House buying karma

[duffybeatmetoit]

We were trying to find a property 2.5 years ago, very little that met our requirements. We eventually found a house that was smaller than we needed. The house had been on the market for the best part of 3 years without any serious offers and had been reduced by over £40K in that time. The owners were initially very friendly and promising to leave all sorts of items. We offered £1K under their asking price.

Suddenly their attitude changed, all the promises were withdrawn (including the original offer to leave the curtains was amended to taking the curtains but leaving the tiebacks ). The surveyor found evidence of dry rot but they wouldn't allow the carpet to be lifted to identify the extent of it. We offered to go halves on the work but were told the house was "sold as seen".

We walked away and a house came onto the market that offered everything we wanted and was £15K cheaper. We bought it and have kept an eye on the other property. It has just sold (after over 5 years on the market) for £20K less than we offered.

We were told there is such as thing as house buying karma and now I believe it

[oreocrumbs]

Yup!

We offered on a house and although we had the highest bid the other bidder 1k lower said he would buy the house no matter what the survey said . When we said of course we wouldn't do the same they went with the other buyer. We put an offer on our current home a few weeks later.

Just before we completed the agent offered us the other house again - the other buyer dropped out (surprise surprise). We said no. This was 4 years ago. About a month ago DP was at a sports thing and ended up sat next to the vendor of the house. He told DP that they never did manage to sell it. Should have let me buy it then shouldn't they!

[ClaireDeTamble]

When we were buying our first house, we found the absolute perfect house - Victorian semi - loads of original features. Offered and got accepted. The day before the vendor was due to sign, they backed out stating that the husband had lost his overtime so they couldn't afford to move. I was devastated.

We were on a strict deadline and only had six weeks to find and complete on a house. We got out of work early and high tailed it up to the town where we were buying (pre - internet). Went into a different estate agents, told our story and asked if they had any similar properties, to which the EA replied "Will the house next door but one do?".

We went to look - it wasn't as nice - no original features, through room downstairs rather than separates which we would have preferred, but the overall space was the same and the garden was the same size (which was one of the main selling points). We bought it for £7.5k less than the other house.

When we moved in, we found out that the real reason for the pull-out of the original vendor was his wife had convinced him to pull the house off the market and then promptly left him, so not strictly his fault, but still.....

5 years later - we had done quite a bit of work to our house, he hadn't touched his. We both end up putting the houses on the market at the same time - his was valued at almost £15k less than ours and took twice as long to sell.

[IvanaHumpalot]

We were in the process of selling our house. We had exchanged and had an extended completion date. We found a house in a nice village up the road. First offer was refused. Up'd second offer, with the condition that we had to complete on the same day as our house sale. Vendor agreed, confirmed via solicitor/estate agent. This gave us about 7/8 weeks to complete.

We rush through (at extra cost) our legal, mortgage and survey. Vendor does nothing, gets to the point where our solicitor tells us even if he miraculously gets the paperwork from the vendors he won't be able to process it for the completion date.

We go back to vendor and ask why the delay. No good answer except they haven't found a rental! We explain that if we miss the agreed (increased ££ offer) completion date then we will be in rental either short term - very expensive or normal for 6 months. They are unwilling to either help fund our rental or pull their finger out.

We withdrew from the sale. We found a house up the road, cheaper and nicer.

It was sweet driving past the 'nearly ours' house. It remained on the market for about 18months/2yrs later. During that time we had the crash. It knocked about £120k off their price. I always wonder if they think we were the unreasonable ones or if they kick themselves.