Bidding on a house, waiting on letter of approval....help!

homeOwner

I have been dealing with Remax buying a house. I put in an offer at asking price 2 weeks ago and had it verbally accepted pending my mortgage approval letter. I had all the documentation in with the bank and the person dealing with it went on hols last week (and didnt tell me). I am still waiting on my letter and now Remax tell me today someone else has put in a bid at 5K higher than mine but they are also waiting on mortgage approval letter. An extra 5K will really be stretching me and I feel really hard done by that they are entertaining this other offer when I have had my offer in for 2 weeks now. The lady in Remax knows that I have been told by the bank that I will be approved (just waiting on that damn letter), I have told her my financial circumstances and she agrees that I am going to get approved.

I dont know what to do. Offering another 5K will only put me equal with the other bidder and neither of us have our letters yet. Whats the usual run of events - If I get my letter and stick with my offer, should they accept mine since the reason they didnt accept it was because I didnt have the letter or do they wait for another few weeks for the other person to get theirs at the higher bid??? They wanted a quick sale.

Any advice or insight appreciated.

Supercell

I'd play hardball tbh, God I hate estate agents and this kind of carry on that they can get away with in this country , tell them to instruct the seller that your offer stands and you have approval right now.

ck1

Really sorry to hear about your predicament, very stressful time buying a property. Unfortunately there is no law in this country whereby the seller must stick to acceptance of an offer until contracts have been exchanged. The Estate Agent is duty bound to disclose higher offers if they have been received even if this is after another offer has been accepted. It is unfortunate but there is no law against gazumping her in Ireland. There has been calls to make it illegal (like over in Scotland) but no sign yet of this coming into effect. The advantage you have here is you appear to be a first time buyer or you are not in a chain. Howevre, the other person could also be in this position too and you need to highlight the time frame it should take, have you got a solicitor who can move quickly. Have you got your deposit readily available to pay over.

In relation to your lender, it is them who has held you up in this and potentially lost you the property. If your loan offer had been received the estate agents probably would have marked the propery Sale Agreed and nobody may have viewed the property again thus securing it for you. Two weeks on waiting for a letter of approval from a lender after they have all the info seems rather lenghty. Loan approval in principle can be granted within 24 hours and full loan aproval in 72 hours. Two weeks, out of the question. Personally I would be on the phone to the lender tomorrow demanding answers.

vms7ply9t6dw4b

ok i have an exam on this in the morning your in luck!

first things first

homeOwner wrote:

I put in an offer at asking price 2 weeks ago and had it verbally accepted pending my mortgage approval letter.

Theres no such thing as verbally accepted, remax cant accept it for a start, your offer isint accepted untill both you and the vendor have signed the contract of sale. They may have acknoweledged your offer and made thier cleint aware of it but untill the vendor (seller) signs on the dotted line they can back out at any stage.

Get on to your bank manager. tell him how unprofessional it was for the person who was dealing with you to go on holidays without passing your documents on to somone else and make sure he fast tracks it for you.

homeOwner wrote:

An extra 5K will really be stretching me and I feel really hard done by that they are entertaining this other offer when I have had my offer in for 2 weeks now.

Again your offer hadnt been accepted, again Remax dont have the authoriy to accept your offer, they have no authority implied or otherwise to accept an offer on behalf of a client they are only advisors legally (auction is totally different). So while your ****ting around with your bank, or being ****ed about by the bank in this case, they are free to take other offers and present them to the cleint.

5 grand isisnt going to make a huge amount of difference to the Estate Agents comission so i would say whoever gets the letter of approval first will get the agents backing as he wants his sale and you have the impression the clients want a quick sale

longfield wrote:

God I hate estate agents and this kind of carry on that they can get away with in this country

At the end of the day the estate agents job is to get the most money for thier clients and in this case thats exactly what they are doing

vms7ply9t6dw4b

Oh and good luck!

rummy

I hope you get the house!

However, I would suggest you go into the bank and explain that the house you are buying is on tender hooks now since someone went on holidays and your letter has not been received. You should ask them to compensate you for it - free banking, reduced mortgage or something - remember you are the customer and they can't feck you around!

homeOwner

Cheers for all the advice. I have been onto the bank yesterday and they said they will have the letter by end of today or tomorrow at the latest. My only hope now is that I get my letter in before the other guy. I am going to stick with my offer and just hope that he will be delayed for some reason. He is first time buyer and I am not, but I am not waiting on sale of my apartment to buy (luckily I can take my time selling it).

Its so frustrating. I just wish Remax had told me that there were other people definitely interested. She made it seems like I was the only person interested in it.....thats why I didnt get on to the bank to hurry them up sooner.

I'll let you know how it goes......

