Friend Put In Offer Of 115, Asking 135. Declined By Ea

[richcrashman]

A very good friend of mine sent me this last night, made me laugh for a while. He's ben looking at getting a place for a while, but is desperate and wont spend more than he can afford or wants to spend.

Made an offer for £115,000 on an house listed at £135,000 on Saturday.

Today get the phone call saying "my offer has been rejected and how much would I like to increase my offer by?"

I say "my offer was £115,000"

He said, "yes that was to low, how much would you like to increase your offer by"

I reply, "No, that is my offer, £115,000"

Confused agent "So you don't want to increase your offer? I think you would have a much better chance of securing the house if you offer £125,000"

"If I thought it was worth £125,000 I would put my offer in at £125,000. I don't think its worth £125,000, I think its worth £115,000 so I offered £115,000"

"So you would like to stay with your offer of £115,000?"

"Yes"

"OK I will try that to the vendor then."

"So have you spoken to the vendor about my offer?"

"We didn't want to put such a low offer forward to the vendor whilst we have other parties interested in the property."

Pausing for a while....

" Well If there is another party also interested in the property, I had better rethink my offer."

( can sense the agent thinks I'm going to increase my offer )

"Can I formally withdraw my offer as I don't want to get involved in a bidding war with a 3rd party please."

"Withdraw.... But you could get this house for £125,000, you don't want to loose out do you..."

"You have my details don't you? Call me in 3 months when the house is still up for sale and I will make you anther offer based on the market then, but expect it to be lower than £115,000, OK?

The B*stards hung up on me !!!!!!

Shame as I quite liked the house, but still plenty more fish in the sea, its just I'm running out of Estate agents now....!

Edited July 5, 2011 by richcrashman

[Starla]

If I read that right, doesn't the EA have to give the vendor details of all offers? Didn't think they could refuse to put forward an offer.

If I was your mate I'd stick a note through their door.

[Lagarde's Drift]

Unless the vendor said refuse all offers below, say, 125.

[richcrashman]

Yes, i've told him this. From what i know the vendor is now in Australia or somewhere and he is unsure exactly wht the EA has been instructed to do. I think the EA should have put the offer forward, i mean how long does it take to email?

[thecrashingisles]

Confused agent "So you don't want to increase your offer? I think you would have a much better chance of securing the house if you offer £125,000"

That's one of the most irritating words in an EA's vocabulary.

[Lagarde's Drift]

Yes, i've told him this. From what i know the vendor is now in Australia or somewhere and he is unsure exactly wht the EA has been instructed to do. I think the EA should have put the offer forward, i mean how long does it take to email?

who really cares. It's a market. Somewhat, anyway. If 115 is too low then it will sell for higherv. If the vendor us deluded it the EA is being a dick then your mate will be in q fantastic position in a few months time. If he is desperate to buy before then, then tough, he's gotta cough up. I like his style, just hope that's not the case.

[Guest_Bosworth_*]

By not passing on your offer the estate agent has broken the law and he should be reported.

[“Nasty Piece of work”]

I queried a point of law with the FSA, on receiving a reply along the lines of "...it's okay if it refers to............." I realise that the law is not worth a fig. As long as the provider of Financial Services is provided for, (look at Pay Day loans), everything is just fine. Until people are put against the wall it will always be this way

[peter_2008]

Just wait. It's finally happening.

In my area, within 5 miles, there are near 500 properties around £135K mark. None of them are selling. Only about half dozen that reduced to £115K were sold.

Prices are coming down fast and I mean "OMG, I can't even get 75% of what I paid for a new 3 bed semi in 2005" fast.

[@contradevian]

Just wait. It's finally happening.

In my area, within 5 miles, there are near 500 properties around £135K mark. None of them are selling. Only about half dozen that reduced to £115K were sold.

Prices are coming down fast and I mean "OMG, I can't even get 75% of what I paid for a new 3 bed semi in 2005" fast.

I reckon the bubble prices of the last decade will need to whiped out for houses to be good value again. I can recall them getting too expensive in 2001/2.

[interestrateripoff]

I reckon the bubble prices of the last decade will need to whiped out for houses to be good value again. I can recall them getting too expensive in 2001/2.

Seems a reasonable prediction.

Although I think he should have immediately increased his offer to £110k, that would have confused the EA.

[turtle]

If I read that right, doesn't the EA have to give the vendor details of all offers? Didn't think they could refuse to put forward an offer.

If I was your mate I'd stick a note through their door.

Interesting you say that, one member of staff in a large estate agent told me the same thing. "Every offer must be put forward to the vendor, you can offer what you like and you never know".

Then another person in the same agent showed me round a house and while talking to this person they said, "I have had offers in the region of £160k and I haven't even bothered the vendor to put the offer forward. I said to the vendor I can get £180k to £200k on this house and that is what I will do".

With attitude like that, I wasnt interested in wasting any more time with that person and moved on.

[Bob Loblaw]

Yes, i've told him this. From what i know the vendor is now in Australia or somewhere and he is unsure exactly wht the EA has been instructed to do. I think the EA should have put the offer forward, i mean how long does it take to email?

Send the seller a letter (through the post) after finding out their name (you should be able to do this via the internet). Chances are they will be having their post collected or forwarded. That way the EA cannot 'intercept' a note pushed through the door.

