State agent asking more money

Muhammad Iftikhar

Free Member
Jan 1, 2018
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0
Hi guys,
I am a first time buyer and need experts opinion with some issue. So here are few details.

The property advertised £325,000

I offered initially £315,000 which was rejected, then I offered £318,000 rejected again, offered £321,000 rejected again. Then finally the state agent advised me that if I offer £325,000 then most likely the vendor will accept your offer and the property will be removed from the market. They were confident on this amount and were keep telling me this figure.

NOTE: Property is on the market for more than a month and during price negotiation they were keep telling me that we have viewings/offers so you need to hurry otherwise so and so.

NOTE: As per my experience if you offer and your offer is less then or equal to already rejected price by the vendor then normally state agent advised this before putting forward your offer to vendor. Because they haven’t advised on my offer of £315,000 in the first place I believe there was even no offer of £315,000. (At that point I think I should wait as opposed to rush and goes up to £325,000 in 1 or 2 days, anyway my mistake that I rushed).

I wait for 2 days and finally offered £325,000 because I like the property and ticked all my requirements. Now when I offered this amount the state agent said they will check with vendor and will come back to me. When they came back they said sorry it can be removed from the market but now vendor is asking £330,000.

Now at that point I was pretty sure that the offer has been accepted and now they are filling their pocket, so I said to them please don’t call me again for anything except with YES/NO on my final offer of £325,000. If now they are looking more then just tell them I am not interested anymore. This was Saturday evening when we discussed this.

On Monday morning the state agent phone me again and said congratulations the vendor has accepted your offer please provide funds proof, so we can remove it from the market hence I provided.

They were happy with the funds proof and the property has been removed from rightmove and I also see the sold sign outside the house. They also sent an email and posted the confirmation letter as well.

Now here is the game starts again. While I am looking my conveyancing service and filling mortgage application form they sent me this email after two days later.

“Afternoon XYZ,
Im afraid we have received an offer today from another person who viewed the property previously in which the vendors are now also considering.
I understand from our conversations last time we would not be prepared to increase form your best and final of £325,000? And I presume this is still the case??
I do apologise in relation to this, but due to this other party having viewed the house before, we legally have to submit any offers still put forward.
Thanks, “

My response to above email:

Afternoon,

Please go ahead with your OTHER offers and viewings. When you are done please let me and we will resume.

Thanks

This is all !!!!!!!! and there is no offer even near to £315,000 otherwise they would have sold this a long ago and State agent want to fill his pocket with some extra £ grands.
Now there are only two possibilities I can think of that they are playing a game with vendor involved or vendor is unaware of this. I am not sure if this is possible to ask more money while vendor is not aware. The reason I think vendor is not aware because I asked few questions and after reading her answers doesn’t looks like they are asking increment in the price, but I might be totally wrong here.

I sent few questions to them and this is what they answered which State agent forwarded their email.

Vendor's email response to my questions.

“In answer to the questions raised by the buyer please find below our answers:
1) I have attached the front page of the lease details that were supplied by the solicitors. 999 yr lease from 15th March 1968 with a rent of £4 per year
2) 1968 house was built
3) Full fixtures and fittings list will be completed as normal with the conveyancing. We will take the chandeliers but all the sockets, switches etc will be staying. The alarm is on a contract with Verisure so we will supply details of that soon as we have spoken to them regards options of cancellation or transfer to the new buyers if they are interested as it is a monitored system which is very good (£52 pm)
Hope that covers those questions for now, obviously anything they want to know or if they want to come back and view the house again tell them to feel free.
Have a good day and speak soon.
Best regards “


Note: As you can see in the above response from the vendor they asked me to feel free to visit the house again hence I thought to do the second viewing and I booked a viewing for Friday morning. In my first viewing the vendor was at home but no discussion with them because we were not sure that we will buy this house. Just before I met with the vendor on Friday morning they started playing this game on Thursday evening and I said I am not going to increase any amount and they can go ahead with other offers because there is no other offers I think but I might be wrong. Hence viewing on Friday evening cancelled as well.

Long story short,

a) Should I wait for the State agent response and see what they come back with, no response since my last email to go with “other offer” to them. Its been second day. If let’s assume vendor has accepted another higher offer and rejected my lower one then altleast the state agent would have informed me that your confirmation of acceptance of offer is no more valid but no response?

b) The other thing I was thinking to go to vendor’s house knock the door and explain the whole story and find out the truth?

Or any other suggestion please.

Thanks
ifti
 

Newchodge

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    Just a little correction, you are dealing with an estate agent. A state agent, as in an agent of the state would be something very different.

    The estate agent will have a contract with the vendor, and does not have a contract with you. They are obliged to do the best they can to get the vendor the highest price possible. You have no guarantee that your offer is accepted until contracts have been exchanged, even if the property has been taken off the market.

    I cannot see anything in your very long story that is unusual or should make you need to 'find out the truth'.

