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Original poster

Someone trying to gazzump our buyer

28 replies

Evecob · 15/03/2021 15:11

Want peoples opinions please..

We agreed on an offer a couple of weeks ago with an online agent, their fees are a lot lower but they are mandatory to pay. The offer was less than we wanted but we ended up taking it as there was a property we liked and wanted to be proceedable.

Just before we agreed it we had another agent over, who knew we already had an offer with the online agents and we were looking to accept it.. their buyers offered 2k more. We said no as we would not be better off financially. They did not offer more, so we moved forward with the offer from online agent and told them to stop selling our property.

Today (2 weeks later) i got a call from the highstreet agent to say the buyer they took round still wanted our house and were prepared to offer 5k more instead. We would be 2k better off if we accepted this offer but it's frustrating they offer this now after 2 weeks!!! When our current buyer already has their solicitors in place and arranged for a survey.

For us the 2k would mean a lot, as we had to pay full asking for the property we wanted, and it left us with less free cash than we wanted, but don't want to be those people...
What would you do?

OP posts:

dancemom · 15/03/2021 15:16

For £2K I'd stick with the original offer

Iloveacurry · 15/03/2021 15:19

Stay with the original buyer. You did accept their offer.

VodselForDinner · 15/03/2021 15:19

I would stick to the original agreement.

£2k on a house sale is paltry, I could see how you’d be tempted if it was £20k, but to treat someone so shoddily for so little money is just awful. Have you no integrity?

I’ve been on the receiving end of this. Went sake agreed on a house and they gazumped us. We upped the bid and they accepted- days before signing contracts, they did it again. We walked away.

Now, if there’s any sniff of a seller trying to do this, I walk away. Don’t care if they want an extra £5 or £500k.

PatchworkElmer · 15/03/2021 15:24

I’d stick with the original buyer if they seem reliable and things are progressing well at this stage (I know it’s difficult to tell!)

FWIW, my auntie was in the position of your current buyers. The seller accepted her offer, and then accepted an offer from another buyer once she’d committed time (and money!) to the process. She was gutted but found another house. Then had a call from the original sellers saying that the new sale had fallen through, and asking if she’d still like the house. She took great pleasure in telling them that she had an agreement with a new seller now, and wasn’t the kind of person to back out of an agreement.

Original poster

Evecob · 15/03/2021 15:25

2k might be small to you but to a lot of people it makes a big difference.

I'm annoyed this has come about but I wanted peoples opinions.

OP posts:

Ihopeyourcakeisshit · 15/03/2021 15:29

Having just been on the receiving end of this, stick with your original buyer.

TangoWhiskyAlphaTango · 15/03/2021 15:29

A few years ago my house went to sealed bids. We accepted the highest offer from a lovely couple of first time buyers. Later that evening another couple knocked on our front door and begged us to accept their offer of 10k more. As it had only been 24 hours we went with the higher offer.

A massive dose of karma bit me on the arse when the buyers pissed us around for months and eventually pulled out. A massive, expensive, frustrating lesson learnt.

Stick with your current buyers.

Original poster

Evecob · 15/03/2021 15:34

Thank you all, we will stick

OP posts:

DPotter · 15/03/2021 15:35

See the thing is, people make offers which you accept and then further on down the road, they want to reduce that offer for a whole multitude of reasons. Basically what I'm saying is, yes you could accept the higher offer, but it's no guarantee that the final amount you will receive.

They know you accepted a lower offer before so they will assume you will again. They will see you as greedy and have no guilt in trying to reduce what they pay.

As we all know the property buying and selling process in England isn't fit for purpose, but there are so many invested interests involved that mean a root and branch change to the system is unlikely in the extreme.

Stick with your original buyer. At least if they come back wanting a reduction following survey or whatever you can honestly say you've already discounted.

JingsMahBucket · 15/03/2021 15:39

@Evecob

2k might be small to you but to a lot of people it makes a big difference.

I'm annoyed this has come about but I wanted peoples opinions.

It sounds like you want people to make you feel better about possibly taking the new offer.

£2,000 really isn't a lot of money or worth it in order to deal with the all frustrations of getting a new buyer in a place at the last minute. Proceed with your current buyer and save the increased valuation for the next house sale.

