Cut our losses?

LDR_2

Hello everyone and here is my very first post.

We're in the process of selling our house to move abroad it has been a frustrating learning experience to say the least. This is our first time we have sold a property.

We put our house on the market about May last year. I contacted a number of estate agents via email asking them various questions about how they would market the property, etc.

Only two actually bothered to respond. We ended up going with the agent we thought both the most friendly and professional. They were also a well-known name on the high street.

Initially, we were very happy with the service that was provided. We were having about two to three viewings a week, mostly when we were both at work. The offers started coming in as well. The agents were doing their job and all was well in our world.

We turned down the initial offers that were made as they were about 10% cheaper than estate agents valuation and tended to be developers. Given the choice we'd rather sell to someone who wanted the place as a home rather than an investment. We eventually accepted an offer not much under the asking price from a family who we really liked. We even removed the house from the market. We had been gazumped in the past before and would hate for anyone else to go through that costly and stressful experience. Yes, we were naive and it's not a mistake we'll ever make again.

The family was in a chain but that was ok with us. We weren't in a rush to move and were happy to wait.

Four months later and the process hadn't moved on any further. We started to make a few enquires with our agent who then keep telling us, everything was in order and that we should exchange next week. She keeps telling us this for the following three weeks.

Now, we weren't in a mad rush and were prepared to be patient. The agent keep getting our hopes up when we would have preferred to be told no progress as yet but will update you when there is. Eventually, the agent told us that the buyers had disappeared and were not contactable. We waited a few weeks and then put the house back on the market. Back to square one.

This is where the problems really began. The initial agent I had been dealing with had moved on and we were now dealing with the manager, a man who makes my Good Lady Wife's skin crawl.

We received an offer which we accepted, it was slightly higher than the last offer we accepted and the buyer was chain free, all good news for us, or so we thought. We then went overseas for a friends wedding for a week just before Christmas. On our return, we found the offer had been withdrawn. Oh, well we thought. Just as well we hadn't made the mistake of removing the property from the market.

At this stage I had asked our agent if we could communicate via email for updates, etc. As it wasn't practical for us to take personal calls at work. He replied via email peppered with spelling mistakes, no capitalisation and the grammar of a five year saying he wasn't very good at emails so would still prefer to use the phone. After the good relationship we had with his predecessor we were a little shocked and disappointed.

Then the buyer who had withdrawn her offer came back and remade her original offer which we accepted. I assumed that she had trouble raising the cash but now she had managed it.

A couple of days later our agent rang me again asking if we were willing to accept £250,000 and the rest of the balance paid in cash. I couldn't understand what was going on at first. He said that she was trying to avoid paying stamp duty. I pointed out surely this was illegal and I didn't feel comfortable with this at all, not mention what my solicitor (who has been brilliant in all dealings I've had thus far) would think. The agent suggested I may want to use a different solicitor if I wanted to accept the proposal that was on the table. I said no. He said fair enough and that he was just passing on the information from the buyer.

To cut a long story short, the buyer has still yet to have had a mortgage offer accepted from her broker. Our agent keeps telling us it's all in hand and they keep asking from more details from the buyer on a weekly basis. She has had the survey or so we have been told. I'm reluctant to believe anything our agent tells us now. He tells me he's had a number of viewings this year but I'm not convinced as the agents have always double locked the door after entering our property and this hasn't been the case this year. I've had no feedback whatsoever after viewings either.

We know she is very keen as she's been making noises about buying our place even before we were planning on selling as she owns another property within spitting distance. The offer she has made is considerably more than we are likely to get in the current climate.

Do we cut our losses and go elsewhere or wait it out and sell our house to the buyer whose offer we have currently accepted? We obviously want to change our agent, but don't want to lose the offer that's been made.

What are our options?

pinkshoes

Estate agents are frustrating creatures... I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a good estate agent. All make promises, but very few seem to keep them!

If you're not in a hurry, I'd say stick it out for now. Deal with the EA by phone, and phone on a daily basis to get updates, and get him to try and push exchange. It may not be convenient, but if that's how he wants to do it, then so be it.

