Accepting an offer... What would you do?

[mummabubs]

Hi all, I'm turning to the mumsnet hive for your wisdom and insights please!

We put our house on the market last summer, was on for 10 weeks with 7 viewings and no offers so came off market again as we lost out on the house we were interested in.

We put our house on the market again last week and held viewings this morning- 8 in total. We're listed at £270,000 and have had two offers come in since then. One for £255,000 from a FTB (too low for us) and then another offer came in from a cash buyer at full asking price. Our agent advised waiting until tomorrow just to see if anyone else offers, and we do see the logic in this... But!... At the same time this person has offered us everything we've asked for and is a cash buyer so we don't really see how anyone will be able to better it. We're honestly happy to accept asking price and don't really like bidding wars. The only thing that's remotely awkward is that they want to complete asap (they've given a target date of 30th April), and I'm due to give birth 2 weeks later to our second child. But equally if it meant not losing the sale we'd be prepared to move into rented accommodation with our toddler and dog. The FTB was happy to be flexible to our time line but can't see them matching the offer at full asking price.

So in our position/ your experience is there any utility in waiting until tomorrow when we know none of the other viewers were cash buyers or is accepting an offer today a sensible thing to do? Just never thought we'd be in this position after last year! Thanks in advance

God that was a headache! After several calls between everyone and swinging back and forth we've accepted the offer from the first time buyers. The cash buyer came across as credible and committed too, but he was also upfront that he wants to move in as quickly as possible as he, his partner and son are all currently in 3 separate rental properties and he wants to be able to have his dog back. (Completely understandable). He said a couple of weeks delay would be fine but he expected us to name a completion date straight away and aim for that, which we have every good faith of doing as we want to move but given hiw few properties are coming up right now we can't guarantee that we'll find something in the next week or two. Given that, we didn't feel like we were the right sellers for him, he'd likely feel resentful about any delays and we'd feel stressed about trying to find anywhere to move to in order to prevent the sale from falling through or having the same issue finding somewhere to rent.

@Baxdream A little late for that don't you think?! 🤣 Two of our neighbours in our cul de sac sold with purple bricks in the last 3 years, both had successful sales at asking price and the only thing they both said was don't use purple bricks solicitors as they are very slow. (Luckily for us my sister is a solicitor so we didn't need that anyway as her firm do conveyancing).

I think if we were in an area where houses struggle to sell we wouldn't have considered purple bricks, as there's definitely an advantage at times to having a local agent who has that local knowledge of how to show your house and area in the best light, but for houses that go quickly (which touch wood apart from our experience last summer when the market was very well-populated) every house on our road that's come up for sale in the last 6 years has sold within a week of listing, so we felt like it wasn't too much of a gamble to then hopefully save on commission fees. We did still get valuations and quotes from a couple of local agents but weren't left convinced that they'd sell us any quicker than PB.

Hopefully FTB's have everything in place then. Including the deposit. Good luck.

@PresentingPercy

Hopefully FTB's have everything in place then. Including the deposit. Good luck.

Thank you. They'd already sent their mortgage in principle and proof of deposit to our agent before we formally accepted their offer and took the house off the market, so touch wood🤞🏻!