Lost dream house - anyone had this then ended up with the house after all? Success stories please!

[HouseyHausey]

Hello!

We have lived in our current house for 12 years and saw a house which was a slow burn but two viewings and we loved it and decided to place an offer.

1930s detached on a lovely road with great schools. A first time buyer put in a lower offer than us and vendor has gone with them (can't say I blame him) as we're in a chain.

He did this about 5 hours after showing us the house for second viewing and he knew we were in a chain and due to go on the market Tuesday as that was when the agent was coming to take the pics. He said it wasn't a problem and we thought we were in with a chance but it's his prerogative to change his mind.

We're heartbroken and I wondered if anyone had any tales of where this has happened but they've still ended up with the house after the sale falling through?

Have to say, don't think it will as the ftb has proved they have mortgage and deposit in place so it would only fall through on a survey I reckon. Then would we even want it? (Yes, yes yes!! Desperate sod that I am!)

Also, am well aware I'm a complete cow for hoping a sale falls through and we're just starting viewings so karma would mean it would happen to me in return

Thanks thefirstmrsdewinter that's a lovely story!

Were you renting in the interim between it coming on the market again? We'd like to do that but we have a dog and there are no properties that accept pets.

We got our house after initially being outbid. There were already 40 offers on it when we first saw it, very undervalued to start a bidding war, but it was worth a try. We offered and lost.

Two weeks later DH drove past and saw there was still a 'for sale' sign outside instead of the 'sale pending' one that is normal here (USA once an offer has been accepted. He called our realtor and had him enquire. He came back to us and said the sale had fallen through because the buyers had overbid and couldn't get the financing from their bank. He also told us that the vendors' realtor had slipped up and revealed the amount of that winning bid! It was a few thousand over ours.

He advised us to stick with our original offer, we were cash buyers and the house was bank-owned. He reasoned they'd be more prepared to accept our lower cash bid given that they now knew anyone dependent on financing would have the same problem of getting the full amount from their bankers if they were to bid higher.

He was right, we won out over two higher bids dependent on mortgages. Five weeks later we moved in.

Yes! We are in the middle of exchange on both our sale and purchase at the moment. We were originally sue to buy a property that we absolutely fell in love with. We saw it before we had even put our property on the market and were so so happy to discover that it was still available when our property finally sold. But two weeks ago the vendor discovered some legal issues (he had inherited the property from a relative many years ago, but apparently the title transfer had not been done properly) and decided to withdraw it from the market.

We were devastated... but we went straight back out and found something new. It was actually a property that I had seen on Rightmove a few months ago, but when I had called the agent back then I was told that it was under offer. When we had to start looking again I came across the same property again - it turns out that the original offer had fallen through, as had a second offer. We are now heading towards exchange! It is a far, far better option than the previous property, even though we thought that was our dream.

*due, not sue!

I was outbid on around 20 houses, I was getting sick of the viewings being 90 miles away, and sick of putting in an offer to then get knocked back.

I'm a cash buyer, funds with my solicitor so it should have been easier than this. I was going to have a break from viewing when I saw two houses on the same day, both brilliant, the bigger one I lost out to a higher cash offer and the second one was an online auction. I bid on it then I sadly watched the bids go over my upper limit over the next couple of days.

2 weeks later they rang and offered it to me for my bid price, the other bidder had won the auction then pulled out. If I had stretched myself to win it then it would have cost 8k more than now.

So I'm happy, it's a brilliant house, total doer upper but that's what I wanted.

I put a bid in for a house , relying on us selling ours. We won the house, and they waited three month for us to sell ours, so it can be done ...

Well we gutted our dream house fell through yesterday.

Sellers unexpected withdrew the house from the market just before survey.
It's been on the market 3months.

I'm wondering if I should write them a letter just asking why and letting them know if they change their minds to keep in touch but husband thinks thats bordering on weird harassment and won't make any difference.