[Outsider]

To possibilities to answer the EA:

"Do you want to increase?" - "Sure, so lets say 150k?" - "What?!" - "Just kidding, as you were doing?!"

or, more searious. Just decrease your offer by 1000 pound each time the EA asks. Because as everyone these days knows, properties loses values with time. Also you have to factor in the time wasted by the EA (since he proabably will not pay that directly, unless you have a special phone numbers that gets you money).

[swissy_fit]

Can I presume that with all the confident talk of falling prices etc this is in the North?

I don't think the situation is the same in the south, or at least, not in the towns I monitor.

[grandmaster]

Much as it pains me to say it (because I genuinely think that EAs in general are a throwback with no place in the modern age) I think that this sort of attitude when dealing with them simply gets their back up and makes them think you're either a time-waster or not worth bothering with.

[arrgee1991]

The B*stards hung up on me !!!!!!

Shame as I quite liked the house, but still plenty more fish in the sea, its just I'm running out of Estate agents now....!

I know it is great to wind up EAs, but this could be a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. The next house you want may be with the same EA.

Just make your offer in writing, give them the talk that you are a committed buyer with a pre-arranged mortgage and you want to get things moving as quickly as possible and ask them to inform the vendor of this in writing and to copy you on the correspondence. And don't call them.

However the EA should not be holding onto your first offer. They should let the vendor accept/reject it. If nothing else it may make the vendor realise what the property is truly worth.

[SarahBell]

Until vendors realise that their house isn't going to cover the debt they have on it you're on a hiding to nothing.

[Riedquat]

I know it is great to wind up EAs, but this could be a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. The next house you want may be with the same EA.

I'm sure they'll be happy to come crawling back eventually (if they've not gone out of business by then).

[neil324]

Well in the last 2 weeks, i phoned about a house that looks like a repo the next day after it went to press and was told it is sold. Sent an email through rightmove regarding another house requiring work and received a reply the within 10 minutes saying it was sold.

Both have no SSTC on the agents details.

Someone's playing games.

[Agentimmo]

I'm sure they'll be happy to come crawling back eventually (if they've not gone out of business by then).

Indeed. Most EA's are spineless chumps who, in the current market, would stab their grannies to secure their fees. The OP's story reminds me of when I bought in the mid-90s. Almost identical. Eventually the EA and seller came back to me 6months after I'd made a low (in their opinion) offer. They wanted me to buy at that "low" price. I couldn't , as I'd just bought another place 2 weeks before at a lower price

[ManorHouseOwner]

let us all blame the estate agent on £14,000 a year instead of fat rich vendors with ludicrous expectations. yawn yawn yawn.

estate agents could not care less whether a house sold for 115k or 125k, they just want a sale, especially when transactions are rarer than hens teeth. actually they would probably prefer it to go through at 105k, then it wont get rocked back at valuation stage.

do some of these whingers on here actually think estate agents set the price? very rarely, the house goes on for what the vendor wants, not the spotty gelled office monkey in crapola suit on peanuts. because vendors own the house and have the mortgage and loans attached to it. estate agents are depressed high street office dwellers on £50 commission for each house they sell. pitiful.

[Agentimmo]

let us all blame the estate agent on £14,000 a year instead of fat rich vendors with ludicrous expectations. yawn yawn yawn.

estate agents could not care less whether a house sold for 115k or 125k, they just want a sale, especially when transactions are rarer than hens teeth. actually they would probably prefer it to go through at 105k, then it wont get rocked back at valuation stage.

do some of these whingers on here actually think estate agents set the price? very rarely, the house goes on for what the vendor wants, not the spotty gelled office monkey in crapola suit on peanuts. because vendors own the house and have the mortgage and loans attached to it. estate agents are depressed high street office dwellers on £50 commission for each house they sell. pitiful.

So why would an EA take on such a deluded vendor? Put in the effort, knowing the house won't sell ?

They are saints, ah tell you !

[Djini]

do some of these whingers on here actually think estate agents set the price?

Err yes, they completely set the price.

When you sell your house, the EA comes around and prices it for you, it's part of their 'service'.

They arrive to the figure using carefull research of the area, and compare your home to similar ones in the area that have recently sold. They factor in condition, and urgency of the seller, length of chain, etc.

Sometimes the seller does the same thing, using local advertisments of similar houses being sold in their area as a reference on how much a house is valued. Those values are again, set by the EA.

So, the EA 'industry', and EA 'professionals' (ho ho!) recommend and often set the prices.

The fact that they are often retarded school-leavers with too much hair gel and cheap suits with fat-knot ties has nothing to do with it.

[ManorHouseOwner]

EAs take on loads of houses they have no hope of selling at the price taken. I am sure every EA office has several they laugh about in their office, knowing the vendor is being ridiculous.

not because they are saints, but because they hope vendors might get more realistic, there might be a miracle, it might at least attract a couple of buyers they can register, they might want something to do, who knows.

every day on here we get daft anecdotals of peoples friends who have these word for word transcripted conversations for our perusal. maybe they sit next to these friends when they give these brainnumbingly dull verbal shakedowns. maybe they make it all up.

we live in a world where the Bank of England prints money, lies on its inflation reports, bails out totally insolvent institutions and entire countries and people get angry about some daft chav on £14,000 who has the misfortune of trying to get deluded sellers and disgruntled buyers to agree on a house purchase, and gets all the blame. it is vomit inducing reading them.