Estate agent maybe playing us???

sounds like a good agent. I still think my agent is up to something.. why would he tell someone that wanted to view next week that it would be gone by monday and not to bother!
 
Sabrina,

I have recently gone through all of this and it's a nightmare. There could be a couple of reasons why you agent is going this;

a) Maybe you're agent is not saying take this one, rather saying that he "currently recommends" this current bid.

A good agent has to assume you know nothing about mortgage approval and the advantages a first time buyer/investor has over other people in a chain who have to sell their property.

b) Your agent will know from experience, that if another bid comes in from a bidder that is in a chain, they must surpass the higher bid in order to look more attractive that the "cash buyer".

This could may cause the "cash buyer" to match or even better the "chained" bidder, but not nescessarily. This cash buyer maybe have previously agreed with the agent to pay him a bung if they can get it at a lower price. This highly unlikely if the agent if from one of the big agencies. (Sherry Fitz, DNG, Lisney etc).

From recent experience, I would do the following.

Go ahead with the viewings and ask the agent why he is in such a hurry to go sale agreed. You agent has no doubtly laid out what your fixed fee will cover. National advertising in glossy magazines etc. This, with other stuff, may cost around 400 euro. Ask him is he prepared to waive this fixed fee.

After the weekend, more bids will come in on Monday afternoon. Get your agent to contact you via email/text or phone. The agent is obliged to contact the first bidder about the current higher offer. More people may schedule for viewings over the next couple of days. Let it lay for the rest of the week. Over the next weekend you may have more viewings and more bids. Bids come from viewings. Then let these viewers think over the weekend, they may also enter the fray. The earliest you should go "sale agreed" would be the 20th March.
 
Maybe.... it will another interesting week if nothing else! Stress levels are at max at mo.... need a coffee!!!
 
sabrina said:
need a coffee!
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If coffee is the strongest thing your having fair play

There is a silver lining in that your EA did have people to turn away! I'm sure a lot of sellers would love to be in your position. In the end it is your decision to sell/walk away. If your not fully happy with the offer and whole process stand your ground and simply say no.
 
Will do, thanks a million for all your info.... i will keep you updated on if i sell or walk with the estate agent
 
Have you bouth already? I only ask 'cause we "sale agreed" before making another offer. If you think it's stressfull selling, wait till you are buying. If you haven't bought already, may I offer some advice.

Firstly, sus out the houses that you are interested in. Search www.myhome.ie for houses coming on the market, keep an eye out for ones there a long time.

When you have done viewings, do not, I repeat do not, place any bids that week (if it is newly listed). There will be more viewings the following weekend and then the vendors will, more or less know who is in and who is out. You can ring up the agent and find out the current offers and how many parties are interested. If the current offer is too high, or you suspect that it can go higher, you can walk away without getting emotionally involved with property (mentally moving in, hosting dinner parties, etc). It is absolutely murder being the highest bidder for more than a couple of days.
 
we have put a deposit on a new house 2 weeks ago. Its ready to move into to. We just have to do snag and legal stuff. But have to sell our 1st to close current mortgage and get new one!
 
Unfortunately for the vendor once the EA gets an acceptable price in ,there is very little incentive to try and increase the offers.
( unless on a substantially valued property )

take an average enough price for eg.

ie. 400k @ 1% = 4k commision

but for every 2 or 3 grand the price increases over time the EA only gets 2 or 300 more commission. They are just too lazy and could not be bothered dragging out a quick sale over weeks or months for hudreds more Euro.
It is surprisingly easy to sell your house your self, save the commision and hold out for the extra 2/3 k you may get over time.
 
Its seems very likely we will be doing that if we dont get a better offer over the weekend.
 
Hi

If the contact for purchase of your new house has not been signed, this will give you approx three weeks. Do not snag the new building until the contracts have been signed by both parties. This will give you another 2 weeks. So you are probably looking at 5 weeks before the builder is pushing to close unless the builder is having trouble selling the houses(or previously agreed to wait until you sell). Even with a cash buyer this is a tight time frame.

Therefore if i was in your position , i would do the following

1) Arrange fianance so that if the house doesn't sell in time or is delayed, that you can still purchase the new house.

2) Contact your solicitor and make sure he/she has all the paperwork ready so that when a buyer purchases, the contracts go out straightaway. Keep in constant communication with you solicitor and make sure he is chasing the other side for return of the contract.

3) Get rid of the estate agent and sell the house yourself.You know what the house is approx worth.Get a sign made up and place in front garden. Advertise on My Home and Daft. Look for FTB/investors. I would keep away from buyers in a chain as this type of sale can fall thru more easily due to circumstances outside the buyers control.
 
sabrina - if you sell the house with this EA you will be paying them several thousand euros for their 'services' - why?

The EA is clearly either incompetent or sorting out a friend or taking a bung from a stranger. Why people don't stand up to EAs that are blatantly not doing their jobs properly is something I will never understand. The EA is your employee, fire them if they are not doing their job to the best of their ability.

Where is the ballpark area of the house? I think its very very rare for a house in or around Dublin to sell for the guide price these days - average seems to be around 10-15% over asking. So your EA has either scared people away with setting the guide too high or is telling you to sell for 15% less than it might get if the sale was allowed to flow as normal.

I'd bet you won't get any news of new bids on monday cos the EA will either put people off or not tell you of bids. Its their duty to tell you of all bids - if you decide to accept a lower bid due to the buyers circumstances, thats your decision, not the EAs?

That said, if you like paying people several thousand euro to do below standard jobs for you, or possibly even take you for a sucker, by all means hand that cash over to this EA.
 
This agent could be just a lazy agent.
If he sells a house and get paied €3000-4000 regardless how much he sells it at, then he might think try to sell it at first viewing and save himself further works of 6 viewings.

Could we ask our agent how many house has he sold in the past, how long does it take for him to sell each house and how much has he sold them at?
 
Update :

We went ahead with further viewings over the weekend and we have had an offer over what we expected to get.... so it was worth waiting for.... so fingers crossed all the legal stuff is plain sailing....

thanks to all for your advise etc
 

Well done. Out of interest what did the agent say when the higher offer came in?
 
i don't know coz my husband took the call at work... i will update you later this evening... all i know is the house 2 doors down accepted an offer this morning at 303,000 (their asking price was originally 295,000) and we were offered 317,500 (originally guide price of 300,000)!!!! Go figure....... just shows.... its worth holding out a few days...
 
sabrina said:
Go figure
Click to expand...

Wouldn't question it too much, just be happy for it! Sounds like a great offer (relatively speaking - though no two houses are the exact same, you don't buy a house on address and number of rooms). Fingers crossed everything works out well (and fast )!

So whens that new house warming again?
 
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