He says they shown themselves to be flakey vendors

They were older couple mortgage free mobile but wanting to move to a retirement complex that had 3 properties on the market the day we made offer 5k under asking price and they accepted so we assumed no chain.

We 1st time buyers
No chain as rent only have give 1 months notice.
Mortgage agreed and in place subject to valuation/Survey
Large deposit
We have budget upto 250 and need 3beds.

We have tick list

3beds
Large garden
Off street parking either garage or driveway
Within a specific postcode
Room to extend and grow when we have the cash.

I thourght we were good position.

I started looking right move and Zoopla again but husbands thinking everything's crap as its Not same as dream house.

Family and freinds keep telling me something better will come along.

We crushed we had driven past and mentally moved ourselves in and started looking at changes we could make to the house.

3asabird

That's really sad, I personally would drop a letter through.

A slight update - I popped a handwritten note through the vendors door this week (of dream house) and said I hoped he didn't mind the note but we loved the house and I wanted to make sure he was aware of our higher offer (as his estate agent said she wouldn't pass it on until we had an offer.)

Well he emailed me yesterday- a really lovely email and saying he would let me
Know asap if anything changes and best of luck with selling ours. Then he sent me another email asking to see our house on rightmove if we were happy to show him.

I sent him the link and with our first viewing this morning we had an offer for the asking price! Not sure if it will change anything with dream house but i've emailed him to let him know so will see.

I say post the note!

Fingers crossed for you HouseyHausey. At least he has your contact details if anything changes.

We missed out on a few houses that we really liked, but actually if we had bought those we wouldn't have ended up with the beautiful house that we did end up buying, so it did us a favour really. Even if nothing happens with that house, I'm sure there is something for you round the corner.

I fell in love with a house, after I spotted it tucked away while I was out running. It is one of those that you pass everyday, but you'd never know it was there. I looked it up on rightmove, but my husband refused to look saying we could never afford it and that it would be cold, dark etc (the photos were awful, and it is surrounded by trees). Anyway, it sold and I thought nothing more of it as it wasn't really great timing for us.

HOWEVER, six months later the house popped back up on rightmove and it was the perfect time. I managed to convince my husband to view it and he loved it as much as I did. Fortunately because a sale had fallen through right before exchange, the vendors were packed and ready to move and had already mentally checked out. We made a very cheeky offer and fortunately it was accepted. We've been here a year now, and I still pinch myself everyday that we actually get to live here.

Thanks housey wondered if note weird and borders on harassment but agents have been dire.

We can't afford to go higher than agreed

Good luck with getting your dream house.

User lovely to read a happy ending.

My husband pretty stubborn house veiwing.

In fact the house that fell through we hated online and only veiwed as had nothing else to veiw and it had been on market for ages.

The sellers seemed lovely and felt they liked us we had a lovely chat and looked round for ages.

We were so nervous making offer and so exited or got accepted.

The agents turned up late

The photos and right move listing dident do it justice.

We never expected to love it.
But we both did.

Now we have to forget it
Start again
And hope something comes up

@3asabird my husband was super stubborn about what he would and wouldn't look at. In the end we came up with a system where we would each compromise and choose a house each to look at. I wouldn't look at anything he liked, without him looking at something I liked in return.

I would drop a note through, just keep it factual, that you were disappointed that they had decided not to sell but that you are still very keen to buy and to keep you in mind if they change their mind.

I actually adapted some wording for the note from a post I read on MN a few months ago, I'll find the text and post it.

We've been to view two different ones this morning and none were appropriate (one had a weird shared driveway situation and the other was badly extended) and my husband is now pressuring me into choosing one of them!

I found his wording and tweaked it a bit to suit:

"
For the Attention of the home owner,

Please forgive our direct approach, but we are looking to buy a long term family home in this immediate area. We have been looking to buy /rent locally for some time but have not seen anything on the market that suits our needs to date. Therefore we are dropping leaflets in the area to try and find the right property.

