Have you ever withdrawn from a property you've offered on?

[goodfences]

We're at the search stage of a house we've offered on (they've been completed). It's a nice house but needs cosmetic work. An old lady lived there before and her taste isn't horrible but it's not modern and fresh. All interior wood (doors/ stairs) are a gloomy mahogany colour and one bedroom has a shower and sink but no loo (or plumbing ready for a loo). At the time we were searching there wasn't very much around.

I'm going to see a house tomorrow without DH which on paper looks better. Same price. En suite in master. Rooms about the same size. Fresh white decor. Utility room. The owners are emigrating so want to leave all furniture (grey sofas white furniture, quite tasteful). We have furniture but mostly amassed second hand bits from family over the years (all a bit mismatched) so would be looking to upgrade a bit when moving anyway. It's close to a nice green space and a bit quieter for our pet - home one is close to a busy bypass.

If I really love it I need to persuade DH. I know he thinks it would be an admin headache to withdraw even if home two was much much better for our family so would be reluctant. Has anyone withdrawn an offer before in favour of a better house? How much of a pain was it? He would obviously view it if I truly love it tomorrow.

We did this. We put an offer on an ok house that needed some work, in a slightly scruffy area but near our best friends. It had a huge garden and room to extend, or so we thought until we found out about some restrictive covenants that would have made extension a pain. Also the roof started leaking and the sellers dragged their feet over fixing it before exchange. Also, we visited the house at another time of day and realised parking in the road was a nightmare.

Then an amazing house in a much nicer area came on at a very affordable price. It too was a doer upper but in this case the work was actually doable. We withdrew our offer 3 or 4 months after it being accepted, and proceeded with the amazing house. We live there now and I love it

I just told my solicitor to tell our original sellers we were pulling out, and that was it. The estate agent did call DH for feedback the next day but he just said we'd changed our mind about taking on somewhere that needed so much work. We had to pay a few hundred pounds in solicitors' fees for the first house, but we just instructed the same solicitor on the new house purchase so all moved quite quickly.

The first house did sell a few months after we withdrew our offer, and for slightly more than our offer too, so all's well that ends well.

I've made my pros and cons list this afternoon and no matter how hard I try house 2 seems so much more appealing.

Even with it being full of crap. I know she's had offers already so I don't think we'd get anywhere being too bossy with demands it's cleared.

This is the house we want to stay put in until old age. I don't want to make the wrong choice and live with house regret.

Thank you again for you own stories, reading them makes me want to get my offer in! I was hoping you'd all sway me that it was an impolite expensive hassle to change my mind on house one now....

Surely there's a reason for them being the same price, as house 2 sounds like it should be worth more? Garden size perhaps? Proximity to amenities? What are the cons of house 2 apart from it coming with their stuff?

I'm just curious really, as it's obvious you want house 2. And you should 100% go for it if that's the case.

@CellophaneFlower

That's a great question and has really made me think hard.

Both in low crime areas. House 2 an attractive newish family estate near to a green space. House 1 closer to town centre. There aren't a lot of 4 bedroom properties available in the area.

House 1 on the market in the summer when there really wasn't much choice. House 2 came up when there were a couple more out there. In terms of sq footage there isn't loads in it but house 2 has the addition of a utility room and en-suite. Both small gardens.

Another house on the estate came up for £15k less but has the crispy old bathroom and kitchen the house came with and a naff garden.

Perhaps priced as the vendor has already moved and wants a quick sale. She's wants it done and dusted by Xmas which I think is a bit ambitious as searches are taking a while atm.

I think we are going to offer and see what happens - DH wants to go over guide price but I think offer guide price on account of the crap it's filled up with. For me, having to eBay off a boat and trailer and 6 bmw tyres is a chore not a selling point.

We withdrew when sellers were being dicks (wanting extra money or they’d take the fitted carpets and the taps!) They were mad but it served them right.

I totally missed your other update about your viewing, sorry! Having just cleared my dad's house (he was a bit of a hoarder) it is quite a big job. It was obviously harder in my case though as I needed to go through everything, rather than just paying a house clearance team. We did manage to sell quite a bit, which more than paid for the 2 massive skips and van we hired though.

For me a house is always about the potential. I can see past the decor and crap, but not as easy for others I realise! I think the quieter area and lack of bypass would swing it for me.

