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!

You misjudged this one, for a house with a lot of interest you need to go straight in at the maximum price you’d be willing to pay. Sellers don’t want to dick about with offers and counter-offers with loads of different parties if there’s something on the table they’re happy to accept.

OP I understand you are very upset but it will really help if you become a bit more detached about the whole process of buying a house. It really puts you through the emotional wrangler. Don't get too attached to any house till you actually get your hands on the keys.

We were in your situation when we bought our current home which is in your same price bracket. We were cash buyers too (not first timers, but we'd already sold our home & moved into rented). When we viewed this house we loved it so much, we offered the full asking price on the spot. We wanted the vendor to know we were deadly serious, and that there would be no messing around.

You may be cash buyers, but don't think that will win you every battle because it won't. Some vendors will also want to know that you are serious & business like.

I wouldn't be at all angry with the EA; the vendor may well have told them "I'll take the higher offer, I'm not even interested in getting into a debate with the first timers about what I do or don't want to be offered." Take that as a lesson that if you find a house that you really want, and you have got lots of competition, then don't mess around with lower offers.

Good luck, I am sure you'll find another gem in time.

There is some extremely good insight in here - very much appreciated, thank you.

It looks like we just “played” it incorrectly. My husband’s job is to buy and sell companies; and I think he thought he should use the same strategies for this. Obviously that has backfired. Certainly worth us putting across our maximum offer I think, and seeing what they say!

We are late twenties so very naive and not aware at all re this situation! Thanks everyone for the input

Please show me where I personally attacked the op?

She’s totally misjudged where the price sat on this house and she lost out. It happens. But it’s her own fault - she (and her husband) chose where to make their offer. They guessed low - to get a bargain - and they lost out.

It happens. You snooze you lose.

Lesson learnt for the next one. If you like it, go in with a final offer at the limit of what you’re prepared to pay, and if you lose out, you know you couldn’t have done any more.

The op is making all kind of value judgements in her head about why her offer was better than anyone else’s and should have been chosen, but she’s not aware of the vendors decision making process.

🤷‍♀️ Literally. It happens. Move on.

over the years, we have had property go up 10 grand at the contract stage, name changes of seller at contract stage, people back out AFTER exchange of contracts. I always say to people you haven't sold your house, until you move. Its such a cut throat business, have yet to see an EA worth the money they charge (have bought and sold probably a dozen times) My old next door neighbour, on her completion day, the money didn't change hands, she was incredibly lucky her Mother managed to pay. The day we moved here, we were nervously sitting in a local café, with the removal van outside out house, waiting for the money to go through.

That's interesting OP about your husband! In this situation, the vendors hold all the cards - there is only one of their house, and lots of people bidding for it. Good luck next time.

nannybeach

Can’t imagine the horror of that situation!

No, the estate agent didn't owe you a chance. He's not working for you. He's also not going to come back to you with a figure. That's for you to do. Doesn't matter which one rang you.

Not sure how you know the details of the other people offering on the house either.

Daisy

Thank you! His handling seemed very James Bond at the time, because he seemed to know what he was doing, but now I think he is more Mr Bean 😂🙈

When I bought this house, one of the vendors didn’t sign the contracts til 10 to 5 the day before we were due to move. It was a divorce and the woman didn’t want to leave.

It’s not the same as buying and selling companies. It’s a home. Not a business. Emotionally it’s different (as you have found out).

Be warned. Even if you go in with a higher offer now, amd express your cash status, they may not let you gazump/gazunder. Some sellers don’t on point of principle.

Crispy what nanny is trying to say is that you need to imagine the horror of that situation.

Because you will be in that situation! That's what it's like buying (and selling) property!

Not sure how you know the details of the other people offering on the house either.

The EA told us. He actually showed us one offer letter in person.

I was unprepared for the emotional trauma of the process 😱

The EA did that? Did he redact the personal data?

Op, you're saying it wasn't worth the higher end to you. But that's likely what it went for. So the whole thing is moot. You'd never have been the highest bidder anyway. The seller is clearly happy to wait for a chain to complete. And they have enough offers if it falls through they can go back to market.

I get you're upset, but the seller is within their rights to behave as they did. And the agent has not done anything wrong with a colleague phoning you to inform you it was sold. It's not bad manners. Bad manners would have been no one telling you. It doesn't matter who it is.

The entitlement is making me smile here. Yes, the sums are huge and as first time cash buyers with £1.5m to spend you probably do think you call the shots. Fact is, the vendors accepted another offer and you will never know why so you have to let it go. If the sale falls through it sounds like there are lots of other interested parties and the agents will go back to them like a shot. All you can do is have a clear written offer on the table in the event that this happens. It is very important that you do actually properly understand that the agent is NOT working for you and who knows why the vendor decided to accept the offer they did but that is their business. It happens often with popular properties that stir up a lot of interest ... offers have to be crystal clear and attractive to the vendor. All other interested parties are going to be disappointed. Yes, the agent your husband was speaking to could have called you to let you know but it sounds like a simple admin task that was delegated to a junior agent. Either that or he didn't fancy getting into a long conversation over the whys and wherefores of this other offer because he will be very busy setting the wheels in motion for his client's successful house sale.

He showed you one offer letter. Then described details of their chain etc (which could've been false to make you think you were a more attractive buyer).

They were inundated by offers yet he only showed you one. Please remember his ONLY interest is getting the house sold for the highest price. The tactics he uses to get that is up to him.

The only thing you know is that he held in his hands something that looked like an offer letter. Was it real? Only he knows!

You need your own tactics when it comes to house buying

When we bought our last house we put in an asking price offer within an hour or so of viewing. We knew it was probably a few thousand over what it was worth but very little was coming up that had everything we needed and was in our price range. If we had offered lower someone would have offered the asking price very soon. When there is a high demand you generally have to offer the asking price. Good luck with the next one.

The entitlement is making me smile here. Yes, the sums are huge and as first time cash buyers with £1.5m to spend you probably do think you call the shots

There is an uncomfortable element of truth to this! I am going to show this to my husband - I think he just isn’t getting it

Might as well send us a link to the house OP

@crispysausagerolls Those of us who have been scared by the house buying and selling process probably just think fondly of the time we were this naive.

When we bought our house there was another couple that had put an offer in. The estate agent wouldn't tell us the amount because it's in their interest to get the highest offer they can so we offered the asking price and it was accepted.
I was surprised that you asked the EA to tell you an amount.

Agree that estate agent won't come to you with an amount! Why on earth would they?

I think it's the way you "explained to them" that it was pointless to do it the way it always works! They probably found that patronising and mildly amusing.

Did you take a long time with extra viewings? Builders? Days between offers? Because that in itself tells a vendor that you may be hesitant and therefore risky

"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*"
*
This is what I'm referring to. Think about it. Don't you cringe a little bit at that? A couple of first time buyers, naive to the process. Telling the EA that the way it works is "ridiculous" and the system should be different because you say so

whitesoxx

I don’t cringe at it, although I completely see what you are saying. It’s literally just that it’s how it works in m&a and my husband therefore just assumed it was the same thing. Which is (i still think) a fair, if not woefully misguided, assumption.

And, what’s even worse, both sets of parents who we consulted for advice, agreed with us! Which is bananas since they’ve both bought and sold countless times had I have no idea why the hell they didn’t just say “this is stupid, you are being stupid.”