Bizarre direct approach by would-be buyer

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Dreamerb

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As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have my house on the market at the moment. We're dealing with one of the big and fairly reputable estate agents, and it's doing well - current offer is well above asking price, and beyond where we expected so we're near to going sale agreed. All of which is standard enough and certainly not deserving of vast comment.

However, yesterday evening, very shortly after my significant other arrived home, someone rang the doorbell. SO opened the door to a respectable looking man in a reasonably good suit [middle class Dublin accent, black 4X4 which may have been a BMW], who asked him if we'd be interested in a private sale. SO said that we were near to reaching an agreement, and no thank you. Man in suit asked what level that was. SO told him. Man in suit looked slightly crestfallen, but asked if we'd sell privately to him at that. SO said no thank you, man in suit departed.

Now, either the man saw the house with the EA - in which case, why wouldn't he make an offer through EA? - or he was trying to buy the house without seeing the inside [not wise: you should always look inside the house before offering to buy it, imho].

I'm rather taken aback by all this, and wonder if anyone has had a similar experience, or has a real clue as to suit-man's possible motivation? It's not that we're contemplating taking up the offer (SO didn't even take suit-man's details) - I can't see any possible advantage to us, since we'd be paying the EA anyway - I'm just puzzled and wondering!
 
Maybe he was outbid by the people you are going to sale agree with.He probably thought the offer was suspect in the current market and was chancing his arm to get information out of you...
 
Even middle class Dubliners driving 4X4s will have an upper limit, which the house is now at. He can't afford to get into a bidding war with other party so tries route 1 with you.
 
Maybe he was a competing EA and used the private sale line to extract information on your current offer!
 
Well, just gone sale agreed - mentioned incident to the EA, and he reckons it was someone who saw it with him all right, but was afraid of a bidding war. As well he might be... We've sale agreed at a price that makes me nervous that the buyers just got carried away with the adrenaline of a bidding war. Great for us if it works out, of course, but not so good if they back out in when a little soberer.
 
Briefed the solicitor weeks ago, so he sent off for the deeds, only to find that the mortgage provider had lost the deeds. But they finally located them yesterday, so all should go swimmingly - I mean, how hard can it possibly be to conveyance a straightforward property quickly and efficiently?!
 
Dreamerb said:
so all should go swimmingly - I mean, how hard can it possibly be to conveyance a straightforward property quickly and efficiently?!
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Hate to be the bearer of bad news,but there is always something that will throw you a curve ball....Well I hope not...Goodluck.
 
Maybe if you were worried that the sale might fall through you should have taken suit mans details and asked him to lodge his bid with the estate agent. If the purchasor starts to fluff about a bit they could be swiftly informed that another person is waiting to purchase the house at a moments notice and has funds available to exchange. if they delay that you will pull out. I dont see the advantage of telling a would be purchasor to clear off who in your eyes looked like they were in a position to purchase your property.he came and offered you the price you had agreed with someone you are not sure will complete. if they pull out and the EA does not have a buyer lined up straight away you could face delays and higher costs. also if you sold direct to this man in the case that the sale agreed party pulls out you would save the bulk of the EAs fees . (difficult now that you have told the EA of his bid!)...is this the first house you have sold!?
 
Uh - because I'm in a great position to vet a purchaser who seeks to evade dealing with my legitimately appointed agent? I didn't say I think the sale agreed person wouldn't complete (why in the blazes would I sale agree, otherwise? - it's the level that make me nervous, not the prospective buyer. Who has been vetted by the EA).

And as for the rest -

(1) There's already an underbidder who would have priority (at, incidentally, a higher amount);
(2) As is extensively covered elsewhere on AAM, there is every chance that if you agree a sale outside the terms of your agency agreement, you may still be liable for fees, so it's of no advantage to me to do that. And it would be unarguably valid, in this case, since it was the EA's advertising and showing that had suit-man offering anyway.

Yes, it's my first time selling a house - but given that there were four bidders, I'm not gravely concerned at losing one very dodgy piece of leverage.
 
Vanilla said:
Right, because we all know that if anything goes wrong it's the solicitors' fault, of course.
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Don't be so defensive. Where did I say it was all the solicitor's fault? On a recent purchase, all other parties had some part to play for delays-my first solicitor, the vendors, their solicitor, and mostly my bank. The second solicitor was excellent. It was as much the conveyencing process and the bank as the solicitors involved that delayed things.
 
Don't think it is much of a reach for that inference from the posts I quoted. And by the way, I wouldn't call my post defensive, I'd call it jaded.
 
Fine. You want to stick up for your profession. Perfectly understandable-I'd do the same myself-but only if someone was 'having a go'-which I wasn't.
 
CCOVICH said:
Fine. You want to stick up for your profession. Perfectly understandable-I'd do the same myself-but only if someone was 'having a go'-which I wasn't.
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For clarity, nor was I. Even on conveyances which appear to be straightforward, something can go wrong, or get lost, or may have been overlooked previously - I was making a point about the complexity of the systems rather than launching a generalised broadside against the legal profession. I would hardly have appointed my solicitor if I assumed he was going to mess up. However, the current conveyance and title registration systems are quite clunky systems, and in the case of the latter seem to be *very* inefficient. That's hardly the fault of solicitors practising in the area, and I understand that solicitors (via the Law Society) are involved in reviewing current conveyancing practices.

... sheesh, I'm feeling the need to declare that "Some of my best friends are solicitors"...
 
Savvy said:
In what sense has the buyer been vetted?
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Status (FTB or chain) checked, mortgage approval letter reviewed, plus EA's knowledge that they've been looking at a number of houses in the price bracket. It's certainly no guarantee that all will go smoothly, or they won't change their minds - but it's as much as is reasonable.
 
Dreamerb said:
Man in suit asked what level that was. SO told him. Man in suit looked slightly crestfallen, but asked if we'd sell privately to him at that. SO said no thank you, man in suit departed.
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If the man in the suit offered the same amount as the person who you have agreed to sell to then how come you say that you have an underbidder with a higher offer than he made? If this was the case why didnt you sell to "the underbidder"?

Maybe im not understanding what you have posted?
 
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