Trying to buy a house - estate agent not engaging with me

S

Super Sesame

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Hi,
I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some advice on who to turn to.
A house appeared on Daft 3 weeks ago. I really want to buy it. We have mortgage approved, solicitor instructed and are ready to go.
The house is empty and looks like it has never been lived in.
The ad is very brief on details and there's no "for sale" sign at the property and price is on application.
I rang the agent to arrange to view. He said "I'm only taking details at the moment but I'll call you back when I get in touch with the seller". In the last 3 weeks, I have rang him about 7 times. He's getting annoyed with me ringing and just keeps brushing me off that he will talk to the seller, "this week", "towards the end if the week", "I met him but we didn't discuss it". I asked does he have keys to show us the property. No!
I don't understand what's going on at all. Is he trying to sell the house or isn't he?

So I paid €5 and looked up the land registry and found the owners name and address. Its a director of now defunct developer who built the estate.

Would I be right in thinking this sounds like a bank is forcing the house to be sold but the estate agent is only advertising it to keep the bank at bay for the ex-developer?
I rang AIB to try to explain what I think is happening (I don't know if this is the case or even if AIB might be the bank involved) but I just wanted to see what they thought and if they would be interested in knowing that if they are forcing the sale of a property, the estate agent isn't co-operating. As expected sadly, they referred me to the estate agent.

Is there anything left that I can try?
 
"Is there anything left that I can try?"

Back off. You've already way overstepped the mark.

mf
 
What do you mean, overstepped the mark in what way? The house is advertised for sale so I'm trying to buy it.
I don't know if the seller doesn't really want to sell it or not. Who knows whats going on? If I was the seller and genuinely did want to sell it, I'd want to know if the estate agent was not calling people back.
But I don't know if it's that , or if the seller isn't keen on selling.
I really want this house.
 
I'm with MF1 on this one. All you're ensuring is that the estate agent won't deal with you. There could be a myriad of reasons why the Estate Agent isn't engaging with you.
In our own circumstances when we were engaging in a voluntary sale on behalf of the bank, one particular potential buyer, apparently anxious as his 3 month approval period was coming to an end attempted to bypass the Estate Agent by calling directly to our door and gave out about the estate agent's tardiness. In addition , I mistakenly told him who our bank was and he called into them to complain.
We found his pushy behaviour unsettling and instructed the EA that we didn't want to deal with that character under any circumstances - the estate agent concurred. Suffice to say he didn't end up buying the property.
 
That's unbelievable Epicaricacy. But it's not surprising the number of threads on here about dodgy Estate agents and phantom bids. And there does seem to be an awful increase in them. I wonder is this some kind of new Celtic Tiger push on property.
 
Super Sesame said:
I really want this house.
Click to expand...

Wanting and getting are two different things. You first of all need to learn to deal professionally and politely. In addition rushing headlong into the must have house is generally not a good idea. Go and find the other 'must have' house, it exists, it really does.
 
I know how to deal professionally and politely Bronte. Thanks for the advice though. I waited around for him to call me back professionally for the first two weeks and he never returned my call. I could wait forever politely but its not getting me anywhere.
Yes, I know there's a myriad of reasons that they aren't selling it. I was looking for advice on how to get them to sell it to me. Thought there might be some sort of experts view on this and a way to get the estate agent to listen to me.
I have been looking for a home for a long time and I'm definitely not rushing headlong into it. I have no emotional attachment to this particular one and its not a "must have" house by any means but houses are in short supply here.
 
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Also, I'm not thinking of approaching the vendor. No way! I looked up who he is to get some sort of clue of what may be happening. Just not sure what to do with that information now.
 
There could be many reasons why they've advertised without actually wanting to sell, or they just may not be ready to move ahead yet. Advertised or not, they're under no obligation to sell to you or anyone else.

If the estate agent isn't returning your calls, you can be sure it's not really for sale, or at least not yet. Badgering will lead them to ignore you if/when it is really on sale.
 
Yes Leo, you're probably right. I wish the estate agent was straight with me from the start though instead of stringing me a long and wasting my time.
 
We had a similar experience with a property we wanted to buy last year. The house was advertised on daft.ie ( and possibly still is ), we contacted the estate agent, had a viewing, put in an offer of near the asking price and were completely ignored after that despite sending e-mails to the EA. Seems the owner was only pretending to sell the house to keep the bank happy and the EA agreed to go along with this farce. In the end we just forgot about the idea of buying that house and unless things change for you it is probably your best option too. Good luck with finding a nice house that you can progress with buying.
 
I have some sympathy for the OP here, although I think ringing AIB was a step too far. No-one has a right to buy a house & I've learned that you need to get the EA on side if you want a hope in hell.

In my own area there are several houses that have been on the market for over a year with various price adjustments. Loads of other houses have come & gone from the marketplace in the last year so property is selling.
It's fairly obvious that these houses aren't really for sale.

Should an EA advertise a house that is the vendor is either not ready to put on the market or if there is no real intention to sell? Even if the EA is not in on it - does it not drive them crazy dealing with enquiries for a house they can't sell? What's in it for them? A few hundred quid in advertising expenses - it couldn't be worth the aggro.
 
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