To want to do more about house that EA says is STC

[AliceRR]

DH and I viewed a house about four weeks ago. We really liked it, we said it could be our dream house, perfect area, nice street, nice house but needs everything doing (windows and doors, bathroom, kitchen, decorating etc)

On the market for £295 which is a good for a 3 bed detached in that area but would be worth more when done up.

DH offerer £260k and was told by vendor agent no point putting an offer until we have sold our house but they work note our interest and update us if any developments.

No updates.

On the weekend I looked for the house online out of curiosity and saw it was no longer on Rightmove. Called EA and he said house was sold STC as of Monday last week. He apologised they had not told us. I asked price and he just told me it was less than asking.

I was annoyed as DH and I said it wa worth asking price and we would pay that.

DH called and they changed their story a couple of times about why they didn’t tell us (whereas they just apologised and said it was an oversight when I called).

DH offered £280k. EA said vendor wants to stay with current buyer. We don’t kno what current buyer offered but I cannot help but think EA would have said if it was more than £280K. DH then offered asking and was promptly told vendor said no.

I find it odd. Either they deliberately didn’t call us last week and give us the opportunity to put in a higher bid or it was an oversight but their client has potentially lost out on £20k (we don’t know what they have sold for).

I’m really disappointed as we both really loved that house. Have baby due in Jan and no other houses compare for me with the house and the area.

I should say we haven’t sold ours but we are looking at keeping current house to rent and buy the new one.

Is there anything we can do?

No you have no recourse against the estate agent. End of.

Of course you weren’t unreasonable to put in a lower offer, or to change your mind.
They weren’t unreasonable to turn down your offer or to accept the offer from a proceedable buyer.
If I were you I’d forget about the house and continue your search.

It sounds as though the house was already priced to reflect the work that needed to be done hence getting offers from multiple parties. You yourself came to this conclusion after looking at other houses.

You hadn’t got your finances in order and therefore weren’t in a position to make a serious offer which the EA would have Sussex out. On top of that, you make a cheeky offer of over 10% below asking price.

And now you want to try and gazump the buyers. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Sussed. Not Sussex

@AliceRR I wouldn't in future come on AIBU and ask AIBU if you don't like being told you are!

You're not coming back because the answers are mainly telling you you are being unreasonable!

The estate agent is working for the vendor not YOU! They get a full price offer (to someone able to proceed) the vendor accepts and they take property off the market. Why would they contact you?

You still haven't answered what recourse you should have?

Yes I’m intrigued as to what recourse you think you could have. Compensation?

DH and I viewed a house about four weeks ago. We really liked it, we said it could be our dream house, perfect area, nice street, nice house but needs everything doing (windows and doors, bathroom, kitchen, decorating etc)

On the market for £295 which is a good for a 3 bed detached in that area but would be worth more when done up.

You acknowledge that the house would be worth more if it were in better condition. And so apparently, did the vendors hence putting it on the market at a price that reflected the work that needed doing.

But you still went in 35k below, which would have been interpreted as a cheeky offer.

That’s why the EA wrote you off as not being serious. HTH

This house buying marklarky will be the death of us all! I have a friend whose house is on the market and she had an offer from someone who had to sell TWO houses. It transpires that they cannot afford to buy friends house until these are sold.

That isn't what she said though. She made the offer and then when they were trying to validate it turns out that they needed to sell both other houses. It had to be explained to the potential buyer that they aren't in a position to make offers!

I still think the women went away wondering why her offer wasn't accepted!

Sorry - but you are drip feeding info. I strongly suspect you didn't go in with your offer, proof of funds and a tenant lined up. That is why you weren't taken seriously (and you also wanted the house as cheap as possible!)

Bottom line is it’s always a risk putting in a lower offer that someone else doesn’t offer higher ready to roll.

The EA should have notified you of the other offer but he wasn’t to know you were thinking of increasing it.

When considering properties I think a) what would I like to pay ideally and b) what would I’d be prepared to pay if there was competition.

If you’d factored in competition you might have made a higher offer to start with.

Just to clarify the offer we made was fair at the time and reflected work required

I don't think 35k off a house of that value is particularly fair. And evidently neither did the vendors, the other buyers or yourself actually.

Well done the vendor for not changing and allowing you to gazump.

You seem surprised that people aren't falling over themselves to sympathise with you because your attempt to gazump someone was unsuccessful. I get that you feel disappointed OP but I can assure you it's nothing compared to having an offer accepted on a house only to have the rug pulled from under you.

I don’t believe that someone looked at a house that was listed for 295 and offered 150. Nope, sorry. Did not happen.

But they didn’t know you had suddenly changed your mind and could afford the house without selling yours.

From what the EA saw was you and your DH putting in a low offer and not having your house on the market to sale or on the market to rent.

When you view a place you have to tell them what position you are in and normally your address so even if you hadn’t already said your house wasn’t on the market yet they would’ve been able to check anyway.

All the EA saw was a time waster.

I don’t believe that someone looked at a house that was listed for 295 and offered 150

? Do you mean the OP? She said they offered £260k? Or have I missed someone else on the thread who did that?

I understand the disappointment but I don't think you were in a position to put an offer in. If I was the owner of the house I would reject your offer even if you went over the asking price, I've been messed around too much in the past by people who either haven't sold yet or who claim they'll go into rented then don't or by people who claim they're going to buy my home as a second home...makes the chain to messy to be worth it.

If you havent sold your house you cannot be in a position to make an offer. Stop looking until you have sold. Even if you have to go into rental

MardyArabella I can believe it, I've heard of similar goings on! It does explain why the vendor wasn't willing to listen though.

That makes no sense. If you’d put that low offer in and the agent had told you there was no point til your house was sold, why didn’t your DH open his mouth and say no we are keeping our house to rent out and have the monies all sorted.

@soydora “as we were told there was one other party in a similar position to ours and that the previous offer was £150k”

That was from ops most recent post

They may have a cash buyer who can move quickly and without any hassle. It isn't always about the cash.

But if you want to put in a better offer, including your preparedness to move quickly, then do it. The EA is duty bound to pass it on to the vendor.

Ah ok apologies, I thought you meant the OP had offered £150k. I missed the bit about the other offer.

Much better to tell the EA you would be interested if the sale fell through, rather than trying to gazump

The buyer's finances could always fall through, be unreasonably delayed, be messing about trying to get some off too

I would have been irritated anyway by being contacted directly - it's why I've always used EAs -
but
trying to gazump tells me how little regard you have about people keeping their word on a deal.
So I would be even more wary of you if you continued to try gazumping

Ah, I see. You didn't phone the EA and say you were now in a proceedable position plus could up the offer, because you were hovering about waiting to see if they'd come back and accept your first cheeky one. Gotcha.

In your opening post you state that the price of £295k was good and for a 3 bed detached in that area and would be worth more when done up and yet you still offered £260k.
You tried for a bargain price hoping that no one else would spot it potential in the way you did.
Unfortunately you lose out as some one else did and the sellers have decent morals so won’t get into a bidding war.

Even when you decided it was worth asking price you only offered 280K?

If you thought it was worth asking then others will likely have come to the same conclusion. I would suspect the accepted offer was higher than 280K.

Whatever happened, you did not make your position clear to the agents. You could have been proactive and called and told them your position had changed and you were keeping your current house. You chose not to do this and somebody else offered in the meantime. The agents were not obligated to advise you of this.