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.

[Arnoldthecat]

Maybe the EA had a buyer in mind already....

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

"1) I have never made an offer on a house before so yes I did think the point was to put a starting offer in and work your way up."

Well - if you watch programmes like Location, Location, Location, @Jade348, you'll have seen Kirsty and Phil advising people to do exactly this - and quite often getting the property for under their maximum budget, so I don't think you were wrong to do this at all!

And whilst the agents are working for the vendors, not you, if they knew that you were willing to up your offer if necessary, I am surprised that they didn't come back to you and say that there was a higher offer on the table, and give you the chance to put in a counter offer - because that would have been in their client's best interests.

It may be,though, that there were other factors about the other offer that made it attractive to the vendors - maybe they were cash buyers or had chain free, and were in a better position to move quickly than you were.

I hope that you find your perfect house, and it all goes smoothly for you next time.

[Patr1ckJane]

I think you just got really unlucky. When I sold mine I had 3 offers all at full asking prices and the estate agent basically said you can go back to all of them (and the lower offered) and say best and final offers or you can just pick someone.

I asked my estate agent the pros and cons of all the offers ie had the lower offer know there were some at asking prices and were they 1st time buyers and their positions etc.

I ended up choosing an at asking price FTB who had a Mortagae in place because I wanted a quick sale (to secure my dream house) but also because they reminded me of me when I brought! My estate agent did advise I could have got more money if id pushed but that wasn’t for me

[KingLooieCatz]

It might feel to the vendor like when your insurance company tell you your renewal is £700. You try somewhere else and get a better deal, say £500. You ring your current insurers and say you're not renewing as you've got it cheaper elsewhere. They then start pulling better offers out the hat, say £480. By this stage you're just pissed off with them and ask yourself why they didn't offer you their best deal in the first place if they wanted your custom. It sticks in your throat to accept it so you go with the £500 insurance. You took a gamble and it didn't pay off.

I think sometimes in Location x 3 Kirsty and Phil will say if there's a lot of interest you need to stretch yourself to your best offer at the outset, if you really want it. We did for our current home, with which I deliberately did not fall in love as there was loads of interest. I didn't even look that closely and didn't even notice certain features still final visit day before we moved in.

Some people choose to buyers on what might seem to you like crazy criteria, it helps if you click if you meet at viewing stage, after you've been through a couple of sales/purchases and know how tricky it can get you'll want buyers that seem capable, honest and keen to get on with it.

Other crazy criteria I have known - will take care of the garden that has been lovingly tended for years and not cut trees down and pave it over, will continue feeding the birds, will keep an eye on the elderly neighbor that the vendors are fond of, will use the train and not add to the crazy village car parking problem, will not piss off the neighbours, with whom the vendors are close friends and would like it to stay that way after they move, will be patient as the vendors find and buy their own dream family home.

Good luck with it and never believe it's yours until the keys are in your hands.

[Darkstar4855]

Did you have a mortgage agreement in principle? If not get one and show it to estate agents when making an offer. It may be that the other buyer offered less but had a mortgage in place or was a cash buyer and seller preferred the extra speed/security.

When I found my dream house I offered the asking price on condition that the EA took it off the market and didn’t arrange any more viewings. It worked and I got it.

[Mishappening]

An EA once advised us to take our house off the market when a good offer was made. I did not want to as I had my doubts about the buyer, but EA insisted it was the right thing to do. Turned out the buyer had three others houses with offers on and did not pick ours.

In order to still get the property we wanted we had to take out a bridging loan - I was furious!

[Fluffyears]

You have to realise if you love it then there are probably several viewers who slsonlove it. Therefore to be in with a shout you need to put out best offer straight away.