# Agreed Sale - but apparently not quite "Sale Agreed"??



## MG01 (31 Aug 2006)

Just a quick question - went sale agreed on a house about 2 weeks ago or so, since then we've paid our booking deposit, had a valuation and condition survey done, yet the vendor refuses to put up the Sale Agreed sign and the EA hasn't taken it off the website or changed it from for sale to sale agreed.

When I questioned them about it they said that because the sale of the house had fallen through once before the vendor was nervous and was anxious to not fully take the house off the market until contracts are signed.

So they're still taking details of people interested in the property but telling them it's sale agreed but should anything happen etc.

Is this normal?


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## Mag2006 (31 Aug 2006)

This happened us before so beware as we lost the house and were gazumped. I hate EA's anyway...only want to line their own pockets. As far as I am concerned there should be sale agreed sign on that house. Kick up and ring EA, that is not fair on you. The fact that they are taking names is risky too, looking after the vendors interests in one thing and what they are paid to do but you hardly paid a deposit for the fun of it!.
Hope it all works out, personally I would go mad. Best of luck


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## turtle77 (31 Aug 2006)

Can you threaten to remove your offer?
Am I right in saying you wouldn't lose your booking deposit?

If they play hard ball, so should you


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## mf1 (31 Aug 2006)

I hate EA's anyway...only want to line their own pockets. 

Well they are in business and they are entitled to their fee. 

...there should be sale agreed sign on that house. 
Not necessarily - the vendors will do that when the contracts are signed. Until then either party can simply walk away. So OP should sign contracts a.s.a.p.


The fact that they are taking names is risky too, looking after the vendors interests in one thing and what they are paid to do but you hardly paid a deposit for the fun of it!.

They are paid to look after the vendors interest. 
Its a booking deposit and fully refundable. 


All in all, seems perfectly reasonable.

mf


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## whathome (31 Aug 2006)

I can understand why they vendor is reluctant to change the sign considering that they've been stung by a purchaser backing out.

We've had two purchasers pull out over the past few months and now we are lowering our asking price.  We would be in a better position now if our estate agent had been taking contact details of interested parties while it was sale agreed.  It must be a bit of a joke between the neighbours at this stage with the sign changing from "Sale Agreed" to "For Sale" every few weeks.


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## Guest107 (31 Aug 2006)

This is normal behaviour in a nervous market and the market IS very nervous at present. September is a very important time and as there is obviously no other bidder near the asking except yourself MG01 they are  trawling around for their plan B


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## conor_mc (31 Aug 2006)

Happened to my folks also, went Sale Agreed, dragged out for 3-4 months and then buyer pulled out.

To be honest, "Sale Agreed" is a ridiculous idea anyway. It guarantees neither the buyer nor the seller any protection. All it does is allows the EA to pocket a deposit for x length of time, resulting in a neat little interest-earner for them while they hold the deposit.


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## roxy (31 Aug 2006)

I agree with Conor_mc, Sale Agreed means nothing, the only thing that will guarantee you that house is a signed contract. We were Sale Agreed on a house for almost 2 months, and the day we were due to sign contracts the vendors pulled out. These were the people that wanted us to sign contracts the week before Christmas and move in Xmas week. So just ask your solicitor to put a push on the contracts and get them signed ASAP.


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## MG01 (31 Aug 2006)

Thanks for the responses - personally I feel that without the Sale Agreed notice the For Sale notice is effectively encouraging offers. I do think that Sale Agreed means something do, while obviously either party can pull out, in an honest spirit, Sale Agreed means simply that you've agreed to sell it to that person at x price and that's that - once contracts are signed I would have thought the sign would go to Sold - what's the point in changing the sign to Sale Agreed once contracts are signed??

I just feel that we're either dealing with dodgy customers or we're paying for someone else pulling out of the sale before us.


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## Mag2006 (31 Aug 2006)

As others said push your solicitor to get contracts signed immediately. It is a lesson that we learned so when we bought our current house when we paid the deposit we got straight onto our solicitor who requested the contracts from vendors solicitor asap so we could wrap it all up. And that was on a NEW property as when deposit is paid the house is only "reserved" and they take names for cancellations so just get going on it if it's the house you want. As I said..good luck.
Oh yeah...and i still dislike EA's when purchasing a property. We were once looking at a house and EA asked us what our professions were (we told her, thought she was just making conversation...egets!!) and she cheekily said "oh well then you can offer more that the asking price, come on you can afford it"!!!..unreal!


