Cheers all. Well, we're just going to wait and carry on searching in the slim hope of it maybe falling through with current buyer. The agent knows we're super keen and that we're now judging everywhere else against it. In fact we leafleted that road and the one next to it a few weeks back - probaly only served to bump the prices up even further, but you never know!

Treacle - why not try putting a letter through the door of similar houses in the area explaining your position and emphasising how keen you are to buy and that you are serious about moving. You may reach a household who were thinking of putting the house on the market but haven't got round to it yet ... its worth a try. I know a few people who have been successful like this.

Of course you won't go to Hell but it depends what stage the offer is at. I think making an offer of £8000 more than the current offer is a lot and if you really have to stretch yourself to do it I think you should offer less.

Speaking as someone who's been gazumped, it is a pretty nasty thing to do both for the vendor AND the person making the offer IMO... there were lots (and lots) of tears when it happened to us - the pregnancy hormones probably didn't help!

As for karma... well the people who gazumped us then lost the house again as their own sale fell through soon after, and the vendors didn't want to wait for them to find somewhere new So I guess karma bit THEM on the bum....

Going back to your situation, I can't see the point in you trying to encourage the vendor to gazump his current buyer because even a higher offer from you, with a chain behind you, isn't a better deal than the offer he already has with a chain-free buyer.
Going for another viewing isn't underhand as it's always sensible to view a house at least twice if you think you might be interested as the second viewing often throws up different issues and lets you know if you really do want it or not, especially as househunting when you're just on the market as opposed to when you actually have a buyer for your own house makes a big difference to how you look at things. DH and I had second viewings on a house we thought was great but on viewing it again once we'd had a buyer for ours, we realised it didn't tick enough boxes for it to actually be a contender.
If the agent is still marketing and the vendor still happy to take viewings until the sale is progressed further, then why not view it again (you might even find it's not as nice as you remember it) and if you're still interested, just register your interest, whether by just asking for the agent to contact you if anything falls through or with an actual figure if you want to let them know what you would be prepared to pay. At the end of the day, you're not in the better position than the existing buyer so don't waste your time wondering about higher offers as the vendor would be a fool to scrap a chain-free buyer for someone with even the smallest of chains. Too much chance of something going wrong further down the chain.

Move on, keep watching Right Move for other properties (and secretly hope the sale falls through on the one you want!)

You have a right to inform the agency that you are willing to make a higher offer, however it is the agency who knows the vendor and what the vendor thinks. We were in a similar situation, we were willing to put a higher offer (about 10k above someone else’s offer), but the agency contacted the vendor and the vendor said they want to be fair and go with someone else’s offer. Nobody got hurt from asking. But we lost our dream property, hopefully for good.

I've double checked other properties on with the same agent and they only ever use use
"under offer". So it probably isnt really the glimmer of hope I'd thought. Guess we'll just carry on waiting and searching - i have a feeling that offering more would probably only serve to bump the price up to the original cash buyer and therefore the price of everywhere else in the vicinity and
then who knows even the place we may eventually buy. .. if we ever get to find anywhere, my God there's NOTHING out there

Mmmm but as you knew an ofer had already been accepted IMHO you would share the bad karma. Sorry that is not the answer you were hoping for!

We lost out on a house in June as the OP were in rented so chain free. Well, things did not progress & it came back on the market & we got it. I know how demoralising house hunting is & I really hope you are successful soon

Gahh what to do?!! Curse my conscience!

So how's this?: Assuming that if they gazump their existing buyer the Karma's on them and not us... asking for another viewing will show if they're still marketing the property or not - if they are, then we could see the house as fair game, and if not we'll back away politely and wait in the wings.

When we accepted the offer from our buyers we didn't exchange until 6 months later & in all that time our proprty was marked as SSTC. I do not think SSTC means near completion, not in my area anyway. If an offer has been accepted then I personally wouldn't offer on it no matter how gutted I was. Good luck with your decision