Estate Agent porky pies!

[Huntsman]

A house popped up on rightmove, I added it to my saved list, within a week, it had gone off the market. As we wanted to see it I got in touch with the agent and was told the owner wanted to do some tidying and painting, and that it was coming back on the market later that day! Result. I arranged a viewing.

The lady from the agents office that meet us for the viewing said a sale had fallen through....

Clearly it was one or the other.

[Huntsman]

V8mate said:

Maybe a sale fell through because the (prospective) buyer gave feedback that the decorative state it was in was a deciding factor to pull out?

I wondered about that, but it didn't add up, the place was well kept in all respects, sort of, ongoing well kept, but nothing fresh and new.

[Huntsman]

V8mate said:

Oh well. Just a 'cool story, bro' then.

In the league table of EA porkies, you're not even in the Vauxhall Conference.

That made me chuckle.

[Huntsman]

DeltaTango said:

Technically what you were told in both instances is true.

I don't see the issue. If you like the house and it passes a survey then you can decide to buy it. Beyond that, who cares whether someone else has pulled out of a purchase.

Most buyer's 'reasons' for withdrawing from a purchase are equally if not more spurious. You have to say *something* after all, rather than 'ye just didn't fancy it anymore more mate'.

Non issue. Hope the house is nice and fits your needs.

No issue - we didn't like it.

She could have said, sale fell through, but she didn't, she lied and said owner took it off the market to tidy up, her colleague let the cat out of the bag.

What I really don't understand, is why they don't just tell the truth!

[Huntsman]

Rude-boy said:

Because the first question you would be most likely to ask is "Why did the perspective buyer pull out?" This might be a simple "Oh, he had a job offer come up in Bolton" or it might be "Because her surveyor told her to run, not walk, away."

So its ok for the agent to conceal a known truth by saying something else?

[Huntsman]

DeltaTango said:

No known truth was concealed, you didn't ask if a buyer had pulled out. If I was selling my house I would want the agent (who works for me not the buyer) to say it's just come back on the market and to encourage you to view, given the irrelevance of another buyer's decision making process to your own.

Yes it was, just looked back through my mail, I asked why it had come back on and was told it was due to the seller wanting to tidy up a bit of decor, the truth was that a sale had fallen through.

I'm not bent out of shape about it, we didn't like it, and even if we had, we'll do our own due diligence via the solicitor conveyancing, but I just fail to see why all the silly obfuscation.