Estate Agent Problem

bossdrum

I viewed a house twice recently and rang the estate agent the following week with an offer of 10k under the asking price.

I heard nothing back for a week so I rang again and was told there were no further offers. I told the estate agent I'll give the asking price if the house is taken off the market as he said he understood I wasn't going to start bidding against myself.

I heard nothing back for over a week and now the property has gone off Daft.ie and marked sale agreed on the Estate Agent's website.

All last week I tried ringing the Estate Agent on his mobile but my calls weren't answered. I managed to get through to the Estate Agent's office on Friday and was told that the Estate Agent was in hospital. He said he knows nothing about the sale but that it is sale agreed. There is only one Estate Agent in this business. The guy I was dealing with is the owner.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before or have any advice? I know it's too late regarding buying the house but Estate Agents shouldn't be allowed to get away with stuff like this.

Dav010

To me it reads like you gave him an ultimatum, you weren’t bidding any more in case you were bidding against yourself, and you wanted the property off the market if you bid asking, despite the fact that in sellers market properties often go far above asking.

For future reference, EAs don’t decide to accept bids or take properties off the market, vendors do. If another buyer came in and offered above asking with the same conditions as you, that the house be taken off the market, I really don’t see why you have a problem, isn’t that exactly what you wanted the EA to do for you?

Kaisr Sose

The converse of that is agent should have went back to 1st bidder (OP) to see if they would bid against someone else? Surely thats how they get max price for seller ?

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122028446#Comment_122028446

Possibly, but read the op again.

The op bid on condition that the property be taken off the market (ie no other bidders) , it would appear that another bidder had the same condition.

And the op thinks the EA shouldn’t be able to get away with stuff like, accepting the same conditional bids from other buyers.

You don’t see the hypocrisy in that?

bossdrum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122028022#Comment_122028022

There were no other bids when I offered the asking price. There was no ultimatum given. He also hadn't come back to me as to whether any of my bids were accepted or turned down. He also said that he understood that I wasn't going to start bidding against myself.

I'm amazed that anyone can think the Estate Agent was correct in not getting back to me to say another offer had been received in order to maximise the amount received for vendor.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122032756#Comment_122032756

Just a moment, this is what you said in the op:

“I told the estate agent I'll give the asking price if the house is taken off the market ”.

There is no doubt that this was intended to prevent other bids if you bid the asking price, and you wouldn’t bid the asking price if the EA/vendor didn’t agree to your condition.

It would seem another buyer bid above you, with the same condition.

Why would it be ok for you to have that condition, and not someone else?

herbalplants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122032756#Comment_122032756

In this country, EAs walk like kings and we are expected to be treated badly by EAs and take it and make no comment , despite parting with lots of money on our purchase.

There are good few EAs on the market who don't care about you as a buyer and funny part is there is no repercussions on them, they are not regulated or audited to see if they act in a transparent way.

Claw Hammer

You showed yourself to be inexperienced and a messer. A week is a very short time for a vendor to consider a bid. Rining up asking about it is nuts. demanding a house be taken off the market is also nuts. You make a mid, which is accepted, "subject to contract". The EA only agrees not to actively market the property but is still obliged to pass on any bid received to the vendor, who can accept it and send back your booking deposit.

The risk for any EA dealing with you is that you would be a time waster and would pull out of the deal because of something that should have been obvious from the start.

Kurooi

What in your mind happened to oblige the EA and the owner to now sell exclusively to you? I mean you could say "I'll put another 10k if you call it sale agreed today" but you didn't. you didn't commit. you just asked them to commit. Taking a property off the market is a big signal they're not keen to do that until they know there is a real buyer on the hook. Next time if you're so keen get it confirmed that it's sale agreed and talk deposit.

The only blunder on EA part is not informing you that there was a higher bid. That's stupid, you were obviously interested and eager, you were very likely to keep bidding. In that way, they potentially screwed their client over. And they don't care. An extra 10k is lots to the owner but the % commission off that is nothing to the EA. They just want the chunk. So that's very bad form.

That has happened to me before, I bid on a property via email, they lost track of it, someone bid up and I found out later when I inquired about it they were quite rude and defensive. I forwarded them the emails, they apologized and let me put in a bid even though they were sale agreed. The specific EA in charge of the sale was pissed about it (me coming into their process again) but their office seem to have forced him to reopen it.

Goldmark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122034380#Comment_122034380

Did you ever hear of the Property Services Regulatory Authority

herbalplants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076833#Comment_122076833

From reading their reviews :

"Another useless money making self unregulated set up. Mainly used by letting agents for a fake advertisment on their websites.
They don't assist members of public or third party affected home owners subject to filthy operations by these so called paying 'memberships.'

Some filthy cowboys and landlords you have on your list.
You money making con job!"

" Not fit for purpose, waste of space and taxpayers money"

Should I expand further?