House Not for Sale?

Hi Folks,
My wife and I were recently approved for a mortgage. We saw a house we liked and decided to call the estate agent to arrange a viewing. The estate agent essentially told my wife that he did not want to waste her time or his time as there are differences in terms and agreements between the bank and the seller or something to that effect. He mentioned that the seller has the house up for sale just to show that he is trying to sell it but that the bank actually do not want the house to be sold. The estate agent mentioned that even we put in an offer at the asking price it would be rejected.

Does anyone know what is going on here. It all seems a bit strange to me. Should we try to contact the seller directly?

Thanks.

A more likely explanation is that the bank does want the borrower to sell the house but the borrower does not want to sell it. However, to get extra time from the lender, he has pretended it's up for sale.

I don't think there is much you can do if the auctioneer tells you it's not for sale. You could ask a friend to request a viewing and to offer a sum well in excess of the asking price.

Brendan

Ok, thanks for the advice Brendan.

We have experienced exactly the same situation with a house we are trying to buy. We put in an offer of the asking price weeks ago and have neither had the offer accepted or rejected. The estate agent said the seller had the banks "on his back" and it looks like the bank wants him to sell but he is holding out and pretending to sell. It is a stalemate situation at the moment but I decided to send my offer to the lending bank so that they knew about my genuine offer. Have not heard anything back yet from the bank. There are e few houses up "for sale" in the development by the same agent. I have never experienced anything like it before and thought my offer would be snapped up as there is a glut of houses for sale at low prices in this area ( in the country). I just wonder why sellers are allowed to carry on like this and how estate agents are willing to go along with the pretense.

This is not uncommon. I know of plenty of houses that are "on the market" but not for sale. It's annoying if you are a buyer; you don't know if "the sellers" are actually interested in selling, or if they are making it look like they are selling, or if they have another agenda.

ALEXA said:

We have experienced exactly the same situation with a house we are trying to buy. We put in an offer of the asking price weeks ago and have neither had the offer accepted or rejected. The estate agent said the seller had the banks "on his back" and it looks like the bank wants him to sell but he is holding out and pretending to sell. It is a stalemate situation at the moment but I decided to send my offer to the lending bank so that they knew about my genuine offer. Have not heard anything back yet from the bank. There are e few houses up "for sale" in the development by the same agent. I have never experienced anything like it before and thought my offer would be snapped up as there is a glut of houses for sale at low prices in this area ( in the country). I just wonder why sellers are allowed to carry on like this and how estate agents are willing to go along with the pretense.

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Hi Alexa,
Thats interesting....may I ask how you found out which bank had provided the load for the original mortgage? I wasn't aware there was such a process and imagine that the banks do not have a fixed procedure in place for receiving offers on a house?

Has anyone else had success with contacting a bank directly?

ALEXA said:

I just wonder why sellers are allowed to carry on like this...

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It is very annoying but I guess there's nothing actually wrong with it, as such.
The market is used in a number of ways, not just selling.
Some houses are there just to look like they're for sale, some are there to inflate prices in the area, etc, etc. Some are actually for sale. Some are for sale but only if your offer is enough to clear off the mortgage. Though a house may be worth only a certain amount, if it's in negative equity and a bid doesn't at least balance it, a sale is just about impossible.

I've decided the best way forward is to try to have live bids on a few houses simulateanously. We've spent about three months negotiating on one house. If that fizzles out, that's three months lost. At least with live bids on a few houses, if one (or two or three) falls thru', then at least one of the others is likely to reach closure and not too much time lost.

I was actually thinking about something the other days. Regardless of whether it is a "buyers' market" or a "sellers' market", it really is always a sellers' market. The seller (or a party thereof) has the ultimate say.
They hold the keys... quite actually.