    The only thing that would cause me some concern is this:
    "1) I have attached the front page of the lease details that were supplied by the solicitors. 999 yr lease from 15th March 1968 with a rent of £4 per year"
    £4 may have been the ground rent 50 years ago. What is it now?
     
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    paulears

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    Jan 7, 2015
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    For three hundred grand - surely knocking on the door is worth a go. explain that you are still interested but the agent has made you feel something odd is going on, and leave the seller to reassure you. After all, it is they who wish to sell - and they either want to, or don't. If they are foolish enough to turn you away from the door with the money in your hand, do you trust them enough to go through with the deal? I'd also tell the agent you think you are being messed around. They need to do the bending - you offered the asking price and they're still messing around? Something sounds very odd.
     
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    AllUpHere

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    I don't think it sounds odd. Estate agents are largely incompetent, and with cheap houses it is very much a sellers market. With homes at the bottom end like this one there are always plenty of willing buyers if the price is right. Playing them off against each other to get the best price is part of the game.
     
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    Clinton

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    “...
    Im afraid we have received an offer today...I understand from our conversations last time we would not be prepared to increase form your best and final of £325,000? And I presume this is still the case??

    "£325K WAS my offer, yes, on the understanding that you and the seller would behave in an honourable way and stop taking offers. Every time I get this kind of a message from you, and for every day of delay, my offer price drops by £1,000.

    Consider my offer revised. My current offer is £323K, and falling.

    cc: The Vendor"
     
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    Prime81

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    Jan 23, 2018
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    I'm with Clinton on this. I wouldn't play their games. £325k was the asking price and that's what you offered. I would leave it at that and walk away. If they had lots of people interested they wouldnt be bothered with you. We had a similar situation years ago with a house we wanted. Offered close to asking and they were rude and said no. We walked away and they came running back to us but we had found something else by then.
     
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    The last time I sold a property in the UK was back in 2000. I told the estate agent the price was £240,000 fixed. He kept coming back with lower offers, which at the time I really didn't have time for (I was out of the country, doing other things) so I put the price up to £250k and told the agent that if someone came with an offer for £249,999 and 99p he should tell them to go away. If they came with £250k, accept the offer and get them to sign on the dotted line there and then.

    I sat on that property for over three months, but in the end, it sold for the required sum, without the hassle of having to play silly games with estate agents every few days.

    All this fannying about with daft offers is more than just irritating and often not worth the hassle over relatively small sums. People lose the opportunity to live in the house they really want (or miss a good investment opportunity) for just £5k. If the property is right, pay slightly over the odds on condition they close quickly and inflation takes care of the excess sooner or later!

    If you are buying for yourself, take a long time to find just the right place. I spent several years finding just the right place. If you do not have a great deal of money, think well outside the box. Look at strange and quirky places that the usual mortgage monkeys never look at. Barns suitable for conversion, boathouses, even railway sidings and similar brownfield sites are all still out there and many are going really cheaply.
     
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    AllUpHere

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    LOL - You live in a very different world to many.
    Depends where in the country you are. Where we are, you are going to be competing with first time buyers with no chain to buy a house of that value. My brother has recently started looking at very small flats as a place to stay a few days a week to reduce his commute, and there is very little anywhere near where he works that you'd consider living in for less than the OP is looking to pay. He's also considering relocating and finding a nice house close to work. They start at about a million as a minimum
     
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    Jeff FV

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    Jan 10, 2009
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    I’m not sure it will be the estate agent that will be causing the problems here - a difference in price of, say, £5k will net the estate agent an extra £50 to £100 - they would probably rather a quick sale and get their commission on £320k as soon as possible, rather than drag things out for another month or more (and risk the sale altogether) for the extra commission on a £325K sale

    Offer what you are happy to offer. If it’s accepted, great, if not, walk away.
     
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    Lucan Unlordly

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    Feb 24, 2009
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    There is no mention of the buyers position?
    First time buyer, own house sold, no chain etc.,

    Another buyer comes along in a stronger position and it's not how much the estate agent is going to make but how soon he's going to make it!

    I've sold 3 houses in my time, 2 of them from small ads in the local paper. :)
     
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    DontAsk

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    Jan 7, 2015
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    Something fishy here. Houses are not taken off Rightmove, nor are sold signs put up on the basis of a non-binding verbal offer.

    The sale will first be "STC or subject to contract". You might need to click to view "sold or STC" on Rightmove to see these.

    It only becomes sold once contracts have been exchanged.
     
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    Newchodge

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    Something fishy here. Houses are not taken off Rightmove, nor are sold signs put up on the basis of a non-binding verbal offer.

    The sale will first be "STC or subject to contract". You might need to click to view "sold or STC" on Rightmove to see these.

    It only becomes sold once contracts have been exchanged.
    The Op did say they had to provide proof of funds, but then later said they were applying for a mortgage. ?
     
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