Lost dream house due to advice of estate agents

[Jade348]

I recently found the perfect house me and my fiancé are currently living with his parents and have been desperately saving to buy our first house together. We wanted a specific area and the perfect house in our price range came up. We went to view the house which needed work doing to it. We put in an over just slightly below the asking price to start off. We was sent an email to advice that there were other people interested on Monday and to be patient with the estate agents as the seller was away. I asked the estate agent if they would make me aware if our offer had been out offered as we was willing to increase a substantial amount. The estate agent advices me to hold off as this was very likely to go to best and final offers as all party’s were very similar positions and similar offers. I went into the estate agents on Wednesday and told them I was feeling very nervous because I really wanted the house I asked for advise on what I should do they advised me to wait and they will be in contact after the seller had been into the office Thursday. Today was the day I waited for a call it got to 1pm I had not received a call, I made a call to the office to make sure they didn’t want me to put the offer in then they said they had the seller in front of them and would be in touch. 4:30pm I received a call to advise that the seller had chosen not to go to best and final offers and picked one of the offers on the table. I am heartbroken I feel I was misadvised we was willing to offer a lot more but they didn’t give us the opportunity, now they are just saying it’s not their choice but the sellers! I understand that but I asked on two occasions for advise on what to do could they not have told me to increase offer if I was willing to do so? Anyone else been in a similar situation. I am not feeling very positive this is the second time we have lost out, we have a 3 year old and we need our own space. We contacted the estate agents explained he asked what was we willing to go to which I told him. he said he would put it to the vendor ( which tells me it must have been higher than what was on the table) the seller said thank you very much but he’s old school and doesn’t want to let anybody else down. I will certainly be learning from this.

[RockinHippy]

I agree with not putting your heart & soul into the house until you have way more information though. Our house vendor turned out to be a nightmare & loads of non obvious stuff wrong with the house too, we didn't buy in the end

[Tawdrylocalbrouhaha]

I would put a note through the vendor's door just to make sure there's no shenanigans afoot (ie the estate agent's sister buying the house). I can't think of a single good reason for an estate agent not to encourage you to make a higher offer.

However, the seller may just like the look of another buyer better - that of course is their choice to make.

[Bringbackthestripes]

I hope what you learn from this is that if there is a house you really love, and you have the money, offer the full asking price. You put in an offer under the asking price and it was rejected, there may have been similar offers but I imagine they went with the highest one.

[Knittedfairies]

Even if you had put in the highest offer, the seller is not obliged to sell to you though; they can choose which offer to accept.

[mumwon]

send a letter to vendor & say that if things don't work out you are still interested & you wont mess around with price/offer - things can go wrong with any purchase & still could with this - BUT- in the meantime keep looking - we have had this several times over the years & multiple sales & purchases & invariable we landed up with afar better house than the "dream"

[BettyDuMonde]

Vendors with choices often go for a middling offer rather than the top one, to avoid the risk of a mortgage valuation lower than the offer price.

[Belenus]

I'm starting to feel sorry for the people who've had their offer accepted by a seemingly decent vendor.

Likewise. All the putting begging letters through the door wheedling about wanting a family home is quite nauseating. Who knows what the chosen buyers' circumstances are? It's quite possibly their dream home. Look out for a thread asking if they've been gazumped!

[XXcstatic]

I'm not saying this to be mean: I hate posters who bitch about spelling etc for the sake of it. Lots of people have had disrupted educations, lots of people have difficulties with written communication, and I know English may not be your first language, but...

...your OP is really hard to follow. Your grammar and spelling are poor. If I received an offer written like this - either as an estate agent or a vendor - it would put me off. I would worry that you might lack the skills to do all the formalities for a house purchase - mortgage etc. Your communication style makes you sound chaotic and a bit immature. I realise this may be totally unfair as I don't know you - but neither does the vendor.