The buyers of my dad's house wanted to complete before the stamp duty discount ended so they paid for an indemnity on their searches. This may well be worth looking into and mentioning with your offer. If you're in a good position (Sorry if you've mentioned) I'd go guide price and test the water. Definitely have a max price in mind though and hit them with that, final offer, if you get turned down and are still keen.

Good luck!

I have twice pulled out of a purchase. Once years ago when the sellers were trying to buy some land and eventually told us it would take months to sort out; second time earlier this year I was misled by EA that the seller was happy to go in to rental only to then be told (after getting searches and expensive survey) that actually they needed to port their mortgage and after three months of waiting fir them to find something I pulled the plug.
I have been gazumped, I have had a seller simply change their mind, and recently one pull out due to illness (only to decide to proceed one day before stamp duty holiday ended, which was too late for me to Benefit).

Yes, I have once. I made an offer but still went to a viewing that was already scheduled for the next day and the second place was much nicer and £15k cheaper. At that plaint I hadn't put down a deposit or anything so it was fairly straightforward. It's a big purchase- take the time to get it right.

We've offered on house 2. It's had a lot of interest and I wasn't prepared to offer the top of our budget so it's very u likely to go to us but at least I won't always wonder 'what if'.

All perfectly sound reasons for pulling out but I just wondered whether anyone had ever done so after finding out there'd be a neighbour problem. Not that I think it's not a good reason but difficult to discover...?

@romatheroamer

If there has ever been a police log a neighbour dispute could easily be discovered.

Knowing someone else on the road or asking the neighbours are fairly easily done too.

Sometimes it can be a clash of people but I'd think it was a perfectly acceptable reason to pull out of a purchase.

Interesting to see if you get it! At searches stage i would, but any closer to exchange i wouldn't. If you don't get house 2 then you should probably stop looking at Rightmove or this could happen again.

@Glitterybug I'll update when I hear. Will be shocked if we do.

I did say to DH that I would delete Rightmove after this. It's not healthy.

I’m assuming unless someone wants to buy the boat, it will be a nightmare to get rid of?

We pulled out of a sale when we discovered major issues with the neighbour.

She was a nightmare and the vendor had lied about her. She would have made our lives a misery.

I often think about the house. It will always be the one that got away.

The law allows it so there's nothing stopping you. Shit for the vendor though, we had someone pull out on us recently because she offered on something else, meaning we've lost our dream home. It was gutting. Wish it wasn't allowed but it is.

Update!

We didn't get it. I'm disappointed but at least I made the offer, I won't always wonder 'what if'.

We will steam ahead with house 1 - essentially there is more money in the bank for us to make it lovely now. - it just won't be our forever home!

Well, decision made!! You can make the first house lovely. You may love it even more than you think once you've moved in and put your stamp on it. I bought my current house (small terraced house) not thinking it would be our forever home but actually it suits what we need it for right now and that's far more valuable. Forever home is such a changeable concept - i mean right now, we could probably do with an extra bedroom or two - but when the kids are grown up and moved out, we wouldn't need a 4/5 bed home so we might then find at that point that our idea of a forever home is a 2 bed cottage in the countryside.

I mean you could buy your forever home and then knacker your knees up and need a bungalow one day. You just don't know what's around the corner. As long as you can see yourself being happy in house 1, that's great.

@Glitterybug you're certainly right on the forever home point. At the moment we need more rooms and lots of space for toddler stuff but of course things will change.

And we are still in walking distance to the beach so it's not all bad.

I think it’s worked out well. If the vendor could overlook dog muck stains on her carpets you wonder what else she might have been slapdash about. The original house sounds like a cared-for home that got too much for the elderly lady and just needs you to apply your own updates to it. I think the experience will be nicer overall.

You were right to offer. People withdraw offers all the time, chains collapse etc. Just the way it goes. I think you need to be aware that you could annoy the agent- if you go on to make an offer through them they may not believe you’re serious.

At the end if the day though you’ve got to do what’s right. We just lost out on our dream home. Now looking for dream home number 2. I can totally envisage going for one not nearly as good as number 1 was truly exceptional. And if the sale of number 1 fell through we would absolutely go for it at any point up to the point of exchange.

@GreenClock it is a very cared for home. Unfortunately the lady got dementia so was no longer unable to live alone and I believe it's being sold to pay towards her care. You can tell she was house proud, it was immaculate when we viewed it. It won't take much to make it a wonderful family home.