People hate paying 3% stamp duty, hence their attempt to get out of this, but it's illegal, so you're right not to do it. It's a really stupid level of stamp duty, and the sooner the government change the limit, the better!

You could advertise with multiple agents, but you will end up having to pay a higher commission rate.

LDR_2

Thanks for the advice. I think we are going to stick it out. I’m just loathe to pay this dishonest man thousands of pounds for such a rubbish service.
I completely understand why people what to avoid stamp duty. What I couldn't get over is the Estate Agent being so blatant in his suggestions to do something illegal.

Trollfever

and the rest of the balance paid in cash.

Money Laundering?

lynzpower

I would not trust this at all.

No decent agent would even suggest this to be honest, when I was briefly an EA I was told in NO uncertain terms to be totally clear with buyers that tax evasion and the like were not something the agency would tolerate and we should clearly tell buyers exactly that if they suggested it. Additionally, it should alert the agent, to think, hang on these buyers are timewasters, they dont have the cash so lets fire them off and find a buyer that CAN pay. At this juncture we should then inform the vendor that the buyer is proposing these things and would they want us to remarket in the light that the buyer seems dodgy.

Your EA is NOT working for you, they are working for themselves trying to do everything they can to keep the deal on. Certainly the market may make some dodgier EAs more desperate, so that could be a contributory factor.

If I were your agent, Id be saying this is difficult to hear but can we think about remarketing. This sale is dragging on, and the longer you in this state, the longer you are NOT selling for.

Were you not advised of the survey. When my buyer had the survey I had to be home to let the surveyor in.

lynzpower

Ps just noticed my lack of capitalisation!! The irony!

LDR_2

lynzpower wrote: »

Were you not advised of the survey. When my buyer had the survey I had to be home to let the surveyor in.

The agent has been saying that this sale could take a while as the buyer doesn't appear to have confirmed that they have the cash but it's just a matter of waiting.

Every time I ask him about the hold up he tells me this and points out that's why we still have the property on the market.

As far as the survey goes, the offer was accepted before Christmas. No survey had been completed by the end of Jan so we said if the survey wasn't completed by the end of Feb, then we were pulling out of the sale. Our reasoning was that if they are paying for a survey they are interested and it may move things along.

After we gave the deadline, the agent said the survey was completed the following Thursday, he let them in with the key he has. Apparently, the survey came back ok saying the property is worth what we said it was. We're now just waiting for the buyer's lender to give her the cash. It's been three weeks with no change now.

lynzpower

OK.

This is a whole new ball game.

The survey is completed and the mortgage allegedly agreed by the lender.

At this juncture your Solicitor should be kicking in and pressurising for completion? Did you have a HIP in place, or do your buyers have to wait for the searches back?

What is your sol saying about thier sol? If this is all happening its the legal eagles should be speaking to each other now, and really there isnt a great deal the EA can do to progress things if the sols arent speaking with one another.

Running_Horse

LDR wrote: »

We turned down the initial offers that were made as they were about 10% cheaper than estate agents valuation and tended to be developers. Given the choice we'd rather sell to someone who wanted the place as a home rather than an investment.

Why would you care who buys your house?

Just get the damned thing sold and get on with your life..

nelly_2

pinkshoes wrote: »

Estate agents are frustrating creatures...

complete uneducated untrained lieing c0ck heads I'd say

but....you know....what ever

LDR_2

lynzpower wrote: »

What is your sol saying about thier sol? If this is all happening its the legal eagles should be speaking to each other now, and really there isnt a great deal the EA can do to progress things if the sols arent speaking with one another.

Our solicitor has been brilliant and has actually been very proactive and chasing both the agent and buyer's solicitor on a regular basis.

Our buyer changed her solicitor without telling anyone just recently so our agent told us a few days ago after our solicitor's letters weren't being replied to. I've yet to speak with our solicitor about that but will do so today. It sounds dodgy because surely the original solicitor would tell our one that they are no longer working with the buyer.

Our agent has told us that we don't require an HIP as our house has been on the market since May 2007.