We are currently in a position to move at your convenience. We have the finances in place so can move quickly. We would be happy to deal with you directly to save your estate agency fees, or alternatively deal through an estate agent if you prefer.

We are a young family looking for 3/4 bedrooms. If you have considered selling your house, or you know someone in this area that might be interested in selling, then I would be grateful if you could either contact me on xxxxx or email us at xxxx to discuss this further.

Thank you for taking the time to read this"

I think thats a bit waffly. You need to keep it to the point as a lot of people will assume junk mail without reading and bin it straight away.
One paragraph - straight to the point.

I got rid of the paragraph about estate agent fees and so on.

Oh by the way I just realised this is text for if you're leafleting rather than to post through the door of someone who you've already offered to 🤦‍♀️

Ignore me, my brain is mush.

We looked at a lovely house in a quiet lane near a good school on my husbands existing commute but sadly someone else put in an offer who had already sold their house. A few months later another house in the same lane came up that was bigger with a bigger garden and better room lay out and we put in an offer. The vendors had already moved out so were happy to wait for us to sell which we did in a few weeks and the house was ours. Miracles do happen.

I'd personally leave the bit in about EAs. People are very quick to jump to conclusions and might think you are sneakily trying to get a bargain/pay less.

Anyway, when we met the vendors of the house we eventually bought, I nipped back the next day to put a note through the door to say thank you for their time (we were there for six hours!) with our contact details on.

In your situation I'd just say something along the lines of of you were very keen on the house and could see it being a lovely family home, you've now had an offer on yours and would be very keen to hear from them should the offer they've accepted not proceed for any reason.

Doh getting my posters mixed up! 3asabird just something along the lines of you loved the house, really thought it would be your family home and were disappointed that they took it off but if anything changes to contact you.

With the school application, so long as you have your application in by the Jan date, you can update it until the end of Feb. We did this applied out of catchment, then updated when we moved with no issues and got a place

Fuzzypenguin

That's good to know- it's the school thing that is bothering me the most.

Had two asking price offers today one FTB and one cash buyer who has just had her buyer drop out (due to the fact she hadn't found somewhere)

Apparently the FTB have put an offer in on another house too and after further probing they have a mortgage advisor but not mortgage in principle yet - hopefully Monday.

Bit wary but of them due to no current MIP in place and the fact they've offered after only viewing once (yet also got an offer on a different property)

I always thought selling a house would be quite fun, but it's really not! 😆

I wouldn't worry too much about one viewing. I've only ever bought once with more than one viewing and that is only because it is quite a big house and we couldn't remember it all.

With schools check your local council website as it does vary. It is April here to be classed as a late application.

I'd be more concerned that they'd offered on another too, that would make me think they weren't serious buyers.

Thanks for advice guys

Husband thinks notes waste of time
They knew we were 1st time buyers with kids as we met them when we veiwed.
We offered 2 offers same afternoon as get veiwed.

Had letter from ea saying property take off market.

I dont know if they

Changed mind about moving as love their house or couldent find anything suitable to move to.
It's very odd.

Happened to us. Saw the house we knew was right for us but we hadn’t had an offer on ours. A week later they had an offer accepted and we thought that’s it for us, although found out both oh and myself had a feeling it could work out. Fast forward a month we get an offer on ours a cash buyer, sale on our dream house had fallen through as their buyers valuation survey on their place didn’t tally. We jumped in getting a great price as the vendor was already desperate to move to the place they were buying . 18 months now we’ve been in our forever home and loving it.

Happened to us!
Fell in love with a house but it was sold before we could sell.
We swapped agent and house went back on the market but we still couldn't sell.
Eventually they got a buyer are we swapped agents again who priced it much more competitively.
I gave up on house.
We got an offer the day their buyer pulled out. The day of exchange.
We put an offer in which was excepted.
A month later we lost our buyer.
Both houses went back on market.
Finally got an offer and negotiated price on dream house.
We exchanged yesterday and complete in a week or two!