Suspect EA put forward their own buyer on basis they can gazump

mrsdaviddickinson · 8 August 2018 at 7:16AM

We spotted a house before it even went on the market before it went on Rightmove. We begged to view it before the open day and fell in love.

We've been keeping an eye out for character properties in our area in our price band and they are few and far between. The north of our town is about 100k cheaper than the south but we actually quite like the north.

Anyway, the seller apparently loved us (the wife) but I think the husband wanted the best price. They aren't in a rush as they need to move into rented anyway as they've taken on a project just down the road.

They had an open day on Saturday and almost everyone bid (we'd already offered 15k over the 'offers over 400k price). Tgey said 'fantastic' but the agebty emphasised we weren't proceedable but now on with them too)). The estate agents forced a best and final deadline of 3pm Monday. However, they delayed putting our house on the market with them all that week leading up to the open day.

We have a couple of viewings this week with our original agent. I knew about one before the deadline and asked them to pass it on.

They said they did but it's clear from the feedback that we missed out to someone proceedable who bid less. (We ended up going up to 440k as we'd never find a house for less than that in our town.)

It seems a bit strange that they wouldn't be prepared to wait until Wednesday if we were their preferred buyer.

They also kept trying to put us off offering more due to the mortgage valuation (in reality it's worth 425k apparently).

However, we have a LTV of 75% so could still proceed.

I suspect that they pushed their own buyer and didn't even communicate our LTV or appointment. Why else push an immediate deadline when the buyer is not even in a rush?

I am hoping that the buyer potentially will try to gazunder and offer 425k on the mortgage valuation. But if they are too far along then I imagine they may just continue.

What should we do if we have a buyer? The lady is nice and wouldn't want a gazump and I don't agree with that either. (We could if our house goes for a fair price rather than a desperate 10k under.)

However, if we get a buyer I do want to make it clear we are now proceedable with a 75% LTV and so can still proceed even if mortgage valuation comes in lower, so please bear us in mind if they get gazundered after the survey.

Any tips on how to deal?

getmore4less · 8 August 2018 at 7:31AM

Go talk to the sellers.

Why have you changed agents?

Doozergirl · 8 August 2018 at 7:32AM

I think you've misunderstood this house buying malarky.

In order to get anyone to take you seriously, you need to be proceedable. People don't entertain offers from people who haven't sold, and it does take time to get a house up and running on the market.

No one was going to take you seriously until you were proceedable. Given that this is a saught after property, you never stood a chance.

The agent is doing their job and the vendor is trying to sell a house. I've never been an estate agent, but they really do get a rough deal from people. They did nothing wrong. You have not sold your house.

We're all proceeedable once we've accepted an offer. You weren't.

If you want to offer again when you're proceedable, you do what you like. There's no law against it, but I guess that buyer might think the EA was being underhand by encouraging it - ie. putting it forward, which they are obliged to do? What would you be saying to us about the EA if the shoe were on the other foot? They wouldn't be able to win with you at all, would they?

quantumlobster · 8 August 2018 at 7:39AM

FWIW, OP, when we recently sold our house, I asked our EA to filter out any offers from anyone who wasn't proceedable. I wasn't prepared to even entertain the idea of getting involved with a buyer who wasn't ready to roll.

jbainbridge · 8 August 2018 at 7:43AM

You're not proceedable... it's that simple. And your house isn't even on the market!

mrsdaviddickinson · 8 August 2018 at 7:50AM

I do understand that it is our 'own fault' i.e. bad luck that this desirable house came on a week after we'd put ours on the market.

I also get that the estate agent has a job to do. Yet as the current number one reason for sales falling through is due to surveys and buyers trying to renegotiate (according to a recent survey report), the LTV looks to be just as important as the whole proceedable thing.

They kept trying to dissuade us from going too high due to the survey. And they gave buyers half a day to get their offers in despite the seller not being in a mad rush. They wanted to sell to us. The lady told me so that day, all things being equal.

Hence I suspect some agenda. Or maybe I'm naive.

I said I don't want to gazump. However, if the buyer tries to gazunder in any way I'd like them to consider us. I've read it's very common for people to bid high on best and finals and then do so. There's a difference.

mrsdaviddickinson · 8 August 2018 at 7:52AM

And we went multi-agent on the advice of our current agent and the seller's agent's reassurance that they'd proactively market ours and get it up with professional photos too. They then delayed the photos and it's not even on yet.

mrsdaviddickinson · 8 August 2018 at 7:54AM

Our house is on the market. I said we were persuaded to list with them too but they then delayed.

Doozergirl · 8 August 2018 at 8:07AM

Whilst they discouraged you from bidding higher, they can't stop people from doing it. You did, yourself. So why then accuse the agent of encouraging something that they actively discouraged you from doing, which you ignored?

You have no idea what LTVs other people have, nor do you know what they offered.

You said yourself that the vendors wanted to sell to you 'all things being equal'. They weren't equal.

You're on the market with one agent. Being on the market with another within a week wasn't going to stop the ideal buyer from snapping your house up in the same way that this one was.

What benefit is there to an agent of getting people to bid so high that they then disappoint the vendor? None. They do want things to run smoothly.

Even if they had a preferred buyer that had a track record of being likely to complete and *was proceedable*, why wouldn't they present that buyer as being the best match, if they were?

If I were a vendor, I'd not consider you. You say they're in no rush but they're having to move into rented which means their project needs funding. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Try and employ some common sense instead of making things up based on what you've read somewhere, not very reliable. It isn't fair to mistrust people for no reason other than your own mind and it's also detrimental to our own mental health.

The problem is that you have not sold your house. It is disappointing, but it is your problem and no one else's. Such is the nature of waiting for the right house before putting a house for sale, others will be in the right position at the right time. It's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Red-Squirrel_2 · 8 August 2018 at 8:08AM

It would be better to let the idea of this house go, you weren!!!8217;t in a position to offer on it at the time it came on the market. It!!!8217;s difficult when you only want a very specific type of house, but maybe now you have your own on the market you could sell up and move into rented to be ready to go when one you want next comes on the market?

mrsdaviddickinson · 8 August 2018 at 8:08AM

And I now feel bad selling ours as the likelihood is we won't find another property we like quickly.

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Suspect EA put forward their own buyer on basis they can gazump

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