To be gutted we’ve lost the house?

[DisneyMadeMeDoIt]

DH and I had been looking for our dream family home. I’m 17+3 and we need to move before baby comes (can’t stay here).

We finally found a horse we both ADORE! Our house has just gone onto the market (we live in a VERY popular area) has lots of interest and 5 cash buyer viewings booked this weekend (houses around here tend to sell within a week).

We had told estate agents for the new house all of this - there was one other interested party who had made a ‘VERY low offer’ and been rejected.

DH and I were going back to view this weekend - with parents and have agreed AIP with mortgage provider...etc.

So as long as we got an offer on ours this weekend (good chance we will) we were fully planning to offer- but we got a call this morning to say the other interested couple have made an increased offer (below asking price) and it’s been accepted.

We are gutted and feel like back to square one. Also a little surprised they didn’t postpone accepting this offer until after our scheduled viewing (they know how keen we are).

Anyway - EA says we can still submit an offer (as we have already viewed) and it will be considered but we can’t view again or show our parents 😒 disappointing

Is it worth holding out any hope for this house?
Is it worth submitting an offer?

We both just feel so deflated now

I think DH and I are just very deflated and torn between a ‘we should probably just accept this is gone- regardless of whether we sell ours this weekend’ and ‘sod it if we sell ours this weekend we’re gonna go all out to get this house and put a higher offer in!’

Maybe the seller was in a similar position to you and wanted to secure an offer on their own house so they could go in on their dream property?

I know i am missing the point but the relevance of being 17 weeks and 3 days pregnant is what?

The answer is literally in the 1st line of the opening post - she wants to move before the baby comes!

Sorry, I cannot resist asking.. where on earth do you live where people are queuing up to buy your house for cash, you have fab views but have students living next door. Not in a million years would I want to live next door to ever changing students

OP, I suggest you worry about it again once you have accepted an offer from a cash buyer. Then you will be in a very different position from the one you are in now, namely ' I know we have only just put the house on the market, but we are likely to sell it soon, honestly'.

For future offers, I wouldn't wait for your parents to come and give their view, either. If you're old enough to have a baby, you're old enough to decide which house you want to buy, surely? Especially if time is tight...

The EA was legally obliged to put the other offer forward.

Remember the EA doesn't work for you, what you're getting is a free service which is incidental to the aim of achieving a sale for the vendor who will ultimately be paying the fees.

They don't care how much you want the house, their sole interest is securing the best offer. If you were the vendor that's what you would want them to be doing for you.

YABU

People buying here put up with students in exchange for AMAZING location

This ^ is hysterical

As Sunglasses123 said, NOBODY is going to choose to live next to a student let because of an "amazing" location.
Don't get me wrong, there may be queues of wannabe student landlords who might like to buy your house, but don't kid yourself an 'amazing location' would be enough for a family to want to live next door to a student let.

@sunglasses123

It’s a Northern City.
I’ve just checked right move and the only other house in our area (several streets either side of us) which was listed 1 week ago has now sold STC. It was very similar to ours.

You can NEVER say a house WILL sell, but I’ve been stalking right move for months watching the comings and goings of houses around us (how long they are listed for, what prices they sell for...etc I find it interesting)

So it might sound like I’m boasting about my ‘irresistible’ house but if I didn’t say those things I’d just be ‘drip feeding’.

Given that this is all about our buying position - the likelihood of us selling is a relevant factor!

The thing I find difficult is, whilst I understand that you need to have sold your house in order to be in the ‘strongest position to move’ what are you supposed to do if you sell your house and can’t find what you want?

We had been ‘browsing’ right move for months and really didn’t see anything we loved. With baby on the way I gave DH and I a kick up the bum to view good options/get ours on the market. But this house is the first we’ve agreed on!

If we now accept an offer this weekend but don’t manage to get this house. It could easily be long after baby that we manage to find another house like this. We aren’t going into renter accommodation as won’t ‘move twice’ with a newborn in the mix. So won’t we just end up stringing out our buyer for ages???

It seems like selling your house when you don’t have another lined up is kinda irresponsible to your buyer- but you can’t line up another house unless you’ve sold your house.

DH and I are now having this chat about accepting any offers this weekend - if we don’t get the house we want and nothing new and amazing comes on the market we could end up not actually moving till next summer

OP- DH and I had been looking for our dream family home. I’m 17+3 and we need to move before baby comes (can’t stay here).

Now you've just said you'll stay there till next year?!

OP- DH and I were going back to view this weekend - with parents and have agreed AIP with mortgage provider...etc.

Why do you need to take your parents?! Surely you can make a decision by yourselves?

I wonder if DH and I have made a mistake waiting to accept an offer on ours before offering on this house.

