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?

If you are selling, you will presumably also be buying. How would you feel if it was the other way round and you had an offer accepted on a house only to be told that the vendor was later going to accept a higher offer?

Interesting! I think you should tell him you will keep him in mind & get him to call you in around 1 month, but stick with original buyer for now...

Why? If you allowed me to gazump, I’d have no qualms at reducing my offer just before exchange as your word isn’t worth much/ same for deciding on another house

It’s odd you dint remember him - might your buyers be checking up on you before they spend on surveys etc?

I’ve just managed to sell (I think) and it’s too late on properties I’ve viewed over the summer, I think asking to be a ‘back up’ is fine (I may do this myself), straight gazumping maybe not ...

I've said from the moment he knocked the door, great it's a back up but I'm not letting down my buyer like that and would hate it being done to myself. I really do believe in karma. I'm just looking for strong reasons to tell my partner why it's a bad idea and thanks to all of you lovely people I now have that 😊

His argument is also that our house had little interest and has been on for a while so we just accepted the first offer we had, but it's still a great selling price and we are happy with it.

Thanks everyone. I'll let the guy know that if our buyer falls through we will be in touch. 😊

You are in amazing position now, a solid buyer and an amazing back up buyer. If the first one messes you around I think it’s ok to go with the second guy - but I’d be wary of accepting a gazump, not only because of karma but also because you have no proof second buyer is in a position to proceed.

Glad you are going to stick with the first offer op. Your partner has a great imagination btw, good job you are more grounded!

I think you’ve made the right decision. There is no way you’d forget someone who viewed, unless you have medical issues. As such something is very wrong here. Maybe the real buyer put them up to it to see if you were flakey,,,

I think you’ve made the right choice OP. The same happened to us a few weeks ago, we stuck with our first buyers. It just didn’t sit right with me to ditch our buyers for an extra 10K (but the second offer was from people in a chain whereas first buyers were not).

Unknown stranger you've never met, , you know he's lying about having viewed it, but you believe he's going to pay an extra 4K? It's a scam.

The new buyers could potentially reduce there offer on your property if it gets down valued etc. I would personally stick to the first buyer.

What would you do in this situation?

I’d not act like a scumbag and stick to the deal that was made.

Someone linked to a thread up further that I started last week.

We went sale agreed on a house at asking price and then the seller turned around and took a higher offer and pushed us up.

It’s a saga but I would run a mile from anyone in the future than even attempted this. It’s a horrible thing to do and I hope that, if you do go with the new bidder, it comes back to bite you.

@firsttimemumtobe122

I've said from the moment he knocked the door, great it's a back up but I'm not letting down my buyer like that and would hate it being done to myself. I really do believe in karma. I'm just looking for strong reasons to tell my partner why it's a bad idea and thanks to all of you lovely people I now have that 😊

His argument is also that our house had little interest and has been on for a while so we just accepted the first offer we had, but it's still a great selling price and we are happy with it.

Thanks everyone. I'll let the guy know that if our buyer falls through we will be in touch. 😊

@Quandaries

@2bazookas

Unknown stranger you've never met, , you know he's lying about having viewed it, but you believe he's going to pay an extra 4K? It's a scam.

Of course it’s a scam. No record or memory of him ever viewing. It’s a con. For whatever reason it’s a con.

The only thing I can think of is the buyers want to see if you’re serious or if you’ll pull out for a better offer.

The doorstep offer buyer sounds fishy....perhaps he never did view your house at all if you do t recall him.

You will still owe the agent commission for this alternative buyer if you choose them.

Be very careful and not hasty. One of the things your EA will be doing with the buyer you accepted an offer on, is getting them to show proof of funds and to confirm what they say about their buying position. You should not take the doorstep buyers word for their financial position ....it could all be crap. You will need it to be verified. You would feel a total prat if you drop the original buyer and then the doorstep buyer turns out to not be in a strong financial position.

If you are seriously considering it, tell them to go via the agent and make their offer through them.

Remember it is a £5k higher offer. There is certainly no guarantee of more. You can either honour the offer you accepted or you can ask the doorstep person to go via the EA and once established if they are strongly proceedable , decide if to tell the original buyer that a new higher offer has been made. When you accepted the new higher offer, was it on the basis of taking house off market and not allowing further viewings or considering further offers....if so, your conscience should show you what to do here.

Personally, if I hadn’t made those kind of offers and if was literally within days before solicitors instructed or prof if funds shown to estate agent and no memorandum of sale produced, I would consider another offer if it came through agent and was strongly proceedable. I wouldn’t consider it based purely in the doorstep conversation. And I would only consider it if I hadn’t got to memorandum sale stage with solicitors instructed etc. If I was at that point (often takes a week to 10 days to get there) I would stick with the original buyer regardless.

And this works as a warning too to anyone who has just had an offer accepted.....really shift yourself in providing the agent with your proof of funds, MIP and solicitor details and any other paperwork requested. The faster you proceed things the more unlikely the vendor is to consider other offers that might appear later. There is never a guarantee they won’t switch to a higher offer right up until exchange, but the further along things are, the more unlikely. Until the ball really is moving with a memorandum of sale, I’d really think everything is still up for grabs, although other buyers might not see the house if the vendor has agreed to stop amrketing and not show anyone else.....and most buyers will request this.

This happened to us minus the turning up on the doorstep. I believe in karma so couldn't pull out on people with the original offer. I did however use it to speed them us as they were being quite slow with paperwork. The thought of being gazumped got them moving.