Taking a Property off the Market

[Fatman2]

Well the plan to ship out to Montreal has fallen flat so have reverted to plan B i.e. buying a second home.

The current home has already been remortgaged for BTL so am in a great position as a cash buyer with a mortgage in place and solicitor ready to go.

I put an offer on a property last Sunday and it was subsequently accepted Tuesday. The condition was that it would be taken off the market immediately to help avoid being gazumped (the offer was £12.5k below asking price). This was agreed and as far as I can see, 2 of the 3 estate agents that took the house on have removed it from the web; apart from the agent that we're buying the house through. In fact, it's not even showing on any of 3 websites that it is SSTC.

I emailed the agent about this and he said that their systems have a 'delay' and that it won't show immediately but am wondering how long I should reasonably expect for the house to be taken off the market and what this really means? Does it mean complete removal or just showing SSTC? As I'm working away then I can't complete all the necessary paperwork (mortgage and solicitor) till the weekend so am wondering if it should show by then at least.

The agent says that he's telling enquirers that the house is sold but am wondering about his colleagues. I don't trust agents as far as I can throw them so am not sure how much rope I need to give them before I start forking out for valuations/solicitor fees.

Any advice appreciated

[toxicated]

Get somebody to call them up looking for properties of a similar price and see if they mention it or not.

[Cheib]

toxicated said:

Get somebody to call them up looking for properties of a similar price and see if they mention it or not.

This

[rah1888]

toxicated said:

Get somebody to call them up looking for properties of a similar price and see if they mention it or not.

Yep, this!

Fatman2 said:

The current home has already been remortgaged for BTL so am in a great position as a cash buyer with a mortgage in place and solicitor ready to go.

You're not a cash buyer then I'm afraid.

[/pedant]

[Fatman2]

rah1888 said:

You're not a cash buyer then I'm afraid.

[/pedant]

LOL ok, point taken.

Just easier to say than: "being-in-a-much-more-favourable-position-than-someone-that-has-a-house-to-sell-and-potentially-in-a-chain-but-less-so-than-someone-with-cash-to-make-an-instant-payment" :P

I realise it was a lighthearted comment but guess I'm just perpetuating an incorrect term. But in seriousness, why do estate agents still refer to buyers as this when you say you don't have a house to sell?

[CaptainSlow]

Cheib said:

This

+1

tbh the estate agent you are buying through has got the sale and their commission, they won't risk it to make the vendor a bit extra.

I would be more concerned about the vendor and the other agents.

[KrazyIvan]

I never really understood this, is the seller not withing their rights to keep the house advertised until you exchange contracts? After all its not your house yet.

[raptor600]

KrazyIvan said:

I never really understood this, is the seller not withing their rights to keep the house advertised until you exchange contracts? After all its not your house yet.

Of course - but the offer from the OP is only there if they stop advertising this.

[Fatman2]

KrazyIvan said:

I never really understood this, is the seller not withing their rights to keep the house advertised until you exchange contracts? After all its not your house yet.

Of course he is. I don't like gazumping any more than the next man but I have made my offer on the condition that the vendor takes the house off the market. If he said no (and that he is looking for best price) then I would completely understand and go somewhere else but he has agreed so should stick to his word.

I have shown bank balances for the deposit and have a mortgage pre-agreed with the same lender that my BTL has previously completed with. Therefore I consider myself to be as good as it gets (other than having all the money in my bank of course).

I have checked the other two agents and they do not have the house on their's or on the two main websites (starting with Right and Zoo) so am not particularly worried about them.

I'm hoping it's just nerves but would like to see the STC sign on the web (or the ads removed altogether). Due to my paranoia I've sent off the solicitors forms this morning so they should be talking to each other later today.

[Cheib]

KrazyIvan said:

I never really understood this, is the seller not withing their rights to keep the house advertised until you exchange contracts? After all its not your house yet.

If you make it a condition of your offer it's absolutely fair....the vendor can say no if they want but then they run the risk the buyer will wihtdraw.

Estate Agents are pretty cagey though.....they probably won't tell someone who just rings up about a property under embargo/under offer.....but if someone seems like a genuine buyer and is actually viewing other properties they'll probably slip it into the conversation...."we've got this other property that is officially off the market but if you are interested I can probably get you in".....

[Deva Link]

CaptainSlow said:

tbh the estate agent you are buying through has got the sale and their commission, they won't risk it to make the vendor a bit extra.

In my experience of several house sales in the family, the agent pulls down the shutters on all other enquiries far too early. For my FIL's property, which was unusual and difficult to value, several people were turned away by the agent despite there being no requirement to take it off the market, and then the buyer dragged their heels and eventually lowered their offer. By then all other interest had gone stone cold - it would have been very useful to have other interested parties on the back-burner.

