Pulling out of house purchase… WWYD?

[MadHatter36]

Hi everyone,

I’m in the process of purchasing a home for me and my husband to move into. We aren’t first time buyers - we are renting out our residential home and moving into this house we are purchasing.

The home we are buying was up for £395k, it had a lot of offers. We put an offer in or £400k, we wasn’t accepted. Few weeks later we got a call back saying the vendor now wanted to go with us as the person who they accepted couldn’t get the funds together but their offer was £410k!! I said we would agree at £403,000. Anyway, fast forward nearly 4 months, we are supposed to be exchanging this Monday.

Yesterday, my dream property came back on to the market (we viewed this 6 months ago, put an offer in, but someone went higher us - it’s now fell through and back on the market). I really really want this property after being rejected 6 months ago, so I called up the estate agents and put another offer in without another viewing. They’ve already got 8 offers on it. It’s a probate home being sold by solicitors. Anyway, I’ve put an offer in, but don’t find out until Monday / Tuesday whether they have been accepted. It was up for £525k, we’ve offered £545k. 20k over. In the meantime I’m supposed to be exchanging contracts Monday !! If we don’t get this dream home, I still want to complete on the property we are in the process we are purchasing. I’m thinking of every excuse under the sun to get out of signing the contracts on Monday as I want to know whether I’ve been accepted on my dream home.

my question is - if I pull out of my current purchase, what would happen? Will I owe the vendors any money? I’ll feel guilty, but my dream home has came back onto the market !

I'd be so pissed off if someone pulled out day before / day of exchange especially if 'something better came up'

Karma could bite you in the ass on this one!

People are mad who think you need to go ahead with buying a house you no longer want in case of karma

I understand your predicament...

I think it is one of those times it is appropriate to have a market mindset and do what is best for you. Your vendor also only came to you as a second option, although you did make an offer above the initial asking price, so would not be feeling obliged to follow with it if your heart is elsewhere. And I am sure it will sort itself out and they will find other buyers.

As for the house being in the market again, there might be many perfectly acceptable reasons - people buying found their ideal home coming back to the market and decided to drop this one, for example...

I would postpone for a few days until you know more about your offer. I am usually quite upfront and would be compelled to explain why, but I don't recommend you do that, as they then might just tell you either you take it now or we cancel the deal, even if they would not want to do it.

If you don't try it you will always be thinking about this other house, particularly if you find afterwards that it was sold below your offer.

Good luck!

Terrible thing to do, legally ok at this stage, but not something I would ever consider doing, bought and sold lots of properties over the years, only ever pulled out of one purchase, early on, due to a very adverse survey. Entirely your call, but don’t be complaining if your gamble doesn’t pay off. I hope whatever you decide works out for you.

Don't feel guilty. This is something that will affect your life for years. Do what you need to do.

Btw please keep us posted. I'd love to hear more about the dream home.

@MadHatter36 did your offer get accepted on the other house or have you exchanged?

Yes it’s a bit shit but it’s the perils of our type of housing market

Yes it is, people falling over themselves to buy any property and then regret it because they see one that’s better value or better location, they fall through for different reasons, maybe the buyers tried to renegotiate the price at the final hurdle?

Who knows unless you ask? Worth a discussion at the very least - then you aren’t ££££ out of pocket wondering if you should’ve made a move.

Hi All, me and my husband still haven’t signed the exchange documents. Signing them this afternoon, but doesn’t mean we will exchange this week. Should be the end of this week. I chased for an update on the house I really want yesterday, the estate agents said it’s being sold by a Solicitors firm and they’re really slow to look through all the offers and should have an update by end of today. I said I need to know ASAP. We offered 20k over the asking price and the guy said they have higher offers, but we have no chain so still a possibility they will go with us. I don’t hold much hope now to be honest. I can’t go any higher.

Ask yourself

if it doesn’t work out with the dream property, how will you feel on move in date to this property? I suspect very unenthusiastic and deflated.

so no matter what, I personally would withdraw

It is absolutely rubbish for the people you're supposed to be buying from, & your reputation with EA will be mud, but you can't buy a HOUSE just so they're not pissed off with you.

I think I would pull out of buying the non dream house. Put all my effort into getting the dream house & if it doesn't work out, look for another. But yeah, depends how great this house is compared to everything else on the market (except the one dream house).

best of luck with the 'Dream House'. But it could take a while to get sorted.

let us know what you do!

Ooooooh, is there nothing at all left in your budget? We lost our dream house. Another £40k would have done it. Maybe even less. At the time we were so sure we didn’t have the extra money… now I have to walk past it every day thinking of all the things I would sacrifice now to have stretched that bit further!!

Fingers crossed for your dream house OP.

Fingers crossed!

Update: so I went to hand in my documents today for the non dream house. I’ve now been told there are unknown issues with the vendors purchase, so our completion is on hold!! Chased up my dream home, I’ve been told we will not know until the end of the week now, but we aren’t the highest offer so, unlikely to be accepted.

Eek, hold your nerve, you never know!

Do you mean your exchange is on hold? Exchange documents require a completion date written in the document, so I’m guessing that you mean the exchange is on hold because your sellers are having issues.

I hope your solicitor knows to check first with you before exchanging contracts with your seller - as it’s literally just a phone call between the solicitors and then you’re committed to the purchase (or a massive fee if you back out).

I am sure OP’s solicitor will call OP, to request an email to confirm all purchasers give permission to exchange. Standard procedure.

Any update OP? We are going through the same thing but we only offered 3 weeks ago so no paperwork has been done yet.

Update: we completed with the house we put an offer in on. We never got the other house - we didn’t find out till after we completed anyway so good job!!

Why are you buying a house £150k less than you are willing to spend? If I was involved in your chain and you pulled out just before exchange, I would curse the day you were born.

You are no longer cursed😀

At least it's all sorted! Congrats on your new home.

It could be a lucky escape @MadHatter36. Your dream home could have turned into a nightmare with the rocketing building and material costs so it could have taken months and masses of money to make it to your taste. Plus, you haven’t overpaid for the more practical solution so if the market takes a hit, you won’t be stuck with an unrenovated property you stretched yourself to get!

OP how did this all turn out??