Being gazumpted on dream property

[Pippinsdiary]

I know it’s legal to do it but I’m so sad

we offered just under asking price on our dream property that has been on the market over a year, the estate agent phoned yesterday to say another offer slightly higher has been accepted and it’s their final decision. I asked if we could offer higher and they said the vendors aren’t interested and just want to proceed and not waste any more time

am I wrong to think as our offer has been accepted we should have been given the chance to offer more before another has been accepted?!

I know this happens and I’m glad it’s happened now and not further down the line but I feel so angry

Sounds a bit dodgy - maybe it's a friend or relative of the estate agent. I used to work for one many moons ago and saw it happen. I would go and knock at the house and ask them yourselves to at least confirm that they even know! Good luck!

Done all that. Are we proceedable and they know that.

Is the estate agent that’s selling the house you’re trying to buy, the same one that’s involved in your sale? If not, I’ve seen similar happen when the estate agent stands to make money from a sale and purchase, so I wonder if the new buyers happen to also be with that estate agent.

This is what happened to us

Arseholes

Yes.. a chain in the South East that I’m aware of but I’m sure there are loads..

As they say, common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone’s garden

I’d offer 15k under asking.

This sounds very odd. I wouldn't let down a cash buyer for the sake of £5k. I'd let it go. This new sale might fall through anyway or they would be a nightmare to deal with. I think the universe is telling you something

I pushed through with the house before this and ignored all the signs. I had the most miserable 17 months and I lost money.

You will find another house.

@SheilaFentiman it doesn't help, no, since in her first post the OP said she'd asked if she could make a higher offer. Given that we're talking about £5k to match the asking price offer, it's reasonable to assume that she can offer the asking price, as a cash buyer. That is a significantly better position to be in than the other buyers.

It's irrelevant whether she could or could not afford the extra £5k when she first offered. She can now. She's a cash buyer. It's therefore very odd that the buyers would prefer to go with a chain buyer. I agree with PP who've suggested that perhaps the other buyers are selling through the agent so the agent is motivated to progress the sale to them.

Are you getting some support in RL from your partner OP? What’s his view on next step?

For what it’s worth… this sounds bloody awful for when you have children at school and teens OP… they’ll be stranded and utterly dependent on their parents to get anywhere and will be very restricted with after school stuff and sports

what do you mean? They’re the only properties on the market, not the only properties in that area 😅 by area I’m pinpointed a specific area, it won’t make a difference to my children

He agrees we should just let it go and start looking again. He’s not as sad as me but he knows it’s such a loss as it’s a great family house

For only a farm and run down bungalow to be available in the area would indicate a very remote area - I was only trying to make you feel better!

Could you buy and renovate the run down bungalow?!

It’s not remote it’s in a village but has a school, leisure centre, shops etc. it’s one of those villages where people stay there all their life or pass houses onto their kids as it’s such a sort out area.

we could potentially look into the bungalow but it’s very run down and not really big enough for us long term. It’s only got a small amount of garden so we couldn’t really extend it either

But you are the original buyers not them…. This doesn’t add up

If it falls through, I’d go back to the original offer of £340k. Cash buyer, survey completed. They’d have to suck it up from my perspective. No way would I offer £345k again.

Good god this thread! What's the matter with people?!
I do think there's something fishy going on that's made the other offer much more attractive.
Not accepting an increased offer from yourself when you've already had the survey done is madness!
May it bite them on the arse big time. It's so underhand.
Sounds like they'd have been a nightmare to deal with in the long run OP so just maybe you've had a lucky escape.

Sometimes there are misunderstandings. Our estate agent nearly scuppered our house purchase by accident because of the way he handled getting agreement on a moving date. It want until I spoke to the vendor direct that we got the whole thing back on track. Clarifying the whole thing direct with them is the best way. With mine, we talked over the phone but a letter might do it, as others have saic. At least you'll know for sure.

This happened to me. We told them we'd offer 30k more than the highest offer but they turned it down. Turns out they had decided to sell within the family so wouldn't accept a higher offer from us. This was all kept very quiet but we found out in the end.

Sorry I think it was the original couple who was interested they said.

That’s crazy. I’d have to let my family down for £30k 😂

Very bad form for the sellers to dick you over for the sake of £5k, especially as you have had a survey done already so showing that you are invested in progressing the sale, but some people are dicks.

The being cash buyers is a bit of a red herring, ask any EA, cash buyers are even more likely to be flaky, have issues liquidating their 'cash', swinging their dicks because they think being a cash buyer means the sun shines out of their arse.

Can I ask 1 question (wanted read the nine thread so apologies if this has been answered)
So if you have £350k & the stamp duty/moving costs in cash - plus you have a property you are now selling. How come you can't afford to offer an extra £10k say?
I can understand why you would choose not to, but you seem to have said you can't afford it?

@sinon you can click 'see all' bottom right of any of the Op's posts and see their answers to any questions in isolation, you don't need to read everything.

From memory she said their offer plus costs etc. has near as damn it maxed out their liquidity and they offered as chain free, not wanting to tie their property sale to this purchase.

@Pippinsdiary you've been given quite a hard time by some posters on this thread, despite being very clear. I wouldn't have offered the full asking price on a property that had languished on the market for a full year. If the extra few grand was so important to them, they should've refused your offer. I think they've been really shitty towards you and even if they come back to you I'd be wary of dealing with them again unless you agree a prompt exchange and completion together.

Apart from what previous posters have said, I wonder if the house was for sale for so long is because they've messed people around before? and also, how far along in their purchase they are now? because their new purchasers aren't going to be able to complete before you could.