Estate Agents

If they’re obliged to be truthful, Daisymae, it’s certainly news to me! I have personally encountered (proven) decidedly dodgy dealing, and have heard of plenty more - a developer friend of a friend (not ours!) openly boasted to me of his ‘arrangements’ (i.e. brown envelopes) with his local EAs - they’d fail to pass on offers so he’d get the properties cheaply to do up and sell on - with a cut to the EAs.

I’m not tarring them all with the same brush, far from it, but nowadays, unless I already knew them to be trustworthy, I would always take anything they tell me with a couple of barrels of salt.

Whiff , I have not asked any estate agents about this and my opinion is based on my daily study of Rightmove in my area. I'm particularly interested in small bungalows. I have noticed bungalows that still have the owners' furniture in the pictures are old lady type furnishing and decoration. I expect you are exceptional, and if I ever did move to a bungalow I'd like to meet a neighbour like you.

Caleo I know you didn't mention me nor did I take offense . It's just the idea only old people buy bungalows and that may have been the case years ago but a lot of young people buy bungalows. They tend to be more expensive to buy but have cheaper running costs. And tend to have big lofts which can be turned into another room. My 2 bed bungalow has plenty of room to do that if I wanted . Plus I know some have extended their backs and join up into the garage to make 2 extra rooms. And still have some garden.

Whiff, please note I did not mention you personally. I said (if I remember right) "Bungalows tend to be bought by old people".

Caleo I am 64 and moved into my bungalow 3 years ago and do not consider myself as old. Older yes but never old. I brought my bungalow because of health reasons and could no longer live in a house safely. I know pair of 55 year olds who brought a bungalow in my road round about the time I brought mine. Don't think they would like to be called old.

Bungalows are not just brought by older people but by the young as well. As they are easier to maintain and cheaper to heat in winter.

I know you didn't mean anything by your comment . Although if you saw me from the back with my walking stick you would think I was old. But I have been using one since I was 29. ?

if I liked the house I would just ask the estate agent why the sales have fallen through.

If there is any problem the EA has to tell you. DD had a flat with a rather odd clause in it that did not apply to her flat, but was misleading enough to cause problems. Everyone who viewed the property was told about the clause before they even knocked on the front door and if they made an offer, the EA drew their legal representatives attention to the clause.

I am always surprised that people are prepared to pay hundreds of thousands for a house but not a thousand or so for a qualified survey. Anyway, if you express a serious interest I expect you can find out a bit more, maybe the neighbours are a problem, something which does have to be declared I think.
I wish the planning laws were changed to stop bungalows being changed into houses and also every building site should have to incorporate some bungalows, many of us would be interested I imagine.

Yes that’s a good point regarding getting an experienced builder to look Caleo
We’ve done that in the past.

It’s such a shame that there are now fewer bungalows around. They are often on good sized plots and, unfortunately they get bought, knocked down and in some cases a couple of houses are put in their place.

No wonder so many people of our generation are reluctant to move out of the large family home. We would both miss the garden too much to be in a flat, so unless a suitable bungalow came up we are staying put in a house and area we love.

I would not be put off with 4 previous purchasers pulling out of the sale,I imagine the price is not for FTBs and would involve a chain of sales it is so easy for a sale to fail when one of the people in the chain loose a buyer for whatever reason people have all sorts of reasons for not proceeding sorry to say.Best of luck with your search for a bungalow I hope you are successful.

I'm assuming she's still alive Callistemon but this has been going on for 15 months, so she might not be.

Sorry - not probate!
I just re-read it and see that the owner went into a home, she's still alive!

CatsCatsCats

It's unlikely to be the vendor - the lady that used to live there has gone into a home and her family are keen to sell. We did ask the first estate agents (when the sale had fallen through twice) - they said the potential buyers' sales had both fallen through so they couldn't go ahead with the sale.

