Can an estate agent show my buyer new properties?

GDB2222

jezzer_72 said:

poseidon1 said:

Perhaps the OP's time might be more productively spent researching and viewing properties, rather than battling with the  forumites here? 

In my previous replies you’ll not that I have three booked in for tomorrow. I’ve got another 4 that I’ve contacted agents for today and I’m waiting for availability to view. As I said, I’m doing everything I can to view homes. 

Anyone is free to comment though so I’d appreciate it if posts were productive rather than sniping. 

As an update it has become clear today that the Estate Agent didn’t inform the buyer of my property that the works were complete. They can’t tell me when they told them and they have no notes that they can send detailing any discussion about it. 

It sounds like you're doing everything you reasonably can do to keep this sale alive. Good luck finding somewhere. 

Smalltownhypocrite

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, you are getting a lot of duff advice and some complete nonsense on this post unfortunately. Seems people don't really understand what proceedable is and how EA's should behave.

You become proceedable when you have sold your house to a buyer - sold subject to contract (SSTC). It has nothing to do with whether you have an onward purchase in place, it's so that any onward purchases will know that you can proceed with the purchase of their property. Once they agree a sale with you, then they become proceedable, and so on up the chain until the chain is completed. 

If your house is off the market as SSTC, then your estate agent should not be showing your buyers other properties. No other EA's should either, but your EA doing it is taking the Michael. It's up to the buyers to either continue with the purchase of your property, i.e. wait for you to either agree to go into rented or find another suitable property, or for the buyer to withdraw so that you can put your property back on the market and they can go on looking elsewhere. Anything else is at best very unprofessional from the EA.

You seem to be the only one talking rubbish. Which is probably why everyone else is in agreement.

OP has not sold his house, he has accepted and offer which comes with basic reasonable expectations and has not done his part to allow the sale to proceed. There is no contract, the buyers can do what ever they want and the EA job is simply to sell houses they are not OP unpaid lacky (because they dont get a penny until it sell and OP could just withdraw after the term) of course they don't want to wait indefinitely in case they can eventually buy it.

I wasted a year and a half and a lot of money on a house that then got repossessed (and we looked at lots of other houses FULLY supported by the EA who where mortified at how stupid they had been made to look). Before that I waited 6 months on a seller who changed their mind... sellers can take the absolute !!!!!! with buyers time, the buyer is doing nothing wrong. 

ReadySteadyPop

Smalltownhypocrite said:

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, you are getting a lot of duff advice and some complete nonsense on this post unfortunately. Seems people don't really understand what proceedable is and how EA's should behave.

You become proceedable when you have sold your house to a buyer - sold subject to contract (SSTC). It has nothing to do with whether you have an onward purchase in place, it's so that any onward purchases will know that you can proceed with the purchase of their property. Once they agree a sale with you, then they become proceedable, and so on up the chain until the chain is completed. 

If your house is off the market as SSTC, then your estate agent should not be showing your buyers other properties. No other EA's should either, but your EA doing it is taking the Michael. It's up to the buyers to either continue with the purchase of your property, i.e. wait for you to either agree to go into rented or find another suitable property, or for the buyer to withdraw so that you can put your property back on the market and they can go on looking elsewhere. Anything else is at best very unprofessional from the EA.

You seem to be the only one talking rubbish. Which is probably why everyone else is in agreement.

OP has not sold his house, he has accepted and offer which comes with basic reasonable expectations and has not done his part to allow the sale to proceed. There is no contract, the buyers can do what ever they want and the EA job is simply to sell houses they are not OP unpaid lacky (because they dont get a penny until it sell and OP could just withdraw after the term) of course they don't want to wait indefinitely in case they can eventually buy it.

I wasted a year and a half and a lot of money on a house that then got repossessed (and we looked at lots of other houses FULLY supported by the EA who where mortified at how stupid they had been made to look). Before that I waited 6 months on a seller who changed their mind... sellers can take the absolute !!!!!! with buyers time, the buyer is doing nothing wrong. 

Good points.

ExEstateAgent

OP - no your EA hasn't done anything 'wrong'. Your buyers aren't in any kind of contract with you at present and they (and you) are free to do whatever you want. They can offer on another property if they decide to, you can decide that you're not moving if you don't find another property. 

theartfullodger

Agent wants his % commission compo for selling a property.  Doesn't really care which property as long as similar price.

Innit

Bigphil1474

OP, the 'contract' is in relation to taking the house off the market by the EA. If the buyer is buying your house, the house comes off the market SSTC. The EA shouldn't be taking the house off the market if they are actively encouraging the buyer to look at other properties. If it's no longer being marketed because you have a buyer then there's a reasonable expectation that your buyer isn't going to offer on other properties. If they are, then they have no right to expect your property to be off market. Maybe it's time to remarket? I wouldn't listen to bitter sounding people who have had a bad experience and think that's how things should work. 

chrisw

On the plus side, a survey's been done and the works completed, so hopefully it will be a good selling point and if it's been comprehensive, speed up the process once a buyer is found, whether the current buyer or someone else.

Grumpy_chap

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, the 'contract' is in relation to taking the house off the market by the EA. If the buyer is buying your house, the house comes off the market SSTC. The EA shouldn't be taking the house off the market if they are actively encouraging the buyer to look at other properties. If it's no longer being marketed because you have a buyer then there's a reasonable expectation that your buyer isn't going to offer on other properties. If they are, then they have no right to expect your property to be off market. Maybe it's time to remarket? I wouldn't listen to bitter sounding people who have had a bad experience and think that's how things should work. 

There are two sides to this, though.

The Buyer has incurred costs for surveys and such like.

The Vendor is failing to progress.

The Buyer has got fed up and started looking elsewhere.

If the Vendor disagrees with that assessment, why doesn't this Vendor request exchange of contracts by 31 October and completion by 30 November?

ExEstateAgent

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, the 'contract' is in relation to taking the house off the market by the EA. If the buyer is buying your house, the house comes off the market SSTC. The EA shouldn't be taking the house off the market if they are actively encouraging the buyer to look at other properties. If it's no longer being marketed because you have a buyer then there's a reasonable expectation that your buyer isn't going to offer on other properties. If they are, then they have no right to expect your property to be off market. Maybe it's time to remarket? I wouldn't listen to bitter sounding people who have had a bad experience and think that's how things should work. 

Of course the OP can keep their house on the market BUT if someone else offers they are still not able to proceed as they're still looking for a property. 

They have buyers who presumably are still ready to proceed if they could. 

Bigphil1474

I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. A deal has been done and the house taken off the market. If either the buyer or seller are unhappy they should withdraw, and the house goes back on the market. Not stay in that deal whilst looking to make other deals. The vendor OP cannot offer on another house until his has been sold STC, so if his house is no longer SSTC, by virtue of the buyer getting fed up, then he needs to know.

This is a simple definition of a proceedable buyer from a quick Google search, the first return when entering 'proceedable house buying and selling' from Poole Townsend (who I have no prior knowledge of):-

"To be ‘in a position to proceed’ simply means that there is nothing stopping you from being able to move forward with a purchase immediately.

This can be for a number of reasons:

• you don’t have a property to sell,
• have accepted an offer on your property and have a complete lower chain
• are a cash buyer
• are a first time buyer not dependant on the sale of a property for your funding."

In this case the OP is proceedable as he has accepted an offer on his property and has a complete lower chain, the lower chain being the FTB who is now looking at other properties. The FTB is proceedable as he is not dependant on the sale of a property. Proceedable refers to the buyer, not the seller.