I accepted an offer and now my friend wants to buy our house

[Limilimin]

Hi,

I am wondering if anyone could give me any advice on this..
I've recently accepted an offer from a first time buyer on our property and our offer on the property we want to buy got accepted too. So everything seems going smoothly, but then now my friend is willing to buy our house.

We are good friends and we get together often so she knows our house well, and she is willing to move into this one and letting her current house.

1. I am not sure if I can reject the offer we've already accepted at this stage (no paper work yet, we just instructed solicitors)
2. The current buyer is a first time buyer and has got mortgage principle (with deposit of 5%) whereas my friend will be buying this one as a second home and will be letting her current property. Is my friend in a better position than the first time buyer?

We are really happy with the property we found so we don't want to lose that so I am not sure if it's safe to change the buyer at this stage.

Could anyone advise pls?

Thanks in advance.

There's another thread on here about people leaving potential disasters for new owners. I really wouldn't sell to a friend. What if the boiler went on the day she moved in? It's all very well saying, "That's your problem" to someone you don't know but would you say it to your friend?

Never mix business and friendship.

“Aw so sorry lovely but we’ve already accepted an offer...if you want I can pass your details to our buyer so you can have first refusal next time ”

Similar happened to me. My cousin offered to buy my house, after we already accepted a reasonable offer from 1st time buyers. While I pondered what to do, she found faults with my home report and offered far less, saying we would never do better. I couldnt physically move on the amount she offered me. It was literally £45,000 below asking price! I was surprised to see my cousin who was like a big sister, act like this. I told her that we would continue with the first time buyers as they seemed more motivated (wanted a quick buy to avoid stamp duty), fair (offered a reasonable price) and stable (had a mortgage offer in place and proof of deposit). I was right to continue with the 1st time buyers, it was quick (12 weeks) and had no problems. My cousin was angry that we didnt sell to her, she stopped speaking to us.

Do not sell houses , cars or horses to friends unless you wish to become an ex friend fairly promptly.

Tell your friend you've accepted an offer , and been advised that it isn't courtesy to back out at this stage .
It wouldn't be a lie,the advice on here is exactly that

@osbertthesyrianhamster Indeed ! The whole delaying tactic when we had a strict deadline then saying the mortgage offer had comeback short but could we go ahead anyway. When it inevitably fell through he made out the whole thing was our fault. A huge lesson learned.

I'd be very wary of mixing friendship and business. Good friends are too valuable.

We sold to someone that was going to rent their house out and it took longer because they had to get 2 mortgages.

Are you selling it on the open market or privately?
If it's been on the open market, then your friend has had ample opportunity to put in an offer and have it accepted in the normal fashion.
If it's private (as in not involving any estate agents) then you can simply say that you've accepted from a buyer who is not in a chain and if you were to pull out then your seller would also be impacted as a result and that you're happy to continue as you are doing and selling to the buyer who you've accepted the offer from.

Don't sell it to a friend because they are a friend. They may turn out to be anything but a friend if the process goes all tits up because of them.

[quote TheDogsMother]@osbertthesyrianhamster Indeed ! The whole delaying tactic when we had a strict deadline then saying the mortgage offer had comeback short but could we go ahead anyway. When it inevitably fell through he made out the whole thing was our fault. A huge lesson learned.[/quote]
So he wanted you to give him your house for £30k less? What a CFer!

You have a buyer already.

I bought my house from a friend and it’s worked out alright. That said, I put an offer in through the estate agent and kept it all professional. I was the highest bidder when it went on the market.

I wouldn’t let your friend gazump your buyer - that’s bad form.

Not a good idea.

Mixing friendship with business rarely works.

Keep with your FTB.

Another 'don't mix business and pleasure' here.

There will be something that goes wrong that slightly sours your relationship, even if you both go into it with the best of intentions.

I'd say she's too late but your sale falls through then you can discuss again

How would you feel if your vendors pulled the plug on you, OP, because their CFer friend wanted to buy their house? It's a shitty thing to do.

I agree not to do it. The stress of saying no now is far far less than that of letting down your buyers and selling to a friend whose interest has only been sparked now someone else wants yours. And she’s in a chain, who says she can let hers easily, get a mortgage on that basis for yours etc? It’s not a proper offer.

I agree with the consensus on here:
Don't screw over the buyer, it's a stressful enough time as it is without losing a house you love.
Tell your friend straight up that you're sorry but it's sold and sale is going through. She can have first refusal if it falls through.
I would be reluctant to sell to a friend due to any problems arising affecting the friendship. Even after they've moved in any problems could be awkward.

I agree with the consensus.

Has the friend even properly checked your property, had a survey done?

Is she borrowing for it? If so has she a guarantee of funds?

It does sound like last minute and, as others have said, you do have a risk off losing the friendship if there are risks of this affecting the friendship if either of you are messed up by this

Do it if you wouldn't care if the person you are buying the next off did it to you. If you'd be pissed off, angry, disappointed, etc etc then obviously don't.

We sold on the open market to people we vaguely know through other friends and it was a complete nightmare. They lived nearby and kept trying to go round the solicitors. They would say one thing during business hours and then change their mind and call to try to make changes in the evening. Then they almost scuppered the whole thing by being flaky at exchange and refusing to release a deposit to their solicitor. It was mega mega stressful and I would think twice about selling to someone I know in future.

I wouldn't sell my house to a friend if I could possibly avoid it. I especially wouldn't ditch a non-friend buyer in order to do it! The people I know who sold to friends are not friends with their buyers anymore...

I guess I have to find a way to say "no" to my friend

I find this worrying. There should be no concern - just say "no, sorry we've sold to someone already". Job done.

Never sell a house to a friend - all sorts of things can go wrong, and your relationship will suffer. If she chooses to be pissy about you not selling to her, that's her problem, and she's not really your friend.

Just sold my house and had an offer accepted. A week later the vendor came back to say she had had a higher offer from someone else. I was really upset - we had a verbal agreement. I appreciate it is not legally binding, but morally I think it is really shitty to accept an offer then change your mind. I could probably try to up the price by doing the same thing but I would feel really bad about myself for acting that way. Leaving aside the issue of boundaries with friends.

@Limilimin

Thanks all for your advice. I guess I have to find a way to say "no" to my friend. Thanks.

"Friend, I talked it over with DP and we're going to go ahead with the original offer - it's all going through and we don't want to pull out."