Already made an offer. But seen a better house. What to do?!

[threefeethighandrising]

We've had an offer accepted on a house we've been looking at.

It's not our dream home but ticks lots of boxes, especially that it's near an excellent school. We've been looking a while and it's the first one we've seen which we could fit in, which we could actually afford. I needs work, which we'd carry out over a number of years as we have neither the time nor the money to do it now.

But today, a new house just came on the market. It's lovely! I would be so excited to move there! It suits us perfectly and has a large garden (the one we've offered on has a small garden) and a semi-rural location in an area we love. We could just move in. It's got a very odd layout downstairs, and I'm hoping that'll put other buyers off! (Clutching at straws, me?!!)

It's over-budget (£169K, we can offer £152K) but considering the market is very slow/flat round here, today's news about house prices falling) and that we're cash buyers, I think we may have a chance, however slim.

Going to view it this afternoon.

If we do really love it, what do we do? Can we make an offer on it even though we've already offered somewhere else? How would we find out if they'd accept a low offer without scuppering the first place?

WWYD?

It seems rather odd to me that you made an offer on a house you clearly don't like. I couldn't imagine choosing to live anywhere that I so actively dislike (as you appear to with house no 1).

Why odd?

I can't afford the places I do like.

I need somewhere for my family to live! And for my DCs to be in catchment for a good school.

If we went for character in the same area as house number 1 we'd be looking at a small 2 bed. Not worth it IMO, we'd be so squashed.

House number 1 is well built, much more space than any other house we'd seen (before house number 2) and in catchment.

It's not beautiful but it's got "potential"

Firstly - if doing something like this, it just seems mean to broadcast it - especially when jollydiane has another thread right next to yours running about how she has been let down at the last minute! Granted you are only days into your process but it is not very tactful!

Secondly - you seem to be worried about the sale with No.1 falling through even though you don't like it AND when you have just realised that there are other options which are coming up. You might not get No.2, but then No.3 might be just as good or better. In that sense I agree with bis that it is odd that you feel you have to settle for No.1.

The market is in your favour - why not wait?

I quite appreciate why somebody would make an offer on a house they aren't mad about. Sometimes it's the best of what you can afford. So I would make an offer on the second house. As long as you don't string people along. Somebody did that to us which was really annoying. It was years ago. A seller said they could move out and then delayed and delayed and we had to find somewhere else in the end. Which worked out well. But sellers as well as buyers can let people down.

Firstly, I had no idea jollydiane had a thread about being let down in her sale. However I hardly think letting down a seller who doesn't live in the property, only 3 or 4 working days after we made the offer is quite the same thing as her situation.

I'm sorry if I've added to her upset, it wasn't intentional. But do you really check before posting that other active posters might not be offended by the circumstances of what you write? Really, truly?!

Secondly, yes I am worried about sale number 1 falling through. It's the only chance we've had of being able to buy a family sized home in catchment in the 6 months we've been looking.

Sods law that somewhere better appears a few days later, but it's not about us being flighty! It's that we'll be lucky to be able to afford anywhere in this area. I'm amazed that this second house has appeared.

I'm posting here as I've found mumsnet to be a great source of advice in the past.

• not quite the same thing!

I am a seller as well as a buyer. If our buyers pulled out at this point (2 weeks after offer) I'd be disappointed but not distraught.

If it was at the very last minute that'd be a different thing completely, and that's not what i'm proposing we do at all!

Indeed being here is helping me hurry up our decision, it has to be a speedy one - I don't intend to string anyone along.

i am a nice person in RL, honest!

As for 'market in her favour'.. well, is it? The fact remains that there are a lot of people out there who are still clinging onto a 2006 mindset. There are loads of houses For Sale around here which have been on the market for 2 or more years. They haven't sold because a) obviously the vendor isn't in financial or social dire straits so doesn't have to sell- yet -and b) they're asking too much.

As the recession deepens, a lot of these will actually come down to meet the market- but many won't, unless they have to be sold to meet care home costs. The biggest gripe you'll hear from EAs is the paucity of property on their books. Bear in mind that most property in the UK is owned by over 60s. They are less reliant on The Job than just about every first or second time buyer. Many of these home owners will have retired on eye-wateringly generous terms, by today's under 40's standards, come their day, 40 years hence! (but an example of The Former is my mum, 79, pin-money jobs all her life, dad in 'middle-management' all his life til his retirement at 57...), mentions she gets £17,000 pa as a pension (as she sits alone in her 4 bedroom, £400,000 house...)...