In the future, maybe get someone else to read over anything sent to the EA or vendor? Also think about how you come over in person. The EA only makes a profit if the sale happens: a higher offer is no use to them if the sale falls through. They are obliged by law to put all offers to the vendor, but they will also be advising the vendor on which potential buyer is the best bet - and that may not be the one offering the most money. You need the EA to be telling the vendor that you are a reliable and organised buyer, with the ability to see the sale through.

[WhatFreshHell]

Agree with PP who advise putting in an offer for the full asking price if it's a house you really love. I have spent a lifetime buying and selling houses, and have never offered under the asking price for anything I really, really want. I would also always choose to sell to a cash buyer, if I had several lined up and none had offered the full price.

I would say, too, OP, that there's no such thing as the perfect house. There are many, many houses which you will be happy in. Learn from this one, but don't think that it's the only house for you.

[blue25]

The vendor sounds great. Gazumping is horrible. Agree that vendors sometimes want to sell to a particular buyer e.g. No kids, older people

[AlexaAmbidextra]

how upset you are that your agent give you bad advice

But it wasn’t OP’s agent. It was, and always is, the vendors agent.

I’m also a bit at so many on this thread encouraging OP to try to fuck over the people who’ve already had their offer accepted. Presumably they’d all be perfectly fine if it happened to them?

[SparkyBlue]

We lost out on a house as the other buyers had cash and we were getting a mortgage. They went with (in their opinion) the easier option and accepted a lower price but what they felt was a hassle free sale. It's their house they can accept whatever bid they choose.

[Treefloof]

Agree that vendors sometimes want to sell to a particular buyer
e.g. No kids, older people
Yup, we got this house because we offered the exact asking price (the house was worth the offer) and because we are slightly older, with no young children. The street demographic was their concern. I dunno why?

[LuckyLou7]

When we found the house of our dreams (downsizing to live on the coast) we offered above the asking price - not by much - and made it clear we were cash buyers with no chain. Six weeks later we moved in. That sounds smug and unhelpful, sorry, but if you really want a particular house, don't fanny about with lower than asking price offers if you can afford more. Good luck next time

[averystrangeweek]

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if the buyer the vendor has been steered towards chosen just happens to be selling their own house through the very same estate agent. So two lovely lots of commission for them.

[reallyanotherone]

If the ea had passed on the offer though surely they should have told o/p it had been refused to give the o/p the chance to offer higher.

That’s the way it usually goes?

I do suspect the EA has been a bit dodgy as if they want the best price (and therefore bigger commission) they would usually come back for a higher offer.

Unless the accepted offer was in a better position to buy quickly.

O/p, and I do mean this in a nice way, if you do write notes for the door please, please get someone to read it and check grammar and spelling. You’re confusing a lot of words and/or using the wrong tenses- if I had a letter like that I’m afraid I wouldn’t have much confidence in you as a buyer.

[YoThePussy]

Just under two years ago we were selling a house. A couple offered less than we were hoping for and upped their offer when we said no to the first. Their final offer was slightly less than another but because we liked the sound of them we accepted their offer. If the other person had put a note through the door it would have been torn up unread. We treated the couple as we would hope to be treated ourselves.

Heard from them last week, they love our old house and are very happy there. Result in our opinion.

[JazzyBBG]

Put a letter through the door. The estate agent of the people we were buying off was useless and hadn't even passed our offers on. We got the house.

[LyingInAFieldOfDaffodils]

I echo what others are saying. The estate agent is working for the vendor, they are absolutely not working for you. You took a calculated risk putting in a low offer - if you had wanted it that much, you should have gone in higher. I would learn from your mistake

[Oysterbabe]

It could just be that one of the others was in a better position than you. My inlaws just bought a house for 10k less than the other offer on the table because they are cash buyers with no chain.

[Alsohuman]

Amazed at how many people seem to think gazumping is a perfectly fine thing to do. A letter through my door would go straight in the bin.

[Houseonahill]

I was we were.

[greendale17]

Just accept that you lost out. Don’t put your begging letter through the door. That wouldn’t impress me as a seller

[Meandwinealone]

WTAF did you think would happen.
You’d just start an auction and hopefully win.

Jesus some people