Shafted by greedy vendors

[Thankyoufordeparting]

So pissed off, upset, angry tonight. Not stopped crying.
We had viewed a property about 2 weeks ago with an agent before it went on the market. The vendors agreed on our asking price offer and it didn't go on the market.

We've got things moving with solicitors, applied for our mortgage, even started downsizing our garage belongings as they'd converted the garage. Then today, the fuckers decide they want to list with another agent for more money, not even giving us a chance to renegotiate our offer.

I know they are perfectly within their rights to do so, but can't help but feel it is a really shitty move after accepting an offer from us. If they had not been happy with the offer initially, they could have declined it. I appreciate that sometimes people need more money in order to move but surely you do your sums before you accept an offer?

As it stands, I'm tempted to pull ours off the market but then would leave our buyers in same situation.

Has anyone had any similar situation where they have been shafted by a vendor and gone on to find a better house?

Yup it's part of the game unfortunately.

Had someone do similar years back.. luckily I went on to buy a house I actually preferred more and in a much better location gif walking into town!

Theirs stayed on the market for over a year. I called the agent to be nosy.. apparently it was still for sale because they'd been messed around by a series of buyers unable to see through on their offers... karma baby!!

Yes!

We were much further down the line though- about the exchange contracts. Vendor decided to keep the house in the family- it was originally her mum’s and she’d let her son live in it and do it up until his relationship broke down.

It was particularly galling as she tried to blame us for being slow- we were very motivated and organised FTB, and I was furious that she couldn’t just own her decision without tarnishing our name with the estate agent. I was absolutely gutted.

A few weeks later though we viewed a nicer, cheaper house with the perfect lay out for us.

Our offer was accepted and the sale went through smoothly, and I didn’t have to worry about replacing the floor in a carpeted kitchen (wtf?)

I thank my lucky stars every day that woman and her sentimentality caused that sale to fall through!

Actually I think you are being completely unreasonable expecting a vendor to take a property off the market before you have got a mortgage sorted. I would only do that for a cash buyer and even then I would think long and hard about it.
And a vendor who gets an asking price offer before the house has been marketed by an estate agent has probably under priced

Yep, on the first house we were going to buy. They accepted our offer and we got things moving, mortgage offer in place etc. The muppets had a house in mind but survey came back poor so they pulled out.

Then strung us along for months as they were insistent on getting A specific type of house on A specific street in A specific village.

Our mortgage offer was about to run out but slotted in with other vendors who had lost their buyers and needed to move. The house we ended up buying was bigger and cheaper but in a less desirable area. We were happy there though for 6 years.

We had since moved to our forever home and I still check online on that house as that one hurt...they still live there, it never sold so guess they were never serious about selling in the first place!

Things usually turn out for the best even if it's hard to see once you get shafted.

Hope you get a happy ending OP!

In all my years of house buying and selling, this has been standard. You offer on the basis of the decision in principle, you can't move any further in the mortgage process until you have an address for the property you want to purchase, no bank will give you a random sum of money without knowing what they're giving it to you for!

While I get why you're upset, why should the people who own the house under sell it to keep you happy?

I mean, if you're selling a house you usually need as much money as you can get. Either to pay off debts or buy a house in a better location, or one that's more suitable etc.

@Auslaenderin what are you talking about? You can't apply for a mortgage until you've had an offer on a particular property accepted. And you wouldn't waste your time applying for one if the vendors hadn't actually taken it off the market!

If you feel you're underselling it, why accept an offer on it? That to me is the aspect which galls. If I wasn't happy with an offer on my property, I'd decline it.

We got shafted by greedy buyers who waited until a week before exchange to demand £25k off the price.

They were FTB and while they were dicking us about, houses locally soared in price and diminished in number.

I am consoled they also wasted their own time and money.

Actually I think you are being completely unreasonable expecting a vendor to take a property off the market before you have got a mortgage sorted.

I've seen this type of comment on lots of threads & don't understand what posters are talking about!

I am so pleased that for many of you with similar stories, it all worked out in the end!

Totally agree with you being pissed off the vendors are being crap, but theres nothing to stop them. House buying process in England is shit.

It is! The Scottish system appears to be so much better. The stories of people spending 1000s, getting to exchange then everything collapsing are too many.

