Viewing a property with an offer already accepted by the vendors

[TurquoiseDress]

We viewed a property at the weekend, is within our budget and the area we would like to live in.

That evening, I contacted the vendors & asked for a second viewing this weekend coming.

A couple of days later I noticed that the property was now listed as "under offer" on Rightmove.

When I got back in touch with the vendors, they admitted that they had accepted an offer but were more than happy for us to come back for a viewing.

I'm completely new to this property buying game, so please bear with me.

To my mind, if they've accepted an offer that's kind of it, isn't it?
I guess they want us to view again, so that we hopefully offer & then they can decide whether ours is better than the one they already have on the table.

Is this normal practice to have a property under offer but viewings are still going ahead?

If it was me & I'd had my offer accepted on a property, I'd be quite annoyed if the vendors continued to have viewings & possibly reject my offer later down the line.

So, forgive my stupidity, but is this how the property game works?!

I thought 'under offer' usually meant two things:
-offer is close to what vendor wants, but is low
-offer is acceptable, but buyers haven't had an offer on their place yet / got funds lined up

In both cases I thought the offerers were usually aware that it would continue to be marketed as their position is too tenuous to demand the property isn't marketed.

My BIL and SIL were in the second position and waited a worrying month trying to sell their house. The vendors of the house they wanted continued to market it - and got other offers - but theirs was higher, and they did sell their house, so it all worked out!

If you are dealing with the vendors directly can't you just ask them - is it that an offer is 'on the table' or are you proceeding to next stage, survey etc? They are very different things.

Well I asked about their situation- they have accepted an offer, have solicitors in place (whether instructed or not I do not know) & intend to take the property off the market at the end of the week.

But are still allowing us to come over this weekend.

I think I've answered my own question...

Instructing a solicitor means nothing really - if you're planning to move you'll need them anyway, it's not like paying a non-transferable mortgage admin fee. I would still go and look if it was me, because it looks like they've been sorely tempted but are giving you a chance to make an offer. I would bet the other offer was low and at the bottom end of 'acceptable' range and they are hoping you'll offer a bit more.

Our EA only ever marks properties as 'under offer' right up to completion. And they cancel all viewings once an offer has been accepted generally. They didn't ask us if we wanted to stop viewings once we had accepted an offer, they just did it. I guess some people might say they want to do otherwise.

The terminology with no fixed meaning thing is confusing and unhelpful.

Going to see the property again later today.

We've now got reservations due to everything that happened yesterday with the referendum.

It's a 3 bed (large master, teeny tiny 2nd & 3rd) flat, needs quite a bit work doing- mainly modernisation to kitchen & bathroom.

We're getting a bit twitchy about everything now.

The property would suit us for maybe the next 5 years or so but after then we'd be hoping to buy a house, with a garden etc.

To be honest, this property isn't ideal but we felt as if it's now or never to get out of the rental trap we're in. We'd be taking on a pretty sizeable mortgage too- more than £300,000!

Now I'm concerned about negative equity in the near future and us being stuck there several years down the line.

Turquoise where are you buying? We are in London and are getting closer to exchange (I think) but are wobbling now. Our new flat is not a forever home at all.

It's in SE London, don't want to say exact place but zone 4/5.

Yes it's all a bit worrying. We're trying to take the approach that we are looking to buy a home for our family, not an investment/pensions vehicle.

We do need to take a medium/long term approach but the thought of being stuck in a property in negative equity in a few years time is obviously not appealing.

It's a 3 bed flat, no garden (well, communal garden, not quite the same as your own one) but quite well placed for transport etc.

We know that we will want to move on in several years time if not sooner.

The flip side is wanting to get out of this rental trap we are in.

The yesterday afternoon, of all days, the agents emailed to inform us that the landlord wishes to increase our rent (we've been here less than 12 months), but as we are such wonderful & valued tenants, it will only be an increase of 4% on the current rental amount.

Thanks a bunch.

kirinm where are you buying (approximately)?

SE Zone 2 but not yet a particularly desirable area. It's a 1-bed so not a long term home. But we are paying its top value and a 15% drop is nearly £70k lost. I don't know what we are going to do but like you we are stuck in the rental trap.

I'll take the risk on interest rates etc. It's huge negative equity that troubles me.

It is all quite worrying at the moment.

I know there are people who will say just get on with it, you're buying a home etc. Even so, it's the potential for negative equity that is the frightening aspect.

In the past i always figured that negative equity wouldn't really matter, seeing as property prices always rise, over the long term.

But now I can see things much more clearly, couples with young children/more on the way, stuck in properties that they cannot sell due to NE, trying to move up to the next 'rung'.

I just know that me & DH are never going to be like some of our friends who have seen their homes go up in value month by month, they have not needed to spend a penny on improvements etc.