I, too, completely understand the pain of having your offer on your place withdrawn. But the UK Method allows this. Campaign to stop it rather than blame individuals who have to work within The System as it stands. The OP is no doubt aware that she, too, may one day get a 'firm' offer withdrawn. Them's the breaks in this tawdry situation. Fight against this System, not those caught up and trying to do the best for themselves and their families, that they can, within it.

Odd because from what you post you clearly hate house no 1. I couldn't imagine buying a house I hated. You will never be happy with it.

Why don't you sell your house and then rent? That way you'll be able to move quicker when a house you like comes on to the market (and more likely to have your offer accepted).

The OP doesn't 'hate' the house she's offered on, she's accepted that 'it'll do'.

Her apparent 'hatred' is because she's found something she likes more. She doesn't know if the new house owners would accept her lower offer yet. She may need to readjust her expectations towards House One if 'Better House' falls through.

It is the nature or house hunting, love/hate/will do/ can accommodate/MUST HAVE etc etc.

It's important to recognise that 'Another Will Come Along', of course, but it's hard when you're in the midst of it. And we can all look back in the cold light of day and say 'HOW much was I initially prepared to pay for THAT?'!... once it's fallen through!

Tansie, thanks for understanding!

bisjolympics i don't hate house number 1! It's not my ideal home, and not our "forever home". All things being well we'll be in a better financial situation in a few years and if we get house number 1 I expect to move on at some point.

But I won't hate living there as it'll be ours, we'll make it nice :)

It is a really good option for DS and that's the most important thing for me at the moment.

You're lucky if you're in a position where you don't have to compromise, but please understand that some of us do, and actually are also able to make the best of it!

We've been renting for 2 years already actually and I'm fed up with it, I want our own place we can put our stamp on. I'm sick of bloody magnolia!

Can you really not go higher on house no 2 if it is your dream house and needs no money spending on it?

Sadly there are very few houses in town with even medium sized gardens in our price range - most have small patios.

House 1 has a tiny garden. However it's a semi, with a reasonable space out the front and round the side which is all concrete. I've seen other houses in that area which have that bit as lawn, and hedges for privacy all round, so the garden kind of wraps round the house. That's how I'm going to get my garden out of house 1, but will take a few years before we can afford to get all the concrete up as there are more pressing things to spend our money on there.

It's a house with potential. We'll make it nice, but it'll take time. We certainly did with the place we're selling, it looks absolutely gorgeous now!

I really wish we could Olympicmix!

£152k (or possibly at a big stretch, £153K) is the absolute highest we could go, we've done quite a bit of juggling to get there!

Has anyone actually done this?

I'm keen to know how it worked out!

I don't like to stay cross with anyone so here is my practical suggestions:

1. Put the offer in to house no2 if it is accepted the withdraw from house no.1 but check if there is a complete chain for house no2.
2. Check you buyer has a mortgage in place and what their expectation of moving so they don't incur any extra costs (for example having to extend rental agreement/mortgage offer)
3. Be aware that House No.1 will expect you to engage a solicitor and do a survey. If you engage a solicitor you may want to consider a 'no move no fee'. You will be liable to pay for the searches (£275) or there abouts.
4. If offer is accepted then remove 'rightmove' from your favourites and never look at it again as the grass will always be greener.
5. If you see a sobbing mummy at the school gates because her house sale has fallen through don't mention your dilemma or you might find a fruit shoot put somewhere. .

thanks for the olive branch jollydiane, much appreciated

1. Good advice thanks. Apparently there's no chain. Actually both house 1 and 2 are empty and "no chain".

1. We're very lucky in that our rental is now on a rolling contract, so we can leave at a months notice anytime. The buyers claim to have a mortgage in place. That sale will take forever probably though as the local council there takes forever to do searches, so I hear!

1. The solicitor we've engaged is "no move no fee". However if you read the small print, it's only valid once! Once you've used up your one chance you have to pay even if it falls through the next time. I wonder if this will use up my "chance". I'm hoping as they can't have done much yet (I only passed on their details today!) they'll let me off this one! We're going to offer tomorrow and try to get this done really quickly. if we are going to do this, i want to do it as quickly as possible. We can't afford to chuck money away on searches if we don't need them anyway!