Not exactly the same but we viewed what was, at the time, the most perfect house for us and had an offer accepted. The vendors found me on Facebook and sent a gushing message to say they hoped we'd be as happy in the house as they had been etc etc. About a week later, I got an call from the estate agent to say they'd had a higher offer and so were dropping us Talk about mixed messages.

We didn't move because of shortage of suitable properties at the time, that was 4 years ago. In the longer term it worked out because I think, with hindsight, we would have outgrown the house, but I was upset about it for a long time.

Gosh that is worse with them contacting you on facebook!

I think house buying is such an emotive thing, when most other business transactions aren't, it can really hit you when it doesn't pan out.

But as you say, things do have a tendency of working out.

yes its soooo annoying but when you "choose" a house you are forced to deal with the owners who can play all sorts of stupid games and display all sorts of eccentricities

We ended up with a much better house and the first house took 11 months to sell and when it did it was for 20k less than we’d offered. Hilariously they pulled out in June then the agent called us the following November to try to persuade us to buy the house again and they had changed their minds back to accepting our original offer again… we’d moved into our new home at the end of the summer! That was 5 years ago and it’s definitely a much better home we’re in now.

I heard is was worse in Scotland - someone I know was really shafted with trying to buy a house in Scotland and lost a lot of money - and because of some rule in Scotland there was no recourse on it. Can't remember specific details.

@Minimalme Same happened to us. They dicked us around for weeks and weeks reducing price, then changing their minds, then reducing again. They were absolute pains in the arse and played dirty.
They then gave us an ultimatum and we said no, put it back on the market and sold immediately for more money. Turns out the new buyer had previously offered asking price on the property and the estate agent hadn't told us.

The estate agent tried to convince us to go back with the awful buyers as she felt sorry for them losing out on several properties (due to them doing the same thing each time). They then got priced out of the area and I sometimes think about them and wonder where they ended up instead of our detached bungalow, large garden and sought after village location. We'd priced low for a quick sale anyway so there's no way they will have got anything half decent. Serves them right.

I’ve had enough experiences that I now know that if a house falls through there’s something better coming! Last one was the biggest challenge to this. My purchase fell through 2 weeks before I thought we were due to move (agents lied, solicitors failed to communicate effectively, I failed to get everything in writing).

Was very challenging at the time as I was desperate to move out of expensive rental I’d got stuck in after break down of my marriage, and it took another 6 months to move. But ended up in a much better option on the same road (cheaper, bigger etc). Original sellers are still there and we’re, now, on friendly terms.

That's interesting @PissedOffNeighbour22 we had also priced low for a quick sale.

I think they thought they could use our need to more quickly as leverage for negotiating.

I also think they thought they could get something better and so felt that they deserved a huge discount as a reward for buying our house.

They actually said there was £50k of work they wanted to do to the house (want not need - like converting the garage) and we're kindly splitting the cost with us!!! Colossal cheeky fuckery

@Minimalme I also think they thought they could get something better and so felt that they deserved a huge discount as a reward for buying our house.
This is exactly how I think our buyers were thinking of it too, like they were doing us a favour buying it. They also knew we'd had a previous set of CF pull out and I think they thought they could just keep pushing and we'd give in. They reckoned the porch was falling off the house and a full re-roof was needed but couldn't prove it with the survey 'result'. Also had similar to you about work they wanted to do but we pay toward. They had the cheek to say they would be starting the building work before the house sale would complete as they didn't want the mess and noise themselves 😂😂😂. They thought we were being very rude when we said no, they wouldn't be able to modify a house they didn't own.

The first people who turned up to view when it went back on the market were the first set of CFs who'd led us on a merry dance previously. I honestly couldn't believe it.

Oh well, hopefully these awful buyers ended up being completely priced out and have never managed to move.

OP, I sympathise. Fair enough they wanted more money but why not give you a chance to increase your offer? I couldn't trust them ever again and definitely wouldn't be pursuing the property.

I suppose they've done you a favour by doing it early in the process and showing you what sort of sellers they are, but it's still a kick in the teeth.

Offers are binding in Scotland. Sounds like they pulled out and would have been hit financially by doing so. The Home Buyers Report and valuation are available upfront.

If it’s on with another agent now and you would have offered more money if they had given you the chance, what’s to stop you offering more money now via the new agent?