Offer on two houses at the same time with same estate agents?

[miggles33]

There are two houses we love. They have come up at the same time with the same estate agents. I have made an offer on one but both are very popular. Offers will be in tomorrow for both. The estate agents said it was possible to have an offer on each but the vendors would be informed. What would you do? Has this happened to you as a vendor and would it put you off accepting our offer if you knew we had one on another too?

[PipnPosy]

Honestly yes it would put me off accepting your offer if I knew you had an offer in elsewhere as well. It would make me think you weren't committed to my property so I wouldn't risk it unless you were the only offer I received. Good luck!

[halfdoneharris]

Seems a bit greedy. Why no decide which one you like most and want to offer on. If that is not accepted, offer on the other one...

[Jupiter2Mars]

It would put me off. Your obviously not committed to either house. So I'd be thinking what if I lost my chance to sell because I agreed to your offer and then 6 weeks from now you pull out.

The only way that I'd take up your offer in those circumstances would be if it was a lot better than the next one.

[birdladyfromhomealone]

We did this once but it was offers on four houses at the same time!
All very popular houses which we knew would sell quick, so put cheeky offers on each and got one accepted which proceeded to a sale.
One went to a bidding war way above our budget
the other 2 took an extra few months to sell and then slightly less than our offer.
Gad we left it to fate as we got a good deal

[EssentialHummus]

I wouldn't do it with the same agent, though I think we'll find ourselves in this position on Monday with separate agents.

Is there one that you love more or less than the other, at all?

Alternatively, can you put in both but in your offer letter specify that as soon as the offer is accepted you'll withdraw the other (not brilliant, but may help a bit)?

[DurhamDurham]

It would put me off, I wouldn't take the offer seriously and would not want to take the house off the market when you weren't really committed.

[lalalonglegs]

I'd ask if the estate agents would consider staggering the best and final offer times so House A is at midday, for example, and House B is 2pm. That way, if you don't get A, you can legitimately go on and offer on B. It's in the EA's (and I'd suggest the vendors') interests to do this - the more non-simultaneous, binding (or as far as they can be in the English system), the better.

[YelloDraw]

Yeah I wouldn't pick you.

Try and get the EA to stagger the bids with your favorite house first as lalalonglegs said.

[EssentialHummus]

lala that is a great idea, good thinking.

[Poocatcherchampion]

I think it shows you are seriously looking to buy if you offer on two so I see that as good.

[WhirlwindHugs]

We're going to do this. It doesn't mean we're not serious, just that both could houses could work for us and either is fine! We want the sale sorted fairly quickly too so don't want to hang around looking and offering one at a time for months. Hopefully the estate agent will explain that to the vendors.

One we'd be more likely to up the offer for than the other if it's rejected though, the other we'd definitely not pay more than we're going to offer. It doesn't mean we're more serious about one than the other, just that one is fairly easy to value and offer the right amount and the other is much more complex.

[Jupiter2Mars]

WhirlwindHugs - I can see how that will be fine from your perspective.
So, what you are saying to seller A, is here is my offer. If you accept it, then there is a 50/50 chance that I'll go ahead with the sale.
Ditto to seller B.

If neither seller A nor seller B have any other offers, or offers that are much lower, then they may consider taking your offer and risking having to start the marketing all over again if you decide to pull out. Plus explaining the delay to the people whose house they are buying etc.

If I was in their shoes, and I wanted you to accept your offer, i'd be asking for a sign of your commitment e.g. you have 10 days to get the survey done. People tend to be more committed once they've spent some money.

[WhirlwindHugs]

But when both offers are made at the same time so are the acceptances. So if only one accepts, fine sorted. If both accept than, yes, it's 50/50 but we would pick one straight away. I can't fathom why we would leave either seller hanging on for ages.

So the marketing for the rejected property would just continue onwards as before.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

I wouldn't take my house off the market until a survey was done.

This type of buyer sounds very flaky to me and likely to change their mind on a whim, or if a third house came up or something.

[Jupiter2Mars]

Imagine you got a job offer but you are told they have offered someone else the same job that same day. If both of you accept then they will decide whether they really want you.
Would you take the view that it just shows that they really want to recruit and aren't just interviewing for the pleasure of it? Would you hesitate before accepting and turning down any other offer you might have?

[Poocatcherchampion]

If I had that job offer and wanted thr job I would say - yes put me in the ring for it but I won't hand in my notice until you've made a final decision.

If I was offering on 2 houses that I liked equally I would either withdraw my offer on reply 2 or wait until I had heard from both. Depends how keen the vendors are I guess

[Jupiter2Mars]

but the recipient of the job offer is the person who is selling.
As you say, you would not give up your other jobyou could be sure that the employer had chosen you, and equally, you wouldn't take your property off the market until you had been given good reason to believe the buyer wasn't going to go with another house.
Basically, you weaken your offer if the vendor knows that you aren't 100% serious in your offer to them, and there's no doubt about that if they know that you have simultaneously offered on another house.

[Dumdidums]

Im thinking of doing this as i made an offer on a place but the vendor is still thinking about it. I cant hang around for ever waiting for a decision