AIBU to walk away from this house purchase?

[Quandaries]

Will try to keep this short.

Viewed a house and loved it 6 weeks ago. Ticked all the right boxes and was very good value for what it was. Offered asking price and it was accepted. Survey done, solicitor engaged etc so at the stage where it’s cost us some money.
Booking deposit has been paid but is refundable (not in Scotland).

We have a large deposit and mortgage is ready to draw down. We’re not in a chain.

Our solicitor was chasing theirs for contracts.

On Thursday I got a call from their agent to say they’ve allowed another viewing from a very insistent couple who are cash buyers and offered £8k more.

Agent now wants us to reoffer and increase on the new buyers’ offer so we’ll be paying £12k above what was agreed. He insists that the house will go for even more if it goes back on the market and says that houses are being snapped up before they go on the market as more people are working from home and this village is very popular for those with just an occasional commute.

I’ve had a look at Right Move and can’t see any evidence of anything other than price drops in the area. I accept that there may be houses selling before hitting the market and I don’t have this data.

My heart loves the house. It’s in a stunning village and really ticks all the boxes in terms of schools etc.

My head is saying we’re actually in a better position than the cash buyer as we’re 100% ready to go and can sign this week whereas they will need to have survey done etc.

Head is also telling me that if the sellers are going to screw us for £8k (for context, that’s a bit over 1% of the purchase price we had agreed), they’ll be a nightmare to deal with and it’s only a matter of time until they come back to us either with a new offer from the other bidders, or pushing to put it back on the market.

I’m also guessing that house purchases slow down a bit in winter, and it’s an area where more Covid lockdown measures are likely so putting it back on the market may mean there aren’t many viewings.

For additional context, we can afford to increase our offer. I’m just loathe to get into a bidding war due to how the vendor has sprung this on us.

But I love the house.

YABU- up my offer
YANBU- walk away

good for you

I would bet my last Dairy Milk bar on the NB's being fake. Yes would be interesting to know if the EA hears back!

I'm concerned that you might be in over your depth and have a gambling problem - they're 4 for a quid at the supermarket

@Oneandzero

*I work in an area that involves a lot of negotiation and integrity, and I can’t sit in a house (pretty as it is!) for the next thirty years knowing I dropped my personal standards because of a nice garden and some marble countertops.*

Oh come off it! Sitting in that garden next summer with a glass of chilled wine and those gleaming counter tops inside... all this would seem a distant memory!

For £5k you can buy and install a fair old chunk of marble elsewhere :)

This is nothing at all like the LTB threads. Apart from it being an inanimate building (albeit one that COULD end up being the backdrop for years of priceless family memories) rather than an actual human, this is right at the very beginning of the 'relationship', that hasn't really properly started yet anyway.

If we're going to liken it to a human romantic relationship, it would be like chatting to somebody you've just met today on OLD, maybe meeting for a coffee, realising that he's a bit of a psycho and then turnign down any future dates. It isn't remotely the same as leaving your husband of 15 years - and the father of your children - because he went on an all-night bender with his mates without telling you.

@Quandaries

We are not in Scotland. I said so explicitly in my first post.

Just to be very clear:

They accepted our offer at the asking price of £775k.

They then, weeks later and after lying by saying that they’d instructed their solicitor to send contracts to our solicitor, accepted an offer of £783k from NB.

They told us that they wanted us to offer £787k to get back in the game, an increase of £12k.

At this stage, we have the benefit of being ready to proceed faster than NB so we call their bluff and increase our offer by 1% to £782,750.

Vendors have now disappeared. As has NB, it seems, leading me to think NB wasn’t a genuine buyer and was a friend or family member putting in dummy bids to create a false bidding war in order to drive our price up.

Therefore I think they never had an offer for £783k and I’m doubly glad we didn’t go straight in at £787k. If we had, I’d guess that the next we heard would have been that NB went higher again and they wanted us to increase again.

As it stands, I don’t know why they’ve disappeared. EA said he’d try to reach them again today but that’s none of my business now.

All of this is moot as vendor has gone AWOL and we’ve withdrawn.

I’m also wondering if they’ve gone AWOL because they’re stalling for time.

Phones off so, as a PP said, they can claim some ‘emergency’ came up they they had to deal with etc.

I think what they’ve done is appalling. It’s one thing to try and get you to match the offer from the so called NB’s, but to have the nerve to try and get you to pay £4K more than the other offer is ridiculous and downright greedy.

Where did they even get that additional £4K figure from? Why wouldn’t just matching the NB offer be enough? It’s just pure greed.

