Vendor beware

Dear Vendors

Just so you know one of the large estate agents has repeatedly failed to get back to me about a property that has been for sale for around 6 months.

I haven't walked into their offices and demanded details but I have e-mailed them on a number of occasions fully outlining I have a mortgage agreement, am not in a chain and the flat is within my budget and required area. I am not going to beg, there are lots of flats out there!

This flat is now under offer but I would imagine for quite a lot less than the asking price.

I wonder if I am being pig headed by not desperately chasing the agency but surely they are paid to market the property and speak to interested potential buyers. Not just to put a property on a website and then only speak to people who go in and see them and arrange mortgages via them. I wouldn't say that was doing the best by anyone.

Okay so I might not have been able to bid for a one bedroom flat but there about twenty others available in the same area and really I think an agent who don't even call me back when I am telling them I could be in the flat in 6 weeks would be terribly good at speeding up the process at their end.

Update on the one I liked

I decided I was trying much too hard to like the one I liked.

If I was honest it was a in a bad area, quite far from transport, not especially safe and in need of a total cosmetic redo- although the wiring and so on was seemingly fine.

A second eye confirmed that I was trying too hard to love something that was a real project and not a bargain with the ammount that needing doing.

I think flats are like men really, you can try and try to love one but sometimes it's better not to force it- and to be manless and flatless than in over your head.

Bounce?

I wonder if the property market might be feeling a little bouncy?

I suspect it is more the agents that price property that are bouncing as it seems things are moving a little more.

Certainly the list of saved properties I have had is showing some flats and houses that have been there for months suddenly with little 'under offer' tags.

What I would really like to know is how good are the offers? are they twenty per cent below the actual price and are people grabbing bargains.

Estate agents are incredibly bullish with me, always saying the market is much better than reported and people won't take more than five per cent off because they are pricing accordingly etc.

I really wish I had more time to be in and out of their offices because I think then they would realise I am very serious about buying- but not very well off! What I need is a bargain, they tell me they don't exist. So I am going to be on the sold prices with a great deal of interest if these under offer properties become sold properties. Which it's by no means certain they will I suppose.