Nightmare house buying stories

[Dug 10]

Has anyone got any bad experiences of buying selling houses in Sheffield?

 

My partner and I bought our first house together in Sept 01. It then took 10 months before we were able to complete and move in. It was the single most stressful event I've experienced. It was made worse by the fact we had to move out of our rented accommodation and stay with family for what we thought would be a short time. We put all our possessions in storage and lived out of a suitcase, and then the storage company told us they had lost our container (luckily they found it again)! There were loads of other ****-ups before we exchanged and completed (most of them made worse by the estate agents - who I won't name).

 

People who are not from Sheffield are gob smacked when I tell them the process of making an offer with the city's estate agents, i.e. the business of closed or final offers.

[tajcoral 10]

Hi,

I totally sympathise with you. My partner & I recently bought a house and we had so much trouble with the agent. They were very rude on the phone, didn't co-operative with us and worst of all didn't even pass on our offer to the vendor of the property.

We were then accused by the agent of guzumping even though our offer was never passed which legally the agent must do.

The agent wrongfully told the other party that their offer had been accepted but they should have gone back to us to see if we would like to increase our offer. We worked out our finances and decided to put in way over the asking price as we fell in love with the house and didn't want to loose it.

Luckily we had regular contact from the vendor from the start and when we spoke to them about our offer they knew nothing of it and were equally as furious as we were at the agent for not passing on the information.

This situation would have been avoided had the agent communicated and given us the respect that we deserved as decent honest customers.

People from where I come from cannot believe it.

The issue will be taken further with the agent SM.

[mattgreen 10]

HI,

 

I haven't a horror story as yet but may soon do if we move to Sheffield!

 

What's this about closed and final offers? Sounds very different to the way the rest of the country works - tell me more!

 

What do you think we should/shouldn't do if we find a place we like?

 

Thanks,

Matt.

[max 13]

Originally posted by "mattgreen"

 

HI,

 

I haven't a horror story as yet but may soon do if we move to Sheffield!

 

What's this about closed and final offers? Sounds very different to the way the rest of the country works - tell me more!

 

What do you think we should/shouldn't do if we find a place we like?

 

Thanks,

Matt.

 

We recently sold our house in Crookes and it was quite painless, if you exclude having 30+ people trailing through your house.

 

The process begins with the agents valuing the house and advertising at that price. Anyone interested will then contact the agent and put in a bid, either higher or lower depending on the property/area. In Crookes it's unlikely to be lower. If anyone else is interested then they will put in a bid higher than the latest one. In our case the bids went up by £200 - £500 a time. A good agent will let the vendor know each time a bid is received.

 

After a period of time the vendor gets p****d off with strangers gawking at his house and says lets close at 12 o'clock on whatever day. The agent then rings round all the bidders and tells them the last time for bids.

 

As bids are received, the agent may, or may not, ring round the other bidders and advise them of the situation. In our case, a couple were so keen on getting the house they camped out in the agent's office on the morning that we closed and bang on 12 o'clock topped the last offer.

 

This may be peculiar to Crookes as terraces there sell like hot cakes. Ours went up by about 20% over the asking price and in the 2 years since I've been led to believe that they are now selling for 25% on top of that.

 

Happy hunting.

[Dug 10]

Unfortunately when the vendor asks for final offers the estate agents cannot disclose what the other potential buyers have offered. So in a sense you're bidding in a blind auction - or this is what happened in our case and all other instances I've heard of where there is more than one interested party.

[max 13]

In every case I know about the main job of the agent is to ring all interested parties every time a new offer is received. Particularly in the final stages. Our agent spent all morning ringing up the bidders and telling them the new bid. Again, this may be peculiar to the north of the city. We had 12 people bidding on our last house, 4 of whom remained right up to the wire.

[tajcoral 10]

If we ever move again I will seriously consider selling privately and cutting the agent out of the whole sale.

[Cols 10]

That's the very reason why I've been wanting to buy privately. I wish to avoid all the aggro and cr*p that comes with buying a house and have advertised on this board

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=822

also put ads in local shops, handed leaflets to parents at my daughters school and this week put an ad in the Gazette.

However, I've had no replies at all even though I have sold my own house so there is no chain etc.

Is anyone buying at the moment and are things cooling down ?

Is anyone thinking of selling in S10 (Lodge moor, Fulwood area) ?

 

Not quite desperate..........yet.

 

Col S

[DaBouncer 13]

Originally posted by "Dug"

 

Unfortunately when the vendor asks for final offers the estate agents cannot disclose what the other potential buyers have offered. So in a sense you're bidding in a blind auction - or this is what happened in our case and all other instances I've heard of where there is more than one interested party.

That all depends on which Estate agents are selling the property!

Halifax Estate agents wont disclose to the public what the highest offer is, so in that sense it's blind!

Blundells on the other hand will flit between all parties concerned and tell them if the other party have raised the bid and by how much!

[DaBouncer 13]

Originally posted by "Cols"

 

That's the very reason why I've been wanting to buy privately. I wish to avoid all the aggro and cr*p that comes with buying a house and have advertised on this board

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=822

also put ads in local shops, handed leaflets to parents at my daughters school and this week put an ad in the Gazette.

However, I've had no replies at all even though I have sold my own house so there is no chain etc.

Is anyone buying at the moment and are things cooling down ?

Is anyone thinking of selling in S10 (Lodge moor, Fulwood area) ?

 

Not quite desperate..........yet.

 

Col S

Where are you wnting to move to if you sell?

I've got my house up for exchange in the ad's part of the forum!

[Cols 10]

Originally posted by "DaBouncer"

 

That's the very reason why I've been wanting to buy privately. I wish to avoid all the aggro and cr*p that comes with buying a house and have advertised on this board

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=822

also put ads in local shops, handed leaflets to parents at my daughters school and this week put an ad in the Gazette.

However, I've had no replies at all even though I have sold my own house so there is no chain etc.

Is anyone buying at the moment and are things cooling down ?

Is anyone thinking of selling in S10 (Lodge moor, Fulwood area) ?

 

Not quite desperate..........yet.

 

Col S

Where are you wnting to move to if you sell?

I've got my house up for exchange in the ad's part of the forum!

 

We've sold in Penistone and want to buy in the Lodge Moor, Fulwood area to be nearer the school. Funnily enough, we'll end up living near Crystal Peaks when we have to move in with the in-laws at the end of June. Only for a short while (I hope).....

[Dug 10]

Originally posted by "DaBouncer"

 

Unfortunately when the vendor asks for final offers the estate agents cannot disclose what the other potential buyers have offered. So in a sense you're bidding in a blind auction - or this is what happened in our case and all other instances I've heard of where there is more than one interested party.

That all depends on which Estate agents are selling the property!

Halifax Estate agents wont disclose to the public what the highest offer is, so in that sense it's blind!

Blundells on the other hand will flit between all parties concerned and tell them if the other party have raised the bid and by how much!

 

Blundells will disclose what other offers have been made on a house up to the point where the vendor asks for final offers - at which point they don't disclose them, therefore it is blind bidding.