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Original poster

WWYD if you'd sold your house and then someone offered you a lot more money?

139 replies

sweetheart · 14/07/2014 16:54

Dh and I accepted an offer on our house last week, today someone else has put in a considerably higher offer. Morally I feel wrong accepting the higher offer but the house dh and I are moving to needs a lot of work doing to it and then extra money we've been offered would pay for a new kitchen.

OP posts:
MrsMaturin · 14/07/2014 19:19

I think you run a major risk of the second people dropping their offer once you're sucked in. You can be gazundered as well as gazumped you know.
You have an asking price offer. Stick with it.

MimiSunshine · 14/07/2014 19:20

I think it would be terrible if you did that.

You have accepted asking price which is presumably a price you were happy to sell at and not one you were forced to. £25k is a hell of a lot higher, do you honestly feel that your house is genuinely worth that much more or are your heads being turned by the money?

Because chances are, if in all honesty you know your house isn't worth that much more then ask yourselves why they've offered it and are they reliable? They could be doing it to get it and then gazunder you just before exchange.

A day after our offer was accepted and the house was off the market, I'd instructed solicitors and was very excited about the house we'd finally chosen. If you were my sellers I'd be heartbroken if you did this to me

glasgowstevenagain · 14/07/2014 19:20

In Scotland accepting a offer is binding...

thesaurusgirl · 14/07/2014 19:26

You will probably accept the higher offer, but you'll spend the rest of your lives knowing you did the wrong thing.

Every time something goes wrong for you, you will wonder what you've done to deserve such bad luck. Then you'll be reminded of how badly you behaved and it will all make sense. You will be ashamed, but know no peace or happiness.

This is karma.

splendide · 14/07/2014 19:27

I'd be a bit worried about gazundering. The buyers know you are able to proceed at a lower figure so might chance their arm.

JustKeepPacking · 14/07/2014 19:27

I don't think it's morally wrong, it's just one of those things. We are moving house on Monday into our dream house, we effectively gazumped someone else. It was slightly different though as it was a nasty bidding war to start with, we didn't put in the highest bid, they accepted someone else. We were devastated and knew it was our dream house, went over our figures again put in a higher offer, which was accepted 48 hrs later. I do feel bad for the other people but happy that we got our perfect house!

glasgowstevenagain · 14/07/2014 19:29

Reading this does make the Scottish house buying system so much fairer....

CanaryYellow · 14/07/2014 19:33

Offers 'above and beyond' the asking price or above what has already been accepted, is becoming an increasingly popular tactic for gazundering.

I've seen it happen to 2 different sellers. In both cases just before exchange, the new buyers dropped their offer significantly. One proceeded, having almost no choice but to sell dirt cheap. The other is still on the market 9 months later.

Nomama · 14/07/2014 19:34

Or is it that you just have a different point of contract. In England you look for a house, then get the money in place. So you put in an offer and have until the exchange date to change your mind.

I assume that in Scotland you have to have the money in place before you can make an offer so the offer and acceptance is the exchange.

The same procedure happens, just the buyer and seller meet earlier in England, and both have a cooling off period.

I suspect there are parts of the Scottish system that cause as much heartache... or am I wrong and all sales progress smoothly? I am really interested, not being sniffy Smile

HmmAnOxfordComma · 14/07/2014 19:34

I don't believe in karma, but I do believe in treating others as you would be treated yourself. Two different things.

ChazzerChaser · 14/07/2014 19:35

If the higher offerers need a mortgage what will happen come survey time? It'll be likely valued less that their offer, which will the affect the mortgage they can get/their ratios. Then likely they will reduce their offer. And they know you've accepted lower before. I wouldn't accept the higher offer as it seems rather risky. I play straight bat easy life in these things. I'm no property tycoon but I'd rather not have the associated stresses.

Ifyourawizardwhydouwearglasses · 14/07/2014 19:45

There's no friends in business, take the money.

Maryz · 14/07/2014 19:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsMaturin · 14/07/2014 19:51

Offering £25,000 over is easy. PAYING it is much harder.

riskit4abiskit · 14/07/2014 19:53

It's wrong. Do unto others. ...

