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Original poster

Being a bit crafty with a house buy

40 replies

Rbarty · 23/08/2019 07:10

A few months ago my husband and I saw a house for sale in our dream area. Then disappeared off Rightmove but then it came back. When it did we went to view the property and got ourselves a mortgage in principle on the Saturday. By Tuesday our house (the one we live in) was on the market, within 24 hours we had 6 viewings booked. I checked on Rightmove at the property we want and it said sold subject to contract! I panicked and called the estate agent and asked can I make an offer? She replied no they've accepted an offer already so that's it. After that the estate agent who is selling my house rang me to booking another viewing and I mentioned this to him, he said the by law the estate agent has to present all offers to the vendor before exchange of contracts. He advised that I just put a full ask offer in. He also said that based on the interest in our house in the short amount of time it had been on the market, he was almost certain we would be getting an offer within 7 days. So this is where I am now.
I want to put an offer in and so does my husband but as of this very moment we do not have an offer on the table for our home, but we are convinced that we will. I've written a draught letter to the vendor which is basically a begging letter explaining how this is our dream home & our dream area. Also we have said that offer is not survey dependent and that we will be buying the house no matter what.
My question is should I lie in the short-term that I have an offer on my property just to strengthen my case (who would know it's not true?) or hang on and send my letter to the vendor further down the line when the new buyers will be even more invested?
Please help

OP posts:

AlexaAmbidextra · 24/08/2019 23:46

I wouldn’t entertain you if I was the vendor. If you’re prepared to act in a shitty fashion at this stage, when quite frankly you don’t have the wherewithal to make an offer, I’d be expecting you to run true to form and reduce any accepted offer the day before exchange. I would doubt your integrity I’m afraid.

CokeZeroHero · 25/08/2019 13:42

How strange.

With our move (we complete on Friday), I spotted the house on Right Move and loved it. Only a mile down the road from our current house. No onward chain. Arranged a viewing and loved it.

EA called me a day later for feedback and I was very upfront and honest. I offered 5k under, said we weren't even on the market yet and I'd leave it to their judgement what they felt was best and if they felt it was ridiculously cheeky then so be it

Vendors accepted. We were on the market within a few days (same EA as vendor) and we sold to a FTB and exchanged 8 weeks later. We move in on Friday

So I feel it's fine to make offers when you're not on the market actually. The EA knew us anyway as we'd bought our existing house with them so they knew we were serious buyers and not in it to mess people around.

The crucial thing is not to be sneaky. I also would never write directly to the vendors either!

OldGranvilleHouse · 25/08/2019 14:19

@CokeZeroHero

I don’t think the main bone of contention is offering before yours is sold/on the market. I think the main issue is that the OP seems to think it’s ok to gazump someone - thankfully this practice stopped 25 years ago, but that doesn’t stop people like the OP doing it anyway.

OldGranvilleHouse · 25/08/2019 14:23

@CokeZeroHero

....... sorry, should have clarified that it’s not to do particularly with the £5k under either. People will offer over, under or bang on depending on market conditions and that’s ok. Again, it’s the fact that the vendors have already accepted an offer and the OP’s trying to “steal” it from the prospective purchasers by gazumping.

CokeZeroHero · 25/08/2019 14:27

@OldGranvilleHouse yes, I perhaps wasn't very clear in my response which actually has no real bearing on what the op has done. The sun must be getting to me

I'd never try and gazump in a million years.

Cohle · 25/08/2019 14:34

I agree.

Making an offer before your own property is on the market is fine. Lying about it and trying to gazump another buyer are shitty things to do.

CokeZeroHero · 25/08/2019 14:40

Yes agreed:

I was surprised our vendors accepted our offer but there was nothing else on the table for them so they might as well have! It helped that EA 'knew' us and knew we didn't mess around. Also helped that our current house is quite desirable to the right buyer. Took just over 8 weeks, mind. I just didn't 'mentally' move in.

When I scroll through Right Move though, I automatically just go past the STC ones

The2Ateam · 25/08/2019 23:04

You can buy a good estate agent and sensible seller would not entertain an offer from someone not in a position to proceed. Until you have an offer you have accepted, you are not in a position to proceed.

When I sold last year, I specifically instructed my EA not to let people who were not in a position to proceed to even view my property.

The2Ateam · 25/08/2019 23:05

you can, but

The2Ateam · 25/08/2019 23:07

Also, a good seller EA would call the buyers EA to confirm the chain on acceptance of offer. So unlikely you will get away with lying.

FeeFee832 · 26/08/2019 00:28

Why offer £5k under? Way to get rejected... they won't take you seriously!!!!

Blobby10 · 26/08/2019 08:52

I sold my house to a friend for £10k under the asking price. The EA only showed one person round before I had this offer which was made and accepted on condition that house came straight off the market. Two days later I got an offer from the people who had looked round the house for £5k under asking price - I said thanks but no thanks as morally and ethically I couldn't go back on my word. So they upped the offer to £7k over the asking price!! The EA ws obliged to pass the offer on. Believe me, I was SO-O-O tempted to go for it - but knew that karma would come and get me if I did.

If the vendors are like me, your offer won't make any difference. If they aren't - I wish you luck and hope your offer is accepted!

CatkinToadflax · 26/08/2019 09:57

OP, this is a genuine question and isn't supposed to sound goady - how would you feel if you'd had an offer accepted on a house you love and then someone else had come along and gazumped you? And not only did you lose the house but possibly (worst case scenario) your whole chain collapsed as a result?

Buddywoo · 26/08/2019 10:17

We had had several viewers round to look at our house, all of them proceedable. The buyers we eventually sold to rang us direct first thing Sunday morning and offered us an acceptable price. We agreed to sell to them. Half an our later other viewers rang us and offered a higher price and on the Monday morning another offer came in via estate agents.

We stuck with the first buyer even though the second buyer offered more and I liked them better. I felt I had given my word and must stick to it. However, what I should have said to all the prospective buyers was to deal through the estate agents.

johnd2 · 26/08/2019 11:04

When we offered on ours we offered 15k below and the estate agent said they'd accept 5k below.
We carried on viewing houses and the agent said that house had had another offer at asking price from someone who was in a chain.
We matched their offer, but when the survey came back it said 10k below asking! So we ended up paying 10k below in the end.
I don't think the offer was accepted before we offered (the seller was not living there and hard to get in touch with) but i think as it was previously a rental they didn't have any great attachment or obligation to us.

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