MaMaD1990 · 15/03/2021 15:44

Please don't be those people...stick with the original offer.

thinkfast · 15/03/2021 15:46

Would you really be better off after you've paid both sets of agents' fees?

Taborlin · 15/03/2021 15:48

I'd stick with the original offer and and not be greedy.
The fact it took the 2nd buyer 2 weeks to put a higher offer I'm would make me think they will reduce there offer a couple of days from exchange and then you'll be left with wither no buyer or less than you are getting now from original reliable buyer

Theunamedcat · 15/03/2021 15:51

They will get a survey and reduce it i would stick with what you have

SeaToSki · 15/03/2021 15:53

Proceed with your original offer, but let the other agent know that if the current offer falls apart then you would be happy to proceed with them. Then let your accepted offer people know you have a back up offer and they need to ‘proceed expeditiously’.

A bird in the hand and all that, but also its good to have something to fall back on.

The higher offer people might disappear if they dont have certainty, but maybe not

Dingleydel · 15/03/2021 15:58

I think of you take the higher offer it will come back to bite you as they are likely to reduce their offer once they’ve had a survey. I think if they’d really wanted your house they would have come in with a 1st offer of more than 2k more than the original. The market is crazy atm and that doesn’t scream that they are desperate for this house. Also, karma. 2k is hardly a life changing sum, not worth completely dicking someone about.

Africa2go · 15/03/2021 15:58

As @Thinkfast says, you are likely to have to pay the commission to both the online agent and the high street agent so you probably wouldn't be better off at all.

Original poster

Evecob · 15/03/2021 16:01

I did the sums, with 5k more we would be 2k better off including paying both fees. Either way we wont be taking up the new offer. I did mention earlier but dont think anyone had noticed!

OP posts:

caringcarer · 15/03/2021 16:01

The time has gone for accepting second offer. If they wanted.hpuse they should have offered more in first instance. Stick with offer you accepted.

RandomMess · 15/03/2021 16:04

Definitely go back band say you will be in touch if the current sale falls through.

This does give you the strength to walk away if the current buyers try and gazunder you on exchange.

VodselForDinner · 15/03/2021 16:09

I'm annoyed this has come about but I wanted peoples opinions

Why are you annoyed?

This happened because you spoke to another agent after you had already accepted an offer.

This wasn’t an accident, it happened because of your actions. You make it sound passive.

Glad you’ve agreed to stick with the first offer, it’s the right thing to do.

Hathertonhariden · 15/03/2021 16:09

@SeaToSki

A bird in the hand and all that, but also its good to have something to fall back on.

The higher offer people might disappear if they dont have certainty, but maybe not

This

2bazookas · 15/03/2021 16:28

Agent 2 has already demonstrated grubby underhand tactics and their lack of professional ethics and responsibility. Its a warning of what you can expect from them if you're naive enough to take the bait.

     Did  you appoint Agent 1 with   a contract for sole  agency?   Do you realise that when you sell the property  you could end up owing sale  fees to both agents?

www.remax.co.uk/news/beware-of-double-commission

Original poster

Evecob · 15/03/2021 16:54

@VodselForDinner

I'm annoyed this has come about but I wanted peoples opinions

Why are you annoyed?

This happened because you spoke to another agent after you had already accepted an offer.

This wasn’t an accident, it happened because of your actions. You make it sound passive.

Glad you’ve agreed to stick with the first offer, it’s the right thing to do.

No, we were honest from the beginning, we had an offer of 213k which we had NOT accepted when the other agent brought the new buyers along...

so actually no... it didnt happen because of our actions. I emailed the new agent to take us off the market and that we were accepting the other offer but they ignored it and phoned me today with this anyway.

we phoned today to say that we will not be accepting it, and he countered by saying they had already given in their ID showing commitment thinking we would have accepted it! and ask if we will accept our asking price now, which is another 2k higher ....................... so frustrating. if they had just given us what we wanted 2 weeks ago it would be a no brainer

OP posts:

tanguero · 15/03/2021 17:03

'When in doubt do the decent thing'.

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