the moment, as your efforts to make an onward purchase keep getting thwarted, and you have my sympathy for that. And the distinct lack of validation must be annoying. 

But I think you should accept that you are perhaps not being entirely reasonable either with your buyers or with your expectations of your agents. You keep saying that you pay the agents, but realistically you have not paid them anything yet, and they might be beginning to wonder whether you ever will. 

I fear that your buyers have lost patience, and they may well decide to buy a different house. Really, after 4 months, with no movement at all on their purchase, who can blame them? 

That’s the thing. There has been movement. We have been unlucky in our purchase for sure. 

We have addressed the issues pointed out in their survey which they told us about in September. We have informed the estate agent that we have had offers on other properties rejected at the moment but we have been viewing.

I would understand if there was nothing going on at all but we have progressed the issues from the survey, we initially found a house 4 weeeks after accepting their offer. We have had offers refused, we have been booking in viewings every week.

I’m not sure what else we can do other than buy any house or rent (which we have been open about from the start that we won’t do that).

jezzer_72

Isthisforreal99 said:

Seriously, what are you expecting the agent to say if your prospective buyer asks to see any other properties on their books? Say "No"?

They have been totally honest with you in terms of what is happening and the ball is in your court. Your buyer isn't going to wait forever.

I disagree that they have been honest. We spoke to the estate agent 3 times today. It was the 3rd call they told us that they were looking at other properties. 

ReadySteadyPop

Uriziel said:

If the buyer liked another property more surely you are happy for them to have found something they prefer? Would you prefer it if they went to another estate agent and instead got a house from them instead? I don't understand your logic at all. How about you lower the price? The buyer would be more keen on waiting for you if they knew they were getting a good deal and could not get it elsewhere. I guess you're not going to do that.

That`s a good point.

Isthisforreal99

jezzer_72 said:

Isthisforreal99 said:

Seriously, what are you expecting the agent to say if your prospective buyer asks to see any other properties on their books? Say "No"?

They have been totally honest with you in terms of what is happening and the ball is in your court. Your buyer isn't going to wait forever.

I disagree that they have been honest. We spoke to the estate agent 3 times today. It was the 3rd call they told us that they were looking at other properties. 

You didn't say that at the start (3rd call) but my point still stands, the agent isn't going to tell them they can't view other properties and maybe your agent is giving you the heads up that your buyer is losing patience.

You being 'unlucky' in your purchase is not your buyers problem and surprised they haven't said complete by X date or I'm out or does the fact they are viewing other properties mean it's a matter of time.

MattMattMattUK

It is four months in and from your buyer's perspective you are no closer to moving out, to exchanging, let alone completing. They offered in June, they probably though, quite reasonably, that they would be in by Christmas, you might not have even found somewhere to move to by then. You need to get on and sell if you want to keep this buyer, that might mean renting for a while.

 If I were them I would have walked away already. 

Grumpy_chap

The OP became proceedable at the end of June (when they accepted the offer on their house).
The OP had an offer accepted on another property in mid-July.
That purchase fell through end of August.  Means the OP ceased to be proceedable.
The OP needs to focus on looking and finding an alternative property and get an offer made, otherwise the OP's buyers will very likely (it seems they have) conclude that the OP is not actually going to find a house they like more than their current house.

As for the EA owing a duty to the OP as seller, the EA also owes a duty to all the other sellers that they are marketing property for.  If the current EA does not allow the OP's buyer to view other properties, the OP's buyer will simply go via alternative EAs.

Flugelhorn

jezzer_72 said:

Chief_of_Staffy said:

Since circumstances have changed since the buyer put in their offer, it's not unexpected that they're looking at other options. Surely you don't expect the estate agent to refuse to let them view a house? Then they'd be directly failing the other sellers on their books. The only thing that the estate agent couldn't do is to process an offer from the buyer on another property without first cancelling yours.

I mean we are paying them to market our house and an offer has been accepted, we respond in a timely manner and are progressing with dealing with issues. We were just unfortunate with the house that we initially found. In my mind, they are failing my (whose interest they are meant to be working) by showing my buyer around other houses after an offer has been accepted.

If they can do it then fair enough but it seems wrong but I can’t find anything concrete about their conduct. 

I think the only way you will get the agent really focussed (and everyone else) is to break the chain