My partners and I are cash buyers. There was a corporate sale property that a bank agency was trying to sell through both Philip James and another agent. Having talked with both, we told Philip James we'd just be making an offer when it's good time to offer, but were not interested in being involved in an auction bidding game. Therefore, we kept calling and emailing them, mainly communicating with Libby everyday. We followed progress every day for 2 months and watched as many people bid and give up when there was a higher bid.
We then received an email from Libby, saying 3pm Friday would be the deadline for 'final offers', so we had meeting with Rob Cuffe-Sales Director in his office to figure out was that the last offer opportunity. We tried to offer a few times with different numbers, but Rob told us to give our 'maximum offer' number and to make sure it was higher compared to the other mortgage buyer, he said that he would try to negotiate a price lower than that with the seller and they would let us know by Monday morning latest. Monday came and went, and Rob and Libby stopped answering our phone calls and would only talk by email.
Then a new second deadline for 'final offers' of Thursday 10am appeared. We confirmed our offer again and kept calling on Thursday morning, Libby didn't answer our phone call but only sent emails instead. My partner started to chase the other staff in the office for the result, but was told only Libby knows what's going on. I told one of the staffs I would go to the office in person to find the answer if they didn't tell us the result, and then we received a call telling us that another buyer was in the position to exchange contacts and the property would be sold to them. We suddenly realized Philip James was just using us during this whole week just to get more money from the other buyer, and that they were never going to sell to us.
We have been cheated by Philip James. We offered the highest price with cash, how could we be rejected? Some mortgage buyer was in the purchasing process, but Philip James continued to ask us to bid only to get more money from the other buyer. The only explanation is they are not honest to both clients and buyers. They didn't feel secure to ensure if the current buyer was able to complete the mortgage, meanwhile, Philip James was encouraging other buyers to offer as backup if the mortgage was failed. This cheating of both clients and buyers shows their dishonest attitude towards the market.
We must publizise the truth about how dishonest Philip James is, so that all clients and buyers know to be careful about them! read more