Victor

Get your offer in. Your cash now is probably worth more than someone elses cash later.

homeOwner

Victor wrote:

Get your offer in. Your cash now is probably worth more than someone elses cash later.

My offer has been with them for 2 weeks. Its the letter from the bank I am waiting on. Do you mean hand over cash? Surely I should do that unless something is being signed......

homeOwner

The other guy got his letter of approval to remax this afternoon - I am still waiting. So basically I have accepted that I am going to miss out on this one. Its a real shame, I'll be wiser next time. Back to looking at property again :mad:

Bluehair

homeOwner wrote:

The other guy got his letter of approval to remax this afternoon - I am still waiting. So basically I have accepted that I am going to miss out on this one. Its a real shame, I'll be wiser next time. Back to looking at property again :mad:

Hard luck, it's dog eat dog in the property game and everyonem vendor, estate agent and purchaser will say and do whatever is in their interest at the time.

Make sure your finance is in place this time with letters ready to go and best of luck with the next property.

vms7ply9t6dw4b

homeOwner wrote:

The other guy got his letter of approval to remax this afternoon - I am still waiting. So basically I have accepted that I am going to miss out on this one. Its a real shame, I'll be wiser next time. Back to looking at property again :mad:

Its not sold till the contracts are signed... keep your letter anyway and ask the agent to call you if the other guy backs out

homeOwner

The lady from remax called me last night at home saying she feels really bad about me missing out on the property and that she had to go with the person who had the letter first. The other person is a FTB whose parents are releasing equity in their home to help him buy, so she said that since there are two of us with bids in she will wait a few days and let me put in a counter offer. I might be able to outbid him if his parents wont go over what they have given him.....its a long shot but worth it. I'll probably end up paying 20K over what I could have had the house for last week but I'll give it a go. Or could be just her trying to drive the price up, which is her job I know but still I am really angry with the whole process, even though I have no real right to be.

MicraBoy

so she said that since there are two of us with bids in she will wait a few days and let me put in a counter offer.

Isn't amazing the way she went from "having" to accept the first letter (which is rubbish anyway) to being able to wait a few days for a counter. So basically if you had the letter in first you still wouldn't have gotten the house because she would have waited for the other fella. The estate agent is just playing you.

Tell her to shove it I say. There is always the possibility the other buyer is fictious anyway. Just try and remain emotionally detached from the whole thing, it's the best advice.

lomb

bid it to what u think the place is worth, easier said than done though
although 5 k is alot, its only 1% of the value, so a house changing hands at + or - 3 % of its market value is acceptable . the problem is houses now a days are in flux, there is no fixed price as im sure u are aware, u have to accept that u will always pay over the odds for a property, thats the nature of the beast. good luck with it!

homeOwner

I'm not sure that she is playing me. She would have gone sale agreed if i had the letter in last week as I was the only person who put a bid in for 2 weeks. I didnt realise the urgency. Literally two days before i get my letter she gets another bid in. She basically told me to call her before the end of today with another offer or they are going with the other one. The owners want a quick sale but now they know there are two people bidding, they sense they can get a better price and I dont blame them, i'd do the same thing if i was selling.

lomb

well chaulk that to experiance. an experianced buyer offers a good price near to what the vendor wants and gives them the mortgage letter of approval THAT day with your solicitors details and tells them the offer is good for a few days only and u want the property taken off the market. otehrwise u will buy a different property u are looking at.

homeOwner

Yeah, I have definitely learned from this. Its my first time bidding on a property and I didnt really realise how it works. I will be better prepared next time.

MorningStar

A common mistake by many buyers is looking too early and then bidding. There are always delays so before looking and bidding wait till you have as much done as possible. I know it is hard but it's easier than the stress later.
I feel for you Homeowner and understand where you are at. I hope it works out but if I were you I would keep looking you might find better and it might help the stress.

homeOwner

As if it cant get any worse, it turns out that the bank cant find the deeds to my apartment, apparently they are with my solicitor (i bought the apartment 2 years ago)!!! I am looking to use the equity in my apartment to put towards buying the house and they cant approve the loan until they find where the deeds are. I suspect this has been the real reason for the delay in getting the letter of approval instead of her going on holidays and not telling anyone about my application.

What is going on here?? Has anyone heard of this happening before. How can the bank not know where my deeds are? Why does my solicitor still have them? This is getting to be farcical.

Thanks for all the advice and support. I am going to be so much more prepared next time. And in the meantime I am getting onto my solicitor to yell at them. Also going to switch my mortgage from the bank too, if they cant look after my deeds do I trust them with my money? This has been a real eye opener.

Victor

homeOwner wrote:

Do you mean hand over cash?

No. I mean you being able to say that you have access to the loan immediately is a huge advantage over someone humming and hawing and "might" go ahead.