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## ninsaga (31 Aug 2006)

Mag2006 said:


> Oh yeah...and i still dislike EA's when purchasing a property. We were once looking at a house and EA asked us what our professions were (we told her, thought she was just making conversation...egets!!) and she cheekily said "oh well then you can offer more that the asking price, come on you can afford it"!!!..unreal!




... might be something to post here on a new site rateyourauctioneer.com


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## conor_mc (31 Aug 2006)

MG01 said:


> we're paying for someone else pulling out of the sale before us.


 
....is probably true.

In fairness though, your seller doesn't know you from Adam and your fully-refundable deposit, in the hands of the EA, means absolutely nothing to them.

But look on the bright side - if you are paying for someone else pulling out before you, the seller is unlikely to screw you around provided you keep things rolling on your end.


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## lissard (31 Aug 2006)

Your vendor sounds remarkably like us. Recently went through this as well. Had agreed to sell our house and the buyer would not sign contracts - kept on giving excuses blaming the solicitor, mortgage broker and so on - dragged the whole process on for 4 weeks. They eventually pulled out 2 weeks prior to our own move date forcing us to bridge. It brought home to me importance of a signed contract. As a seller once you have agreed the price there are very few ways of applying pressure on the buyer to get them to move along to the signed contract other than to threaten to put the house back on the market. One way of making this threat seem real is to keep up the For Sale sign. I would imagine that is what your vendor is doing right now. If they have already signed a contract to buy a house they will be compelled to close that sale on a set date or face punitive interest on the outstanding ammount. On the house we were buying it something like €200 per day enough to raise stress level and seriously concentrate the mind!! Just get your contract signed as quickly as possible and I'm sure it will all go fine.


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## Guest107 (31 Aug 2006)

ninsaga said:


> ... might be something to post here on a new site [broken link removed]



Whay are all the rated auctioneers form Cork while no Dublin auctioneers are rated at all ???????  Can we call this site ratemyauctioneerincork.com  in future ??


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## roxy (31 Aug 2006)

2Pack said:


> Whay are all the rated auctioneers form Cork while no Dublin auctioneers are rated at all ??????? Can we call this site ratemyauctioneerincork.com in future ??


 
I had to laugh at this too!


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## BigM (31 Aug 2006)

MG01 said:


> Thanks for the responses - personally I feel that without the Sale Agreed notice the For Sale notice is effectively encouraging offers. I do think that Sale Agreed means something do, while obviously either party can pull out, in an honest spirit, Sale Agreed means simply that you've agreed to sell it to that person at x price and that's that - once contracts are signed I would have thought the sign would go to Sold - what's the point in changing the sign to Sale Agreed once contracts are signed??


The Sale Agreed code of practice for the AIVI is for the EA to stop advertising it as For Sale (billboards and website). Continuing to offer it For Sale while S.Agreed is considered sharp practice and would not be condoned by the EA industry - I'd ring the IAVI and see what they can do (there's no legal recourse) http://www.realestate.ie/
Of course, the EA works for the vendor so they're legally obliged to refer all offers to them. They're supposed to recommend the vendor not accept any gazumping offers but anyone who's ever been gazumped knows that most vendors can't resist the extra cash!


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## whathome (31 Aug 2006)

BigM said:


> Of course, the EA works for the vendor so they're legally obliged to refer all offers to them. They're supposed to recommend the vendor not accept any gazumping offers but anyone who's ever been gazumped knows that most vendors can't resist the extra cash!


 
Yep - I was gazumped in late 2001 just after the announcement of reversal of the Bacon measures.  It hurt like hell!  I didn't think it could happen in Ireland but the EA informed me that they are legally bound to present all offers to the vendor.


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## daithi (31 Aug 2006)

Try contacting the vendors directly to voice your concerns and to reassure them that you still want to buy their house-I have found in the past that bypassing the ea and dealing directly with the vendor can clear up a lot of misunderstandings and hassle.Best of luck with the deal!

daithi


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