Our inital offer has been rejected and the estate agent has said someone else has made the owner an offer they've accepted but says its not worth us putting another offer in - Do they have to tell me what the offer is? Or is that it?
*help*
No he can't tell you what their offer is. However he is obliged to pass on any offer you make. He should also be able to tell you why its not worth us putting another offer in.
Thom
The agent is obliged to let the vendor know of all offers unless the vendor has, in writing, given a mandate to the agent not to pass on offers outside of the criteria set. P
In message , mogga writes
You dont have to accept what the estate agent says, although they may be right, and trying to save you wasting your time, and theirs. The owner might have told them verbally that they are happy with the offer, and the person it is from, and will not entertain any other offers at present - no matter how high they may be. Or the agent may be favouring someone who is arranging a mortgage with them, or for some other reason. Some of the larger agents on my patch are often suspected of favouring one buyer over another for some very strange reasons.
If you make another offer, they are legally obliged to put it to the owner in writing. If you wish to persist, I would put your revised offer to the agents in writing, and request some confirmation that your offer has been put to the owner.
If you are suspicious that the agent may be excluding you in favour of someone they would prefer to buy, if the owner lives at the house, or you know their address, it may be worth sending them a copy of your letter to the estate agent. It may even be worth sending a copy to the house even if they dont live there - they may collect their post. You could even knock on the door and ask if they are aware of your offer.
If you remain suspicious that your offer has not been put to the owner in writing, you can complain to Trading Standards, and I understand they have to investigate.
The agent wants you to either panic and double your original offer or to let them earn a commission without "wasting" their time.
What they don't want is for you to increase your offer by 100 increments until you get a reaction.
The chances are that the agent does indeed have an offer. It may be a good offer from someone not in a chain. They do not have to tell you what the offer is but, as other posters have said, if you increase your offer, they should tell the vendor.
Tell the agent that you are very interested and would like to increase your offer. Ask them if you would need to offer the asking price and see what they say.
Whatever happens, don't get carried away. Estate agents can smell desperation and they know how to play with it.
I don't get - sounds fishy to me. The more money the agent makes, the more commission he/she will get. Are you sure he is not trying to sell it to a mate of his?
Of course it isnt (necessarily) fishy. Agents earn their commission by making a sale, not by just accepting the highest offer, which may then not materialise. The highest offer may be from someone who hasnt got a completed chain yet, or even a mortgage. The current lower offer may be from someone who is a cash buyer, or who has a chain, or is willing to meet specific vendor requirements such as moving dates, or may just have shaken hands and agreed and want to be done with the business of having people tramping though their home.
As a seller, again your objective is, if you have any sense, to balance each offer against the chance it will be succesful, also the speed of closing, the risk you will lose the house you are buying, etc. Its not just about the highest offer, its not like selling on eBay.
What the OP can do is keep in touch. The house I am sitting in now was originally 'sold' to someone else, who beat our offer but also was (apparetly) ina better position than us (we didnt have a chain, they did). I called the agent a few weeks later to see if they had anything else similar and was told it had just come back on the market that morning after the deal had fallen through and was able to make an offer immediately before it went back on the market.
I dont know what the percentage is, but I believe a very high proportion of chains do collapse.
Thanks to all who have replied...
A further add on quesiton ...
Thinking about offers in terms of making a good offer
Cash offer, no chain, flexible to sellers position, regular buyer of properties known to agent, cash confirmed.
Whats most important?
If its buying lots of houses through the agent how can I - who only wants to buy one house - compete?
Thanks again.
You need to know whats important to the owners as well. Why not ask them?
What you say makes good sense but I would have expected the agent to give the OP more information.
Well, he's working for the seller not the buyer and doesnt have to pass on any details, though I agree it would have been helpful to add "because..." after saying "its not worth making an offer"
Some agents like to play games. They know if they are "unfriendly" to a buyer who really wants a property, the buyer will sometimes increase the bid to whatever can be afforded rather that what the property is worth. Consider this - the asking price is 100k. One buyer talks to the agent and asks what is the minimum likely to be accepted, the agent says the asking price, 100k will almost certainly get the house, so this bid is made and accepted. The agent expects to sell the house and to be proved right with the valuation and advice. Another buyer bids 95k. The estate agent can afford to turn their nose up at this. If they give this second buyer the impression that their bid is insignificant and unworthy of consideration, the second buyer will either walk away feeling small or make a bid big enough to get noticed - which could be much more than the asking price. If they told the second buyer the situation, they might only get an offer of 101k
If you sell socks, you must compete with the next guy selling socks. If you sell houses, once the voice in the back of a buyer's head says "this is the house for me", your work is done.
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