But 4 times?? I'd say that was more than unlucky. I may pluck up the courage to ask the current estate agent - see what they say.

Perhaps it's something to do with probate? That could take a long time and perhaps the other purchasers got fed up with waiting and all the problems involved and pulled out.

If you know an honest capable builder he can give you a better opinion than a surveyor.

There could be an innocent reason for sales not finalised. Bungalows tend to be bought by old people for their retirement. The old buyer may die or need to go into a Home before he can complete the purchase.

Thanks all for the advice - lots to think about. I would have preferred to find out if there was anything wrong with it before having to spend out on expensive surveys.

We haven't even sold our property yet, so I'm not in any position to make an offer. We had it up for sale earlier this year and it 'sold' but the buyers pulled out because we couldn't find anywhere else. The bungalow I'm talking about was itself under offer at the time (one of the four times). I'm wondering whether to go through the whole hassle of it again, but with all these energy price hikes, I think we need to move somewhere smaller.

If I ever discover the bungalow's drawbacks, I'll update this post.

If you are interested have a proper survey done by a Chartered Surveyor don't rely on a building society survey. I think the present financial climate may be the problem. People suddenly realising that the mortgage they thought they might be paying is far below what it will now be. I am not sure if Estate Agents can tell you about past prospective buyers surely data protection stops that, anyway people may not tell the EA the real reason they are pulling out. The sellers may be unrealistic about the asking price. Moving house is expensive and unless you have to now is probably not a good time.

There have been a fair number of sales falling through, a friend who is an estate agent told me recently, because estate agents have over-valued properties, and the mortgage provider’s valuation has been lower.

The family is probably quite eager to sell now so if it were me I would put in a low offer and see what happens.
It would need to be low enough to cover any problems a survey might throw up, yet not insultingly low which could annoy the vendors.

Any property will sell - for the right price.

Yes they are obliged to be truthful. There's little point in selling a property if something is going to come out later and the deal collapses. I've always asked about previous sales or issues. What's a deal breaker for some is water off a ducks back for others. Look at Homes under the Hammer. Someone will buy anything, if the price is right of course.

I spent almost 2k on top range survey plus solicitor and pulled out of a purchase. Was worth every penny

The only way you can be sure if there is a problem with the bungalow is if you have your offer accepted them you can have a survey done. But as it's fell through 4 times you need to have the top tier survey done which covers everything but it will be expensive. In 2018 I had the mid price survey done on the bungalow I now live in it cost £450 the surveyor I used did a brilliant job and I knew exactly what needed doing. Plus the searches will show any problems with flooding or subsidence.

I had 2 buyers pull out buying my house. There was nothing wrong with my house they just changed their minds . So 4 buyers pulling out doesn't always mean there is a problem with property but they may have just changed their minds or couldn't secure a mortgage.

I know someone on the help calm me stress buying and selling thread had 5 buyers pull out. There was nothing wrong with the property.

Estate agents will not tell you if there is a problem with the property as you are not their client and you are not paying their fees.

I would ask the Estate Agent straight out if there’s something wrong with the house and if it’s had a bad survey which is what it looks like to me. That’s usually the reason a sale has fallen through so many times. They have to be honest with you if you ask the question.

It's unlikely to be the vendor - the lady that used to live there has gone into a home and her family are keen to sell. We did ask the first estate agents (when the sale had fallen through twice) - they said the potential buyers' sales had both fallen through so they couldn't go ahead with the sale.

But 4 times?? I'd say that was more than unlucky. I may pluck up the courage to ask the current estate agent - see what they say.

It might be because of the vendor rather than a problem with the house. There's a bungalow near me where the sale has fallen through several times. My friend was one of the disappointed buyers. He'd paid for a survey which said the house was just fine.

The problem was the vendor...he was undecided about whether to move and keeps pulling out of deals.

There is a house on my way to work in a lovely countryside area, it was on the market for £450,000 and that has fallen through three times… and is now on the market again