"Sold" boards should only be allowed after exhange of contract

[Mike Mitchell]

Another house in the village has had its "Sold" board changed back to "For Sale". This is the third house I know of where this has happened recently. My house was valued, at least in part, based on the sale of that house and that it had attracted much interest and numerous viewings and received an offer at the asking price within ten days of going on the market.

But now the sale must have fallen through, as it is now on the market again. Maybe the reason is totally beyond anyone's control, like the buyer dropping dead or something pretty terminal. But in the case of another house where the same thing happened, I know relatives of the vendors in question, and they said that the buyer had just offered "some lame excuse".

If agents were not allowed to erect the "Sold" board until contracts had been exchanged, the meaning of "Sold" would carry a lot more weight. As it is, I feel it is being used as a kind of scam to force up the market and make would-be vendors believe that the agent in question must be doing a good job by apparently selling a house so quickly.

MM

[Set Square]

Am I missing something here? I can't see any advantage to the agent in pretending a house is sold when it isn't - because the "sold" notice will put off any other potentially interested parties from investigating it.

[Mary Fisher]

I agree. Also, prospective buyers can be put off making an offer on a house they're keen on if they think it's gone. There used to be a 'Sold subject to contract' sticker which was attached to the For Sale board which gave some indication of what was happening.

Mary

[Set Square]

There used to be a

There still is - round our way, anyway!

[Huge]

Why? Estate agents lie. The "Sold" board is just another variant.

[Paul]

Funnily enough our house has just been sold subject to contract, they have put a sold sticker across the top of the board, and in tiny letters it says subject to contract, so small unless you are standing infront of it you would not see it.

Paul

[Ian Stirling]

But that doesn't matter, because the house will probably eventually sell. What is most important is the 'sold' sticker next to the estate agents phone number, so people can phone them to sell their houses.

[Owain]

"Mike Mitchell" wrote | But now the sale must have fallen through, as it is now on the | market again. Maybe the reason is totally beyond anyone's | control, like the buyer dropping dead or something pretty | terminal.

The buyer dropping dead /is/ terminal - for the buyer :-)

| If agents were not allowed to erect the "Sold" board until | contracts had been exchanged, the meaning of "Sold" would | carry a lot more weight.

If you had the Scottish system where offers are binding and missives are concluded typically 10 days after closing date, Sold would mean sold. (Then again, only a small percentage of property gets near an estate agent in the first place :-)

Owain

[Mary Fisher]

So it's all but meaningless ...

Mary

[Set Square]

Do you reckon I could make a few bob then - by renting my front garden to a handful of estate agents to erect "Sold" notices - even though it isn't on the market?

[Mary Fisher]

I saw a castle ruin with a large, painted "for sale" sign on its walls in Galloway but there was no indication of a contact :-(

So saying, Scots law has a lot to commend it in many ways.

Mary

[Andy Hall]

Isn't it a pity that a notice like this doesn't have the effect of keeping the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Morons away.

I must get in touch with an old friend from university days. He had a party piece to deal with them. It was necessary to arrange for the visitors to come at a specific time and to engage them in doorstep conversation. He would be upstairs and would drink some form of emetic and would then run down the stairs screaming that he was the antichrist and vomit on the doorstep at their feet.

It was really very effective, they would never, ever come back again.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Mary Fisher]

I reckon that while I'm talking to them, keeping them occupied, I'm protecting others. I once sold a parish magazine to two of them.

To date they've always gone away gibbering ...

Why are you not surprised?

Mary

[Michael Mcneil]

You get 6 weeks to finalise your mortgage. If you don't get the paperwork done and th emoney threough in time the vendor is free to gazzump you.

The swine I work for just did that to a few people. I can't say I blame him. Some snarl up in the banks caused a delay i the processes. So he pulled out and put the prices up a thousand quid. (I must change this keyboard setting one day.)

[Conrad Edwards]

I guess the SSTC sticker gives people an indication that if they are really serious about the property someone else has had an offer accepted on then they should put in a decent offer to the estate agent before all the legal stuff goes through....kind of a going, going, gone situation. It's also good publicity for the estate agent to show that they can shift houses.

As for properties going back on the market, I've seen some people put offers in for a couple of properties so it gives them a little extra time to decide which one they really want...the SSTC sticker does put some competitiors off, and once an offer is accepted then the agents usually stop advertising it. A survey is fairly cheap, so they then can have a leisurely survey done and make a final decision then. The real problem here is that under English Law, the SSTC isn't a binding contract on either side until contracts are exchanged.

[G&M]

We used to live in Scotland and on putting our property on the market to move south again the first two offers we received were subject to agreeing to use the English system so that they didn't have to pay for surveys up-front.

[Andy Hall]

You're right. I'm not :-)

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Mary Fisher]

I'm always right :-))))))))

Mary

[Owain]

"Mary Fisher" wrote | I saw a castle ruin with a large, painted "for sale" sign on its | walls in Galloway but there was no indication of a contact :-(

It'll be the postmistress's husband's brother-in-law's nephew who went up to Edinburgh and came back with an LLB and airs and graces. It always is :-)

Owain

[Mike Mitchell]

I didn't say they were pretending, i.e. committing fraud, did I? These are situations where the buyer has stopped buying, simple as that.

MM