Yep. Snooze you lose. If it was your dream home, and houses in your oh-so-popular area go like hot cakes, you should have put in an offer. You hedged your bets and lost. It happens.

I wonder if the area is largely student land and near a university hence the demand. My two children have been to university recently and the houses for students tend to be clustered together. The houses are rather run down but in demand and after all it’s only for a couple of years.

The landlords in my sons area which was a Nothern city btw were always on the look out for properties to buy.

Without a sale of your own the other buyer's offer was the better one, and that's what the EA would be advising the vendor.

You could drop a note through the door telling the vendor how keen you are and ask them to let you know if the current buyer doesn't proceed. Beyond that you just have to accept that someone else got there first.

There will be another house. Maybe a better one.

OP... Generally, if you want to move - even if you haven't found what you're looking for - you need to put your house on the market. Quite apart from anything else, the other people who will be looking at your 'dream house' will already have done this, so will automatically be in a better position.

All this talk of 'amazing' houses and involving your parents is great, but house buying and selling is a business transaction, and you need to be pragmatic. All the more so, once you have children. You will find that there are some things that are absolutely non-negotiable, and others which will have to slide. You might think, for instance, now start to think about schools? It could be an idea to buy a house that isn't so 'amazing' in an area with good local schools, for instance. Or an area with lots of other children of the same age. Or an area where you're pretty sure your investment will remain solid. Or buy a house with scope to make money by renovating. My general rule is that if you don't have an unlimited budget (and most of us don't): buy the worst house in the best road, rather than a house that you just happen to like.

On a slightly different note, I also own student houses, and over my dead body would I buy a house next door to a student let, regardless of how nice any particular group of student tenants might be. Unless I wanted to buy another student house, of course, but that's a bit of a niche market...

@Babypug

We equally can’t move to a house that’s sold to somebody else 😂
So if we can’t find a house which meets our requirements and we agree on, we are stuck here like it or not.

Our parents are our free childcare, they will be spending a lot of time at our new house, hence we value their opinion!

I just tell the estate agents I'm in a position to make an offer. How are they to know you've had an offer on your house, say you have if it makes you feel better.

Well, it's been a long time since I worked in this area, but we used to scrupulously check all the links in the chain before putting an offer forward. That meant ringing and speaking to all the agents, checking mortgages were in place etc. I can't believe this doesn't still happen.

what are you supposed to do if you sell your house and can’t find what you want?

you lose your buyer and you start again

you go into rental until you find your dream house

I am sorry but Our parents are our free childcare, they will be spending a lot of time at our new house, hence we value their opinion!
WTF?!

@ThatMuppetShow
🤔 We have retired parents eager to look after DC when we return to work. (It’s not uncommon amongst our family and friends) I’m not sure how ‘WTF’ this is?

What would you have done if your parents had hated it?!

Ok, I think there is some drip feeding here. The OP seems to expect the owners of this dream house to read her mind, sell her house immediately and allow anyone the OP chooses to look at their house before an offer is made.The vendors just won’t do that. I wouldn’t!

Oct is not a good month to sell because of its proximity to Xmas. Only time will tell whether your house will sell quickly. The massive red flag as mentioned earlier is the students next door which is why I suspect you have a house that a student landlord would be interested in but even then it needs to be at the right price and honestly - most people think their house will sell quickly.

So...if I understand it correctly, the seller has accepted an offer and taken the house off the market, hence no more viewings, but the estate agent is nevertheless encouraging you to gazump the current buyer in the belief that they can then persuade the seller to see pound signs, abandon their principles and dump the current buyer? Well, good luck seeing that deal through to completion. Make sure you use a no-buy-no-fee conveyancer and don't spend too much on a survey, as I'm pretty sure you'll be starting all over again before long.

As Sunglasses123 said, NOBODY is going to choose to live next to a student let because of an "amazing" location.

There’s no way on earth I would buy a house next to a student let. Sorry OP.

I think your logic is clouded by the fact you've only just got your husband to agree to the move at all, and had to cajole him into agreeing to this 'dream' house, so now you're panicking in case you end up back at square one.

You're being a bit idealistic and assuming others should let you have what you want simply becauae you want it - sometimes you get that lucky in house buying, sometimes you really don't. I think you need to be a bit more prepared for house hunting because I don't think you're being very realistic at the moment.

We made an offer when not proceedable (a good offer to reflect that and said we’d sort our situation in a week).

It wasn’t accepted which I can understand. Three weeks later, we got a call as the original offer they accepted withdrew.

I’m typing from the bedroom of that house now.

Are you aware, OP, that telling vendors ‘we have cash buyers waiting’ is standard sales technique to get you to sign up to them?

Are you also aware of how the housing market has slowed due to Brexit? It’s also an iffy time of year for purchasers as many are not keen to potentially be moving over Christmas.

Don’t count those chickens yet!