Itsfab · 14/07/2014 19:56

Why are the new people willing to pay above the asking price? Is your house gold plated or something?

Idontknowwhysheswallowedafly · 14/07/2014 19:59

ChazzerChaser
If the higher offerers need a mortgage what will happen come survey time? It'll be likely valued less that their offer, which will the affect the mortgage they can get/their ratios. Then likely they will reduce their offer. And they know you've accepted lower before. I wouldn't accept the higher offer as it seems rather risky

Word for word what I was going to say.

Notagainmun · 14/07/2014 20:16

About 18 years ago we accepted an offer on our house and several days later we were made an offer 5000 higher. We felt it would be wrong to take the higher offer, even though that amount of money was a lot to us back then. We were about to tell the second couple no when the first couple pulled out as the lady had unexpectedly found she had cancer.

We went back to the second couple and accepted their offer but didn't tell them the reason why. If we had let the first couple be gazumped and then found out they lady was ill I would have hated myself.

Billygoats · 14/07/2014 20:29

You haven't sold your house yet though. Just said yes to an offer, it's just that, an offer. They can easily pull out too.

This happened to us recently where we got refused our higher offer when it was only placed a day later. We offered the full asking price, no chain, and a very good deposit but the owners liked the family who looked round before us because they had 3 kids. It makes me angry thinking about it, we've saved hard for our first house and we really loved it so went in with a sensible approach, the other couple hadnt even had their mortgage in principle agreed at the time they offered.

ShakeYourTailFeathers · 14/07/2014 20:32

It's illegal where I live, that's how wrong it is. Can't believe you'd do such a thing. Your estate agent hopefully has some ethics and stops you.

Plateofcrumbs · 14/07/2014 21:04

We accepted an offer on our house and then withdrew on favour of a higher offer about 48 hours later. In my defence the person making the higher offer had seen our house at the same time as the original people and I had been reassured by the estate agents that they had taken best and final offers from everyone who had seen the property before we accepted. It turned out that the estate agent had been dicking us around so I felt little guilt.

mygrandchildrenrock · 14/07/2014 21:22

We were in this position, and the first offer couple had a very prem baby in special care. I felt quite bad but did ask them to match the new offer, or come near it. They did and we sold to them, even though the second buyer came back and offered more! That was many years ago and although I felt bad at the time for a couple of months, I can honestly say I haven't thought about it since.

Bowlersarm · 14/07/2014 21:29

If you took it off the market and now someone has put it an offer who had seen it before you had the offer, you wouldn't be unreasonable to switch. Or ask the first people to match it.

If you told them you were taking it off the market but continued to viewers sneakily, you are bring unreasonable, but then that probably won't matter to you anyway and you'll take the higher offer without a conscience.

cricketpitch · 14/07/2014 21:29

I think there is a misunderstanding of the process. In a sale as big as that of a property how can anyone be bound at such an early stage? You have no timescale agreed, no survey in place, no agreement as to how the price is paid. This is just the preliminary stage.

Both parties make an agreement in principle SUBJECT to sorting the other stuff. supposing the buyers said that they wanted to wait until Christmas to complete? Or you decided to wait until you had found your dream house before moving? These things are sorted out AND THEN you agree the price, the mortgage/cash, the completion date and you exchange contracts.

As I understand it in Scotland you have pre-negotiations to establish what price might be acceptable, what timescale is reasonable and if price and timescale is acceptable you, do all the surveys and searches before you make the offer/ exchange contracts in Scotland. Nothing is binding in the pre-negotiation / declaration of interest stage and a buyer can just as easily waste money on a survey and solicitors and be outbid as in England - it is just done in a slightly different way and called different things.

daisychain01 · 14/07/2014 22:02

Maryz, your scenario is one that I was thinking of.

The "fuck morals" approach is exactly why buying and selling houses is a murky business.

A house isn't "Sold" and champagne corks cant be popped until exchange (and even better, Completion) has taken place. Between now and then, all sorts of cock and bull stories can be passed between agents and solicitors about what people are prepared to pay, how much they can afford, how quickly they are prepared to exchange etc etc etc.

People can self justify if they choose or feel they are within their rights to change their mind.

You'll get a variety of opinions on this one, its a common ethical dilemma!