If the EA can’t get hold of them, then they wouldn’t know yet that you’ve pulled out. Hence why I think they’re stalling for time to consider their next move and don’t know yet that it no longer matters. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they came crawling back and these mystery NB magically no longer existed.

Marble worktops aren’t all that - they can be ruined by a glass of red wine accidentally falling over - sorry Sis

Personally, I'd be putting in granite rather than marble worktops. They're less likely to stain.

Used to be product manager for the ICI equivalent of Corian

I don't think anybody can accuse OP of spiting herself 'for the sake of' whatever amount as the vendors have clearly demonstrated that they can't be trusted. Nobody knows just how far they'd try to push it and how many times they'd say "We soooooo want to sell it to you, but the other buyer has just upped their offer by another £XXX, so if you could just match that plus 50%, it's guaranteed yours."

I'm not saying that they're acting criminally, but I always think the same thing about ransomware, where crooks demand £XX in exchange for letting you back into your computer and/or not deleting your files - who in their right mind would think that they will suddenly act honourably once you pay up? Once people show you what kind of a person they are, why would you bother trying to strike a fair deal with them if they have shouted from the rooftops that they don't play fair?

It's absolutely normal, moral and fully acceptable to negotiate ruthlessly over the price of the house, but the time to do that is before you agree on the price and then make a verbal commitment to sell/buy at that price.

Most people wouldn't be happy to gather a trolley-load at Asda if they knew that all the prices, clearly shown on the shelves, might suddenly and dramatically change at the checkout. Just walk away and go elsewhere, is the obvious solution; but what if Sainsburys, Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi, your local mini-market etc. are all doing exactly the same?

op
Can I suggest you check your agent on the allagents.co.uk website website
www.allagents.co.uk/
it might be interesting to see if other buyers have gone through the same - ie is there a con going on

It's absolutely normal, moral and fully acceptable to negotiate ruthlessly over the price of the house, but the time to do that is before you agree on the price and then make a verbal commitment to sell/buy at that price

That. With bells on.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I would bet my last Dairy Milk bar on the NB's being fake. Yes would be interesting to know if the EA hears back!

I'm concerned that you might be in over your depth and have a gambling problem - they're 4 for a quid at the supermarket

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll which supermarket? Asking for a friend...

Good on you OP - I think sellers like this would have been horrendous to deal with. A bullet dodged I think.

harriethoyle

Asda and Morrisons both, I think - unless they've hiked the prices now. For ages, you've been able to pick up a single impulse-bar for 60p next to the till or take a walk to the back of the store and grab yourself a 4-pack for less than twice the price!

Of course, they are the standard 'one portion' bars (I mean the individual ones inside and not the whole pack!) rather than your headstone-sized ones that they always bring out in the run up to Christmas.

Keep one of those in the fridge and either bring it out for a very special treat or use it to knock a burglar unconscious - either way, it's a win

That would really piss me off if I'd done business in good faith and ticked all the boxes and jumped though all the hoops. I'd probably walk away.

If anyone feels sorry for me and wants to send me some Dairy Milk to cheer me up, I’d be up for that.

Or I can give you the address of the house and you can send shitty Caramac bars to the vendors. Totally fine.

@TheoneandObi

That would really piss me off if I'd done business in good faith and ticked all the boxes and jumped though all the hoops. I'd probably walk away.

Yes - and paid £££ for a survey and solicitor fees

I like caramac. Or I used to, not had it for years!

Out of interest OP, do you mind saying what general region you're in?

@Bearbehind

how is the OP supposed to trust these people won't do it again if she extends her offer to what they want?

The vendors can’t be trusted but there’s 2 very relevant points

• No vendors can be 100% trusted with the English system, particularly in a sellers market

• The OP is very close to being able to exchange so there’s limited opportunity for the vendors to further fuck around

^^ This.. It doesn't matter about trusting them once you've exchanged (well they could still pull out but would forfeit loads of cash)

Cheeky fuckers. Place marking to hear what happens next

Actually OP if they do come back to you, agree to proceed but reduce your offer by the £12k they wanted off you...

@EnjoyingTheSilence

I like caramac. Or I used to, not had it for years!

Dont bother. Much like everything else it’s been changed to some sickly sweet inedible shite.

@EnjoyingTheSilence

I like caramac. Or I used to, not had it for years!

Caramac is horrible now. Better to enjoy the happy memories than to have them destroyed by what it has become.

I don’t know why I’m so invested in this 😂 but I am.

I hope they come grovelling back. I wonder if you can send them a bill for survey and solicitor fees to date.