1. it'll be hard to break the habit! Been looking at it religiously, every day for nearly a year now!! But yes I'll have to stop at some point!!

1. Noted!

I hope you find a good buyer soon and it all works out brilliantly in the end :)

jollydiane I've just read your thread, I'm not surprised you're livid!

For the record, please can I reiterate that me pulling out definitely won't mean the collapse of a long chain at the last minute!!

There are no onward chains involved here at all, and our solicitors haven't even started speaking yet. It's really early days.

Have you put your offer in on house 2 yet? Fingers crossed for you!! :)

Hey Rockchick!

Well... had a chat with DP. We didn't get a proper chance last night.

Although house 2 is beautiful and has a garden to die for (massive and beautiful!). We're coming round to the idea that house 1 is actually more suitable after all.

It's been a really useful conversation, and has helped us make sense of what our priorities are. importantly, this isn't our forever house, but it is where our DCs will spend a large part of their formative years, and we agree that we need to choose this based largely on what's best for them.

So:

House 1: Pros

• next to an Ofsted-outstanding school, which a friend of DS's already goes to
• not far from wide open spaces (public land and very beautiful) which DCs could play in
• lots of good local amenities (sports facilities, park, local children's teams, a library, community centre, good range of independent shops and a Co-op)
• lots of potential for improvement / extending when we can afford it
• all of us will probably make friends more easily there. (Simply more people and not so Tory! We possibly fit in a bit better there)
• more space

cons:

• it's an ugly house with no charm!
• lots of work to do
• very small garden

House 2: Pros:

• stunningly beautiful!
• would feel excited to move there!
• amazing garden which DC could play in. We could add an outside office if we needed to
• large bedrooms

Cons:

• not nearly so many amenities for DC
• Much smaller area, so fewer DCs for ours to make friends with. It's important to me that our DC have friends locally, it's something I missed out on as a child.
• DP and I are also less likely to make friends as easily - I get the impression it's a fairly Tory area. (We have "Guardian Reader" written all over us ) Not saying I can't be friends with a Tory! But it is easier to make friends with people with similar values.
• The local school - although rated good, is CofE, which I'm not 100% comfortable with, being a 3rd generation atheist!
• The road it's on could be quite claustrophobic - a quiet cul-de-sac. Would prefer edge of village location really if we're going to go semi-rural.
• would have to live with the world's smallest kitchen for a while! (although could make use of dining room for some kitchen stuff)

It's hard as I had no idea such a beautiful place might be even nearly within our price range, I'd settled for ugly!

But I think we actually may let it go and go back to House 1. That could still change though!

We're both still really keen on house 2 we haven't decided yet for sure yet - DP had to go out - we'll continue the conversation later.

Any to anyone who's managed to get to the end of this essay of a post, hats off to you!!

I'll keep you updated.

Hi threefeet, just read your latest post and wanted to say, ugly ain't all bad. We moved to a box-ticking/'head' (as opposed to heart) house in March, which made more sense in terms of area/school than in terms of the house itself. I had a wobble like you've had, but it was definitely the right thing to do. As long as the house is okay and you don't really hate it, it's worth making the compromises for amenities, open space and a school that would suit your DC. After only a short time, the house becomes your home and those feelings for me overrule any old longings for fireplaces etc. It is no way our forever home, but it is the right home for now, a good place for our little ones and a decent stepping stone to the next place, maybe when secondary school rolls around. Good luck with your decisions and hope it goes smoothly whatever.

Thanks pinkdelight, that's reassuring :)

Your place sounds very much like out House 1 in terms of what it means to you.

"It is no way our forever home, but it is the right home for now, a good place for our little ones and a decent stepping stone to the next place, maybe when secondary school rolls around. " I could have written exactly that.

"After only a short time, the house becomes your home and those feelings for me overrule any old longings for fireplaces etc"

^that's what I hope will happen and i don't see any reason why not.

This wobble has made me realise quite how important a garden is to me, for the DC. House 1 does have the potential to make the garden bigger by reclaiming some of the concrete round the side and front of the house. I now realise that this needs to be bumped up the priority list.