Estate Agent Advice

cookiecakes

I'm looking for some advice. Myself and my husband are first time buyers and are currently in the middle of buying a house. We've been to our solicitor and signed our half of the contract and paid the rest of the deposit. Our solicitor emailed today to say that she has forwarded some small queries to the vendor's solicitor and when they are answered, she'll forward the contracts and the balance of the deposit.

Our problem is that the estate agent we went through keeps ringing my husband asking why things are moving so slowly. As we're first time buyers, we have no idea what's fast or slow but our solicitor seems pretty on top of things. Our offer was accepted at the beginning of November and she's expecting us to close in the next couple of weeks and says everything is pretty straight forward. I don't know why he's contacting us instead of our solicitor as realistically there isn't that much we can do. I'm starting to feel really under pressure from him but I don't know if this is just par for the course or what. I know he doesn't get paid until the sale goes through but it's starting to border on badgering.

So I was just wondering if anyone could advise on whether this is a usual thing to do and could we just tell him to ring our solicitor in future? It's flipping stressful enough buying a house without having him breathing down our necks.

Any advice gratefully appreciated!

rovoagho

Just refer him to your solicitor. And point it out to your own, in case there's a reason why he's trying to rush you. Ultimately though, he just wants his cut asap.

cookiecakes

Thanks rovoagho. We're just so unsure of what's acceptable in this situation that we don't wanna annoy anybody. But equally our heads are getting wrecked over his phone calls as he intimated the last time that the vendor was willing to pull out cos things were so slow even though our solicitor said they are looking to get everything done as soon as possible.

Bepolite

Welcome to the wonderful world of negotiation. Just refer them to your solicitor and screen your calls.

TheDriver

same advice. EAs are the same people who wouldn't even take calls when it suits them.
If the vendor wanted a push on, then their solicitor would get going....

caew

Tell him to mind his own business. It is between solicitors now, nothing to do with him.

Arbiter of Good Taste

I would tend to take anything an EA says with a pinch of salt. They are just out for their commission. As they are the agent of the vendor, I would suggest to them that they make contact with the vendor's solicitor.

cookiecakes

Thanks for all the advice guys. I got on to our solicitor to say we were finding him a bit overbearing and she rang him and ,by all accounts, put him his place. She said he shouldn't be contacting us anymore. So fingers crossed that the next few weeks go smoothly and then we won't have to deal with him ever again!!