Accepted offer on house but have now had a higher offer

[firsttimemumtobe122]

I accepted an offer on my house last week, paperwork hasn't even begun yet but is SSTC.

Someone knocked on my door yesterday evening and said they viewed my house a few weeks ago and fell in love, but hadn't sold their house at that point, and now they have and thought they would be cheeky and knock the door and have offered us 5k more than our agreed sale, my partner reckons we could get them up another 5k as they seem completely in love with our house.

I have just left it as a back up incase my buyer falls through, but my partner is pestering me about it and how we could get 10k more but I would feel really awful on my buyer and have a feeling something may go wrong and we end up with no buyer at all. But 10k is a lot of money.

I asked the door knocker about his chain and he is chain free, my buyer is chain free also.

The only other concern I have is that I conducted all the viewings through Purplebricks and didn't recognise him or his name. Which is odd.

What would you do in this situation?

I don't think there is anything you can do if you have already accepted an offer.

It's odd that you don't remember the other guy coming to view your property. Did you let him in the house? When he came to make the offer?

We had similar approaches when we agreed our offer.
Maybe we could have hung out for a higher offer but who is to say that it would have worked out - survey quibbles, lack of financing etc. - and I truly believe in karma.
You were happy with the offer before. I would (and did) stick to my word.

@StephenBelafonte no, he just stayed on the doorstep. Weirdly I felt he was familiar, but definitely not from my viewings as I've gone through all the names and through what they looked like in my head - all were young couples and this guy was in his 50's.

Personally if I had fallen in love with a house but wasn't in a position to make an offer yet, I would still have let my intentions be known at the time that I would love to place an offer once I sell mine. So why didn't he do that?

All very very odd!

When we sold our house the estate agents advised us to stick with the first offer we accepted even though we also got a higher one, as they said you can never win your first buyer back if you mess them around. Especially as they are both chain free I would stick with original offer, I know £10k is a lot but if it all went wrong with the second buyer you could end up out of pocket anyway

I think this is one of those situations where if you took the higher offer it would come back to bite you on the backside.

I'm with you, and your partner should think about how it would feel if the shoe was on the other foot.

I had a property fall through because my buyers accepted an offer from someone who hadn't even viewed the house two weeks after I'd had my offer accepted. He offered £10k more but when it came to it, he reduced his offer knowing I was out of the picture. They are worse off and serves them right.

If he was waiting to sell.... how is he a chain free buyer?

@Alexalee I mean his buyer is chain free so it's a small chain

Very different to being chain free
What percentage of asking is 10k

Maybe he only saw your house online, or knew about your house sale through other people? If he was so in love, why wouldn’t he have contacted you before to make his interest known (just in case)? It’s sounds rather odd and I wouldn’t trust someone who makes up stories like that. I also believe in bad Karma. You might gain the „lost“ 5k at another time in the future.

What would you do in this situation?

You’ve sold so there is anything to do except reiterate that to him.

Also most people put in an offer whether they have sold or not, and accept that the house might well remain on the market and end up going to another buyer who is in a position to move straightaway.

Don't do it, I truly believe in karma.

What about the buyer whose offer you accepted: are they actually chain free or selling to a chain free buyer?

It’s odd that you can’t remember the guy if he fell in love with the house as would have seemed very keen at the time?

How big a chunk of the house price is the 5-10k? Would it make a difference to what you can afford next?

You are right stick with the first buyer and if they mess you about you have a plan B.

10k is hypothetical and 5k really isn't much in the scheme of things as a good buyer is worth their weight in gold frankly.

I can see karma biting back if you do this. It’s just not right. The situation also sounds odd. Don’t let greed make a fool of you.

It's only a 5k offer, not 10k. Your partner's made that up out of thin air.

When we sold my parents' house, we had a choice of offers. We didn't pick the highest, a last minute cash offer, we went for a first time buyer couple with a pre-approved mortgage. Safe and solid. The cash buyer hadn't even viewed the house and we felt his offer might well fall through.

You are able to accept the offer and not sell the house but when you EXCHANGE CONTRACTS you cannot go back then. Speak to your solicitor first.

I’m not sure if I’d believe he was chain free. So he’s suddenly sold his house to cash buyer then? We’ve just bought a house that went to final and best offers the day we viewed, we offered a lot over the asking price but also the vendors liked us and we are chain free.The vendors told us that they had about 6 lots of other people at the door the following week trying to persuade them to sell to them instead. I’m so so glad our buyers held out for us. I’d have been devastated if they’d accepted another higher offer. I feel the ‘right’ thing to do would be to stick with the offer but who am I to tell you to potentially walk away from 10k extra (provided you can be 100% sure the guy is being honest about being chain free)

I'd stay with my original buyer.

There are no guarantees with buyers. What you do know is that the second buyer is happy for others to be messed about, that means he will do it to you.

Sorry just seen update, stick with the buyer you have, he sounds like a chancer! You’ll be waiting on him ages and 5k isn’t worth the hassle.

What percentage of the price is 5/10k?

I'd stick with the original purchaser. The person has no issue gazumping someone else what stops them screwing you on to?

I think you did the right thing telling them you'll keep them in consideration if it falls through. That's fair.

@Bells3032

What percentage of the price is 5/10k?

I'd stick with the original purchaser. The person has no issue gazumping someone else what stops them screwing you on to?

I think you did the right thing telling them you'll keep them in consideration if it falls through. That's fair.

I think I’d view someone who gazumps as the sort who doesn’t have enough morals to stick with the seller throughout.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4041606-AIBU-to-walk-away-from-this-house-purchase?pg=1