Someone has made a higher offer......

[AmIImmoral]

We accepted an offer on our house 3 weeks ago. We have since had an offer accepted on a house one week ago. So, we are not very far down the process - solicitors have been appointed but no surveys have been done.

Today the EA phoned to say someone who had made a low offer has offered £5.5K more than the offer we have accepted. We have accepted a 92% offer and this would be 97%. We are actually having to borrow £3K from our parents so that we can afford the deposit on the new house so every penny counts for us but it feels so wrong to let our buyers be gazumped. Also, the 2nd offer people are not UK nationals (not EU nationals) and seemed very clueless when they came round to view the first time about how the whole process worked and I don't know how easy it is to get a mortgage here if you are not a British citizen.

So, I guess I'm asking what your views are. If we weren't borrowing extra money from our parents I would say no but the extra money could make a huge difference to us. I do know though there is a chance that either seller could reduce their offers after survey (though not expecting any major surprises) or pull out. Very confused at the moment - heart says one thing and head says another.

[LauriesFairyonthetreeeatsCake]

Get the agent to check out if they have funds in place and are proceedable

[Yama]

It would be illegal in Scotland. I thought the rest of the UK had changed in line with us.

[LIZS]

Unless they are proceedable ie. proven cash buyer then stick with what you already have. Chances are that extra 5k would magically disappear further down the line by which time you have lost the original buyer.

[AmIImmoral]

I do think couple 2 are serious as they are expecting a baby and want to be in somewhere quickly. It's just wrong though isn't it... Just can't decide if we are being too soft as keep on reading things about how you have to think of yourself when you are making such a big financial decision but I guess that is more for when you are deciding between offers rather than situations like this.

I keep trying to think how we would feel if our vendors did it to us and I think I would understand but it would stress us out completely. We were thinking about asking couple 1 if they would increase their offer by half the amount but I think that would almost be worse as we would be extorting extra money out of them (if they did agree rather than just walking away on principle). DH's gut instincts was to say no and mine was to say yes but we've since swapped round (DH's colleagues all said to go for it) so we're still trying to make a decision.

[Mandy21]

Voice of experience. Depending on where they are from and what the process is where they live, I would be wary. I also know that you can get underhand buyers irrespective of where they are from. Very good friends were part of a chain, everyone was ready to go, on the day of exchange their non EU buyers started to haggle. Refused to exchange unless there was a 5% deduction on the purchase price. By that stage everyone was fairly committed financially to the new purchases - survey fees incurred, solicitor fees etc. They ended up having to agree to it.

[DoesntTurkeyNSproutSoupDragOn]

I think that, as no money has been spent on surveys etc, I"d go with the higher offer if both parties are equal in terms of chain etc. Or offer the first party the chance to equal it. I would never do this once surveys had been done though.

[Baubleswithdiamonds]

We bought in the UK after having lived abroad for 5 years - even though we are UK nationals, the fact that we had lived abroad and our money came from abroad was a complete PITA and had to be worked around at all times eg, with the anti-money laundering regulations.

If you want to accept the higher offer, check they are fully proceedable and where their deposit is coming from.

[AmIImmoral]

Think we will stick with original offer as a) feels like right thing to do and b) we're worried that couple number 2's mortgage might be risky. Feel slightly better and can't miss what we don't have!

[wendybird77]

Agree, EA needs to see evidence of funds - bank slips and MIP. If neither are British they may not be able to get a mortgage. We had a bit of trouble as I'm not British, but I've lived here 10 years and had previous mortgage! But, if you are wary and they don't have a clue I'd just borrow the money from parents. You can always let the other buyers know you've had a higher offer and see if they up theirs?

[Zavi]

I was in this exact same situation - but had two different estate agents. I accepted the "gazump" which led to a bidding war between the 2 interested buyers. In the end I got 15% over the full asking price once the bidding war had played itself out.
It was surprisingly stressful but I held my nerve and it worked out thankfully. Though I did insist on a 10k deposit being lodged - until contracts exchanged - to prevent my highest bidder from trying to later revise his offer downwards.
Honestly, I did feel a bit guilty every time I accepted a higher offer. I just put it down to business though. I didn't make the rules up, I just followed them.
If I were you, I would take into account that any extra money you get from an increased offer may come in handy if someone tries to gazump YOU on your new place!

[soonbesailing]

I was also in the same situation with a late higher offer through the same estate agents.
We decided to stick with the first offer, the higher offer people were keen to move very quickly and the house we are buying is complicated so we felt like it would be too much pressure.
When our first offer people can beck to negotiate the price after survey we were able to remind them that we had turned down a higher offer for them so it may the negotiation easier.
Felt better from a karma point of view, although I'm sure the extra money would have come in very handy.