Similar happened with my GodFather's house, which needed extensive renovation and so was on the market for a lowish price - a number of people wanted to make higher offers and we found out later the estate agent turned them away.

CaptainSlow said:

I would be more concerned about the vendor and the other agents.

I suppose the multiple agent scenario might cause some shenanigans but they get paid as well anyway, don't they?

[rah1888]

Fatman2 said:

LOL ok, point taken.

Just easier to say than: "being-in-a-much-more-favourable-position-than-someone-that-has-a-house-to-sell-and-potentially-in-a-chain-but-less-so-than-someone-with-cash-to-make-an-instant-payment" :P

I realise it was a lighthearted comment but guess I'm just perpetuating an incorrect term. But in seriousness, why do estate agents still refer to buyers as this when you say you don't have a house to sell?

That is a very good question!

I suppose in most cases it's ignorance of precisely what the term means, and in other cases people use it as a simple way of describing that they don't have a property to sell, like you have done.

We used to clarify exactly what was meant by asking "Is it your cash, or the bank's cash?"

[CaptainSlow]

Deva Link said:

I suppose the multiple agent scenario might cause some shenanigans but they get paid as well anyway, don't they?

Not usually. When a property is on with more than one agent the commission rate tend to be higher to take into account the risk an agent is taking by possibly not having the sale.

[Fatman2]

Well, I did as suggested and got the wife to call the agent up as a prospective buyer.

Fortunately his instant response was that the house was sold so fair play to him.

I now feel like one of those paranoid partners that sets up their other half to see if they're cheating

Thanks for all the advice. Hopefully it'll all go through fine from here.

[RRS_Staffs]

Id strongly recommend you get details of the vendors solicitor just to check the process is going through at their end as promised

FWIW we sold several years ago and had an interesting expeience
First offer accepted and stopped advertising the house
"Buyer" commissioned survey and initiated legal process but then pulled out after a few weeks after finding somewhere else
Pretty hacked off my agent had advance warning of this but irritatingly was also selling the other house the guy bought

Then we remarketed with a well known sharky outfit who's policy was to aggressively sell the property even when SSTC

So be careful buying from you know who........

[Fatman2]

Thanks

I had a minor panick as one of the other agents has the house now showing on the internet without STC showing. I've since phoned them up and their instant response was that it was sold so am now happy that my offer was taken seriously by the vendor.

It all seems to be going ok so far and the solicitor has not raised any issues.....yet!

I guess I'm just twitchy as these ads are still floating about but I got a reasonable explanation from another agent we were dealing with. From an unrelated conversation they were saying that the market is really stagnant here at the moment and that a lot of agents just don't have any houses on their books. One agent was reported as only having 12 houses and so they are keeping sold houses on the web to maintain a front. I guess it'd look terrible if their usual 2 page spread on the local paper was full of blanks so maybe this is why the ad is still showing.

Fingers crossed anyway....

[Deva Link]

Fatman2 said:

I guess I'm just twitchy...

Well if you're twitchy now, you're going to have a nerve wracking few months ahead!

[Fatman2]

Deva Link said:

Fatman2 said:

I guess I'm just twitchy...

Well if you're twitchy now, you're going to have a nerve wracking few months ahead!

LOL

Fortunately we're talking Milton Keynes so completion should only take 4 weeks. Exchange has been stipulated as 28 days but am hoping for something quicker as I'll need some new underpants by then

[littlegreenfairy]

Fatman2 said:

Well, I did as suggested and got the wife to call the agent up as a prospective buyer.

Fortunately his instant response was that the house was sold so fair play to him.

I now feel like one of those paranoid partners that sets up their other half to see if they're cheating

Thanks for all the advice. Hopefully it'll all go through fine from here.

See I did this..only to find out that the fkers had sold it to someone else and forgot to mention it to us. Back to the drawing board....

[Fatman2]

littlegreenfairy said:

See I did this..only to find out that the fkers had sold it to someone else and forgot to mention it to us. Back to the drawing board....

Oh no, really sorry to hear it This is my worst nightmare.

To add to my paranoia the other agent marketing this property suddenly put the house on the web but fortunately I got the same response when I phoned them up. I guess I'm lucky that the vendor is taking my offer seriously and doesn't want to mess about.

To be honest I really don't understand why there isn't more protection for the buyer. I don't know if gazumping should be made illegal but if not then I certainly don't have any problem with both parties putting £1000 down at the outset as a commitment to the sale. If one party pulls out, for whatever reason, then the other gets to keep the £1000 (and gets their own £1000 back).

We've already paid out £1000 for valuations, deposits and up front legals so are now in a vulnerable position, if the vendor decides to pull out. Really there should be more protection to stop this IMHO.

Anyway I hope you get something sorted out soon. Best of luck