Is there anything we can do about this?! Please help!

[crispysausagerolls]

My husband and I found our dream home. It came on the market and was inundated with offers - several of which were speculative or had chains upon chains upon chains. We are cash buyers with no chain and put in a reasonable offer. The EA told us our offer was slightly too low, and to suggest another, higher, and we would surely win. We told him to come back with a number that would win as we didn’t want to start bidding against ourselves, and he said he would come back yesterday evening. He did not. Today I received a call, not even from the EA we were dealing with, to say the buyers accepted another offer.

Is this the end? I am heartbroken, but I am also outrageously angry. The estate agent owed us the chance to match the offer, surely? He specifically said he would find out what number we needed to offer and would tell us, and he did not! What if we were prepared to go higher?! Is it all over now the offer has been accepted? It’s also so shitty that the EA couldn’t even tell us himself, and got someone else to do it.

Please help, I am so sad!

That sucks, I'm sorry :(
All you can do is call and speak to the agent to ask WTF. Although it does sound like it's too late if they accepted an offer. But, you never know how it'll turn out. Lots of stuff is coming back on the market at the moment because sales are falling through - if those other buyers are in a chain/ have somewhere to sell then there's a chance that might happen.

You could contact the EA again and ask if the vendor would still consider an offer from you, and push home the fact you are a cash buyer. I’d also consider offering the full asking price if you are serious about it being your dream home. As far as I’m aware the EA is obliged to pass on any other offers from interested parties to the vendor if early on in the process. We did similar - found our dream home and made an offer below asking price but someone came in with bang on the asking price so we lost the house. I was furious with myself for not offering what they were asking, because the reality is I would have happily paid what they had asked for. We are currently going through with a purchase on another house, and although I really like the house, I don’t love it as I did the one we lost.

Perhaps the vendors accepted an offer last night though, OP - you knew that your offer was too low for them but didn't want to put in a higher offer then. If you were prepared to go higher, you would have done it then from the vendor's point of view.

Keep looking at other property and let the EA know that if the sale falls through for any reason, you are still interested. Good luck with the search.

We were prepared to go higher but we explained that it’s ridiculous for us to keep suggesting numbers and the EA saying no! Best to just tell us what the bloody hell they want. There was no asking price as such, it was POA with a huge difference in the range they were considering! So was quite unique

Who did you hear from? Is it on the market with other agents too?

We heard from a different EA at the same company - same estate agents, different agent if you see what I mean. So we were dealing with Bobby, and Billy called to let us down. Which I think is very rude.

Oh I see. Yes all seems a bit strange, very unprofessional of them, and upsetting for you. You can’t make them sell it to you but if I were you I’d submit my top offer and leave it on the table.

The vendor might have asked for your best offer advising the agent not to disclose the other offer.

There was likely a substantial difference between your offer and the winning bid, and possibly the vendor was offended by the low ball offer. As much as the agent may have wanted to ask you, there is a very high chance the vender simply said no.

To clarify, we did not low ball!!!!!

Eg the POA was “between 30 and 50 pounds”, we offered 35! That’s not low balling.

I really understand your disappointment. I thought we had found our dream house in 1993. It turned into an awful gazumping war with another buyer.
I made the brave decision to walk away. I was heartbroken but it was getting ridiculous.

Another house that we had looked at and loved [but was sold before we were in a position to make an offer] came back on the market - and we bought it and still live here today! Sales fall through all the time.

Who knows what the survey might reveal?

Ok, sorry that wasn't clear from your op.

Possibly the vendor didn't wish to get into a bidding war. Usually agents want it to sell for the most it can, but some people find a buyer they like and decide to stick if they feel the offer was fair in the first place.

I'd really not discount this was more likely the seller than the agent.

The estate agents are working for the sellers though, not for you.

For all you know, the estate agent went back to the seller and said something like "Crispysausagerolls wants to know what you're prepared to accept, what figure would you be happy with?" and the seller replied "Not getting into that bidding and bargaining nonsense, going to accept that offer from Miss Smith instead".

I appreciate what you are saying re the seller, but surely “Bobby” should have had the courtesy to call my husband directly (since he was dealing with him) and explain this? Not get his colleague who I do not know to call me and just say “an offer has been accepted”.

It’s also frustrating to have been told that we ticked every box and were the favourite buyers etc and all that 💩

redwoodmazza

That’s a lovely story, very happy ending!
I know I probably sound ridiculous, but we are first time buyers, this was the first house we’ve bid on and so I do not have any thick skin at all for this and just sort of assumed we would get it! I can’t believe how upset I am to be honest

Possibly bobby was out. Off sick, whatever. I'm not sure it matters really which one of them called you. They gave you the call to let you know. That's what matters.

Respectfully disagree - if Bobby says on Tuesday “I will call you back this afternoon with a number”, he should call back. Even if to say “they don’t want to entertain this I’m afraid”. It’s just manners.

I thought you meant a different company called you. A totally different firm.

Someone else call8mg from the same firm wouldn’t fizz me.

You’re being unreasonable. If you wanted it that much you wouldn’t have messed around with a low offer and gone in at 50.

If it was such a popular house it probably went for the top price of your range. In the example you gave, you said range between 30-50, you offered 35, it probably went at 50 or over if there was lots of interest. There might have been cash buyers, other first time buyers - you can never be sure how honest the Estate Agent is being unfortunately. House buying and selling in the UK is a pretty brutal process so you'll need to develop a thick skin and be tenacious.

To repeat what a previous poster said, you are not the client of the estate agent. Their client is the vendor. ‘Bobby’ was not your estate agent and has not been discourteous, IMO. Sorry, I know it’s hard when you miss out on a house you really wanted, but I don’t think anyone has done anything wrong here.

Write an email to both of the the people you dealt with. Apologise for any confusion, reiterate what you were told, put your final offer in writing, emphasise you are cash buyers and cross your fingers. But don't hang about!

The EA are obliged to pass your offer on and if they forward the email, the vendors will see the situation. Buyers build relationships with EA, if the purchasers have a property to sell, they could 'bribe' the EA with the offer of the instruction. Purchaser could be a developer who buys through the agent and gets 'a drink' for buying at a good price. It's up to you to do the same.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but you need to calm down. No house is your dream home until you have the keys, house buying is so unpredictable and stressful. Even if you had been given a figure there is no guarantee your offer would have been accepted, even as a cash buyer. Buying will be full of missed calls, emails not responded to and exasperating solicitors. Good luck.

Ok but in reality I am talking about 1.3 million - 1.5 million. 200k is a HUGE difference!!!! And by the way the offers they all had that were serious were 1.3-1.4ish. No one offered above 1.4, except one person who had a 3 part chain on 2 separate properties.

Very frustrating. As pp have said, EA are obliged to put all offers to the vendor so make another offer. Either it will get rejected or vendors may be interested in which case see what feedback you get.

Sorry, developer gives agent 'a drink', reads the other way round.

Notwiththeseknees

This is worth a shot, thank you