All I want is for us to have a home, but not to take out a huge scary mortgage and then spend the next few years or more struggling with NE, unable to re-mortgage let alone move.

Worrying times indeed

I think it's interesting that you say you'd make your final offer conditional on them stopping marketing the property/accepting viewings when you're willing to be complicit in them denying that to the offer they acknowledge having accepted. Why would you trust them? Why would they trust you? Apparently the London market is buoyant after the referendum so don't let the doomsayers worry you. The £ has already rallied and the markets finished up yesterday so there is no reason to fear a housing market crash (any more than on any other day)

There are no hard and fast rules at all. Most decent people accept an offer and don't allow further marketing and thus gazumping.

With your vendors, op, it sounds like you viewed, then the next couple viewed and made and offer which was accepted, then you rang up and asked to view again? At which point the vendors or their Estate Agent should have said "we've accepted an offer so it would be a waste of your time right now, but you could ring and check again in a week or two in case it looks like the buyers aren't moving quickly enough."

^^ That is standard practice on most UK house sales. It is NOT "perfectly normal practice" to encourage gazumping, Our Blanche, you are talking absolute rot.

How many buyers do you know who would be willing to lay out the money and time involved with surveys and solicitors to get a house purchase underway, all the while knowing that the house is still on the market and might be sold to someone else without notice? I'd have a little bet that it is none.

Well, that was the whole point of me posting in the first place.

From my (limited) experience, an offer was made, accepted & all future viewings were cancelled.

We're not looking to "gazump" anyone, it's not financially possible for us!

We viewed the property, later that day I contacted the vendors to organise second viewing, they said yes absolutely come along.

Then I noticed it was under offer.

We are going to offer an amount under the asking price, if they come back & ask us to improve we'll go to asking price or just above.

If it's not good enough, we'll just walk away & keep looking at other places- believe me, we do not have the means (or the will) to engage in some bidding frenzy.

The reason why we would ask them to stop actively marketing the property if our offer is accepted, is precisely that we do not want to pay out for solicitors & surveys etc if somebody is going to come along & thrown more money at it.

It's been on the market over 2 months & reduced...there are lots of others in a similar situation in the area too.

So now you know that it is not best practice, why are you going for the second viewing and talking about offering? The vendors have accepted an offer from someone else. You seem to expect different treatment from the vendors (if they accept your offer) than the current buyers are getting .

But bibbity - as an example, say the property is on at £350k. The vendors wanted at least £330k. They have an offer of £325k....

Put property as under offer to show that anyone wanting to offer needs to do so quicksmart. Last chance to get more but resigned to the fact property has been on a while, so...will probably have to accept £325k.

Allow second viewing in the hope of an asking price offer and dilemma over.

That's the kind of scenario I was imagining?

Also who pays for a survey so quickly? Ours have always taken about a month to arrange and have been in conjunction with mortgage offer. This idea you have an offer accepted and pay out £££ in the first week or two is alien to me.

That's really not how it works. If the vendors want a certain amount they should turn down any offers that don't match it. If you are buying a property you need to have a mortgage offer in principle before you offer and you need to appoint a solicitor and book a survey within days. The English system is not perfect, it relies on everyone in the transaction treating all the other parties in the same way they would wish to be treated themselves. I would never proceed with a purchase unless I had written confirmation from the vendor or vendors estate agent that the property was no longer being actively marketed with no further viewings being allowed.

On the contrary - it can work like that. I've seen it happen.

A mortgage in principle is very different to a 'real' mortgage offer. As an example, we are selling our house and it took almost two months from agreeing the sale to the surveyor coming round.

A couple of weeks is nothing in the sale of a property transaction.

As a previous pp said the 'rules' seem different across the country

Ok then batteries, I couldn't give a toss tbh.

The only experience I can speak of is DH's recent sale.

He accepted the offer late December, no surveys, searches or anything happened until well late January.

They completed late April

It was completely ridiculous!

The purchaser was a first timer, we had no chain or purchase going through.

This whole thing has been going on barely a week.

I think, from what I've read on here & on various other sites, on balance, it's very much open to offers at this stage.

If an offer is so totally binding, why didn't the other purchasers ask the vendors to take it off the market straight away?

I don't know exactly what is going on, but the vendors clearly want to see what we have to offer.

So, I imagine, they can't be all that happy with what they've got on the table so far.

To be honest, I don't think our offer is going to set their world on fire.
But it'll be almost the best that we can do right now.

Also it's been on the market since April, the price has been reduced once already.

Maybe 2 potential buyers have come along almost at the same time and they're holding out to see what's the best offer they can get.

I've just been gazumped. We are gutted.

So how did it go have you gazumped the other offer ?

No idea

We've put in an offer 10% below asking price & waiting to see what happens- I imagine it'll be rejected but we'll see