Air Arms Owners Club

Don't want to offend anyone on here that might be an Estate Agent, but I'm fuming. We decided that I'd sell my house so that Tracy and I could start married life in a house that we could both put our mark on and turn it into a home that we had both created. After being persuaded to accept an offer that was below what we could really afford to take on my house, we found an older property that needs some work but would suit us. We thought the house was overpriced to be honest but commanded what was being asked as there isn't much around at the moment. Having been persuaded by our estate agent that an asking price offer would be the way forward, we made it yesterday. This morning I find that the estate agent took another offer on the house after ours that was for less than ours, they then told the other applicant that they needed to improve their offer and go above asking price without speaking with the vendor. I then got a call asking me what the maximum I could go up to was, even though my offer of full asking price was in first and hadn't been declared to the vendor in the first instance. I'm fuming. Surely the estate agent should have passed my full asking price offer onto the vendor as it was the better offer, instead they generated a bidding war. I've told the estate agent to kiss my bum, have withdrawn my offer on the house and have told them I am now unable to accept the offer that has been made on my house, which means that they now lose the commission they would have got from the sale of my home. I could swear.

I mean no offence to anyone here that is an estate agent, but I now understand why many haven't got a good word to say about them. Fuming.com.

Unfortunately some estate agents are only to willing to do this kind of thing to make a few quid extra. In the past I've even had an agent offer to act as a go between on a cash deal to avoid stamp duty. I hope you told the vendor what's going on?

Only one way to describe it ....... Greedy pigs.

Unqualified, unemployable (in any honest industry), crooks.
Valued mine years ago at 130k. Tried to get me to accept 105k, but still wanted full commission on the 130k valuation. Told them where to go.
Then they rang me, "will you take part in our vendor funded deposit scheme"?
"What the hell is that"? I asked.
"Well, the guy that wants to buy your house hasn't got a 10% deposit, so you take 10% less and we're all good." Says said Crook.
"And do you waive your commission?" I ask.
"No, we don't work like that" says Twat on phone.
"Well, neither do I, take me off the market" I said.

Go with Purple Bricks mate, they've sold loads around here for peanuts fees.

And, when you make an offer, tell them you're a cash buyer, but, do not accept an offer of mortgage reviews from an agent, they're all drinking, playing cards, attending Masonic rituals and dinners together. Go direct to your bank. By the time they ask for the funds, you'll have the cash anyway.

We are looking to get a house in the village, I was going to put an add in the parish magazine and on the village facebook page just in case anyone was thinking of selling. As Debbie works for an estate agent they will put ours on the usual websites for free and we will do the viewings.
Will see if and where she gets a local job first though.

Watch them like a hawk!!

I bought a very cheap house once through an estate agent and it was a real eye opener. Having been to their shop to put an offer in I was told that the house was sold and the paper work was nearing completion. Unknown to them , I was a friend of the owner's son, who told me about the house in the first place; also no offer had been accepted on the property. Back I went and made an offer again, to be firmly told, "What part of sold don't you understand?", by the estate agent's owner himself. To cut to the chase, he had been turning away prospective buyers, saving the house for either himself or a friend to buy and resell later. The house owner was unaware and if myself as the buyer, wasn't a friend of the owner, I too would have been unaware and accepted that the house had indeed been sold.

There is a happy ending, I ended up with the house and the estate agent went to jail for defrauding his customers.
Moral; inform the vendor of your offer as well as the estate agent, this way they cannot hide anything and play their little tricks. Don't believe a word they say; often the other "interested party" is a fiction to make you bump up your bid, speaking to the vendor will make this apparent. If the estate agent doesn't like it, then tough! Your's and the vendor's trust can be very easily abused by them.
Good luck.

True that, Brian.