Am I being paranoid about lack of sale agreed sign?

FutureGuy

Hi all,
We are sale agreed first time buyers on a property. Working with banks and have selected solicitor and engineer.

This is our first time going sale agreed so we have no base of comparisonsso just want to get opinions in case we are being paranoid.

So we went sale agreed last Friday, paid deposit Monday and asked the auctioneer to take down the ad from online and place sale agreed on the for sale signs.

Online ad was taken down that day. We then asked when sale agreed will go up on sign and he said Wednesday. Didn't happen but was told it was definitely going to be changed Thursday. Passed today and still wasn't changed. We rang and we were told that the buyers do not want the sale agreed sign added until our engineer takes a look at the property to make sure we are happy?

I'm trying really hard not to be paranoid but does this strike anyone as odd? I mean we cannot see anything at all wrong with the house. No cracks. No leaks we can see. It is in lovely condition but I do not know why they want our engineer to take a look before they are happy for sale agreed to go on house.

Is there any questions we should be asking the engineer in light of this? I'm terrified there might be something really wrong that won't be picked up.

It might be nothing but looking for your opinions.

davo10

Right now it is "sale agreed" subject to survey. If your survey identifies an issue and you pull out then the house goes back on the market. Until you sign a contract the house is technically still for sale so the vendor is hedging his/her bets. Arrange a survey asap and get your solicitor get the ball rolling.

listermint

Contracts need to be signed first.

FutureGuy

davo10 wrote: »

Right now it is "sale agreed" subject to survey. If your survey identifies an issue and you pull out then the house goes back on the market. Until you sign a contract the house is technically still for sale so the vendor is hedging his/her bets. Arrange a survey asap and get your solicitor get the ball rolling.

Appreciate the quick reply. Can you explain how they are hedging their bets? What advantage is it for them to do this?

davo10

FutureGuy wrote: »

Appreciate the quick reply. Can you explain how they are hedging their bets? What advantage is it for them to do this?

By keeping it on the market, they keep other potential buyers interested while you do the survey on progress to signing a contract of sale. If you pull out, they have another buyer.

FutureGuy

FutureGuy wrote: »

Appreciate the quick reply. Can you explain how they are hedging their bets? What advantage is it for them to do this?

In the event you don't go ahead, quicker to get other buyer interest.

If it was just the time to put up the sale agreed you'd be a bit paranoid, but in this case seems strange alright.

Dodgy agent involved?

Water John

From a sellers POV. Gone sale agreed and then putting on the market again, if your engineer signals a problem, sends red alert signs to the next round of buyers.

L1011

Sale Agreed only went up on my house probably two weeks before I got the keys; long after it was off daft etc. Sign was lying in the EAs hallway when I went to get the keys.

whiskeyman

listermint wrote: »

Contracts need to be signed first.

No, contracts signed indicates the property has been sold.
Sale agreed really means nothing unfortunately.
As long as the ad is taken down, that will help but I wouldn't worry about the sale agreed sign.
Just ensure all things on your side progress well.
Nothing means anything until you get those contracts signed at the end of the day.
Both parties can pull out at any time when sale agreed.
That said, ensure you conduct full due diligence - get survey done, know the area and get second options if necessary.

Best of luck!

listermint

whiskeyman wrote: »

No, contracts signed indicates the property has been sold.
Sale agreed really means nothing unfortunately.
As long as the ad is taken down, that will help but I wouldn't worry about the sale agreed sign.
Just ensure all things on your side progress well.
Nothing means anything until you get those contracts signed at the end of the day.
Both parties can pull out at any time when sale agreed.
That said, ensure you conduct full due diligence - get survey done, know the area and get second options if necessary.

Best of luck!

You won't find an estate agent that will replace the for sale sign with a sale agreed sign until the contracts are signed..


The fact you said no and the repeated exactly what i said means your contradicting yourself.

Cloudio9

You're being paranoid op. Perfectly understandable when buying a house. I've bought two and felt paranoia both times over various things.

If it's any comfort, when selling my first house I felt paranoia too. "Are they getting cold feet?" "why hasn't their solicitor responded?"etc

It's understandable that the sellers don't want to advertise that the sale had fallen through by having to take down a sale agreed sign.

If you push it you'll be told it's still their house and they can hang any bloody sign they want outside until you've bought it.

Just focus on the engineer bank solicitor etc.

Hooked

I'm in the same boat on both sides....

House we are hopefully buying is still 'for sale' over 5 months after we've paid deposit! Slow sale, planning / bank issues, etc... They only recently took it off daft.

My house (I'm selling it myself) is marked sale agreed but only in the first line of the descriptive text on daft.ie. If I moved it to 'sale agreed' on the site, potential buyers won't see it when searching.

We are both hedging out bets, despite having each paid deposits etc... We each need other potential buyers, should either sale fall through!

Totally normal in this day and age!

Good luck with the house.

Samuel T. Cogley

Sale agreed means absolutely nothing. It's simply the EA and vendors being nice and not negotiating with anyone else. However if someone comes in and says we'll give you €100K more for the house, what do you think the response will be. Keep looking, you have no ida where this is going to go until the survey is in and the contracts signed.

A sign will make no difference.

whiskeyman

listermint wrote: »

You won't find an estate agent that will replace the for sale sign with a sale agreed sign until the contracts are signed..


The fact you said no and the repeated exactly what i said means your contradicting yourself.

Odd that as this was the case when I bought my house and went viewing others...:rolleyes:

I said sale agreed does not equal sold and sale agreed signs can go up without contracts being signed.
Before I bought my current house, I bid on a house that had a sale agreed sign as they pulled out and it went back on the market.

Parchment

davo10 wrote: »

Right now it is "sale agreed" subject to survey. If your survey identifies an issue and you pull out then the house goes back on the market. Until you sign a contract the house is technically still for sale so the vendor is hedging his/her bets. Arrange a survey asap and get your solicitor get the ball rolling.

Agree with this post - its all tentative until contracts are signed. Sales fall through all the time - they are not going to commit to the sale until they are as sure as they can be. If you pull out its less work for them to just relist the house if they havent put the sticker on the sign etc.

Dont overthink it.

FutureGuy

Ok thanks all, I appreciate all the comments.

slovakchick

apartment i was interested in recently has been sale agreed for over a year, ads taken off daft, but no sign of the sale sign being removed from the place, rang the number on the sign again recently, still sale agreed :rolleyes:

FutureGuy wrote: »

Ok thanks all, I appreciate all the comments.

Ashleighc2013

FutureGuy wrote: »

Ok thanks all, I appreciate all the comments.

I am currently going through the rigmarole of being a first time buyer

We have our booking deposit paid five weeks now, and sale agreed four weeks. Ad taken off daft etc, and they didn't have a sign up in the garden.

That being said I am a paranoid walking mess. Vendors EA/Solicitor is not cooperating at all.
I understand at our stage that we should be going through the solicitors, but after our solicitor rang the vendor's solicitor's office (after countless emails etc ) only to be told they were unaware that property had a sale on it yet. So did the vendor's elect a solicitor & just not inform them to be expecting a sale?

I know our solicitor is trying to keep me calm :pac: by saying this could be a minor hiccup. I hope it is!! Currently watching prices rise by the day on Daft :mad:

Samuel T. Cogley

Make sure you keep looking, it's easier to swap to another property while you have the momentum going.