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Original poster

Did we stand any chance against cash buyer?

61 replies

Extraslice · 27/08/2021 18:56

We lost out again to a cash buyer, on a dream home. Don’t tell me something else will come along, as in this market currently, for that money, I can assure you it won’t!
I am so surprised by my response to this. I haven’t stopped crying for the past few days. And I can’t seem to accept it. I keep trying to rationalise it.
There were 3 offers all at asking price and they went with the cash buyer.
Could we have done more?? Or was there always no chance? My head is filled with ‘what ifs’.
I know this sounds extreme (and crazy) but we love it so much —also have a 6 week old baby so it could be hormonal—

OP posts:
HalzTangz · 27/08/2021 19:00

If I was selling I would accept the cash buyers offer as you can exchange and complete more quickly than you can with those in a chain

MonsterKidz · 27/08/2021 19:02

It is such a difficult market OP. It can’t last forever.

Who are all these people with the cash?

purplesequins · 27/08/2021 19:02

depends
if the cash buyer is a developer then they will try to screw the seller over at every step.

Original poster
Extraslice · 27/08/2021 19:10

@MonsterKidz I don’t know 😫😫 but I wish they would kindly piss off

@purplesequins not a developer.

OP posts:
FAQs · 27/08/2021 19:15

Drop a note through the door, say you’re a family with a young baby and this is your dream home, say if it falls through you’d love to hear from them and will keep your offer on the table. Nothing to lose.

If you find something else, you’re not tied into a contract with them but it leaves the door open.

SoundBar · 27/08/2021 19:16

Offer over asking next time?

Original poster
Extraslice · 27/08/2021 19:28

@FAQs the vendor did the viewings so met us (twice). I put a note in and she has texted me, been very lovely but it’s kind of making me feel worse.

OP posts:
longerevenings · 27/08/2021 19:30

I think cash buyers usually have the edge.
We were cash buyers recently.
We had sold our house and we're in rental.

BigcatLittlecat · 27/08/2021 19:33

We had two offers and we didn't go with the cash buyer. We thought as a developer he would drive hard bargains later on, we went with first time buyers who loved the house!

oohmama · 27/08/2021 19:33

I know this is going to happen to us
I'm dreading it already!

I really really feel for you op :(. Its shit

evianlion · 27/08/2021 19:35

It's only been a few days. Your feelings will change. It's not reasonable to expect yourself to "accept" it and have no emotions in a mere matter of days.

Wombat96 · 27/08/2021 19:43

We went with the cash buyer but stipulated that it would have to remain a cash offer. Guy weirdly said he might get a mortgage in response to being told that by the EA, so we swapped to the FTBs...

Cash is always preferable as should be quicker. Tbh tho, after selling a fair few houses, mortgages always tend to appear down the timeline & I basically don't believe people now when they say cash.

We were helping relatives move recently & they missed out on buying somewhere. I told the EA if it falls through, they'll offer. Nope, won't fall through, he said but it did & they did offer, now living in the house.

aginandtonic · 27/08/2021 19:45

Cash buyers beat us in best and final a few times. It's the way it goes. I'm surprised they had three asking price offers only though, and no one offered over asking? Did you consider that or was it too much?

PigletJohn · 27/08/2021 21:04

people who say they are cash buyers do not always tell the truth.

like the ones who say they have no chain.

Chumleymouse · 27/08/2021 22:32

Cash doesn’t always speed the process up,
We were cash buyers, the house was empty and we didn’t have any surveys and it still took 3 months to complete .

BunnyBerries · 27/08/2021 22:59

We put in the exact same offer as a cash buyer, and as someone said above, they went with the first time buyer instead, (us!). It must be just seller's preference.

Original poster
Extraslice · 27/08/2021 23:29

Unfortunately I think they are legit as I know they provided all their financial info the the EA right away. I had no idea people made it up??!

Vendor has promised to contact me if it falls through, but this is extremely unlikely. Your story gives me hope though @Wombat96!

We didn’t offer more because it was the top of our budget.

OP posts:
Lonecatwithkitten · 28/08/2021 07:45

Offering a big pile of extra money. We were cash buyers in a hot market offered 20K over the asking price we're blown out the water, but buyers needing a mortgage offering 70K over the asking price on property 1. Offered asking price on property 2 lost out to those needing mortgage offering 50K over on next property.

nicecheesegromit · 28/08/2021 07:57

Become a cash buyer yourself. Sell up move into rented and then you're top of the tree when the next dream house comes up. You will never be first choice in a market like this so I think you need to accept what needs to be done to give you that advantage. You can't change the way the market works.

eurochick · 28/08/2021 08:19

@nicecheesegromit that won't make them a cash buyer.

Bluntness100 · 28/08/2021 08:21

@nicecheesegromit

Become a cash buyer yourself. Sell up move into rented and then you're top of the tree when the next dream house comes up. You will never be first choice in a market like this so I think you need to accept what needs to be done to give you that advantage. You can't change the way the market works.
That doesn’t make someone a cash buyer, it just makes them chain free Confused
PyjamaFan · 28/08/2021 08:41

We were cash buyers (inheritance) and were accepted even though our offer wasn't the highest. So I suppose you could become chain free, as someone else has suggested, and then offer a chunk over the asking price.

Being a cash buyer means less chances of any hold ups and of course no chain (we didn't sell our other house as part of the process) so you can see why that's attractive to vendors.

Don't give up OP, your dream house is still out there. Smile

MauveMavis · 28/08/2021 11:11

We sold a house earlier in the year - lots of interest. Desirable area that we know really well. Real project house.

We sold to a family and created a chain rather than selling to cash buyers

Reasons for doing so:

  1. they offered more money 2)they provided details of the house they had to sell and said it would sell easily (we looked at the house and agreed with their assessment, in the end it was only marketed for a week).
  2. they wrote a slightly cheesy letter about how much they wanted to stay local and this house would let them do that.

If you have any scope to do any of the above then work it!

ComeonJulia · 28/08/2021 11:17

We’ve recently accepted a FTB over a cash buyer. I think for some people they need every penny they can get for their onward purchase but we preferred to give someone a chance and we really like the family we’ve sold to.
He tried to gazump our lovely FTB (who also have a small baby) 3 times before we told the EA to stop contacting us with anymore offers as we were happy with what we accepted.
All going through fine, no hiccups thus far.

InpatientGardener · 28/08/2021 11:28

If it helps, we lost out to a cash buyer, we actually offered 5k over and they offered asking price,we would have been prepared to up our offer further but were told that the seller just wanted the quicker sale regardless so it might be that there was nothing you could have done anyway.