Schadenfreude ...greedy seller lost their buyer after gazumping me

theotherfossilsister · 13/04/2023 19:40

Excellent, you're totally owed to feel smug about this.

As a Scot, the English property market really puzzles me. h

Saying that, it reminds me of my friend who was kicked out by his landlord in early 2020 after ten years as the perfect tenant, so landlord could make it an airbnb

Teacoaster · 13/04/2023 19:43

Oh, I try to be a good person but sometimes it's nice when these things happen 👹

I offered on a house last year. Full asking price, offer accepted, plus we were looking at moving within their timescales. Then they asked for final highest offer. Reluctantly, went a bit higher. Offer accepted again. Started going through the initial paperwork... Then received a message a week later saying they've decided to go in another direction..aka, someone else guzumped me despite accepting my final highest offer.

Anyway, their house went STC and a few months later, saw it had sold just below asking price and 3 months after when they actually wanted to move. So their buyer obviously ended up reducing their offer and dragging their heels.

Meanwhile, our house purchase completed 3 months before theirs and we didn't have greedy buyers.

Very satisfying.

aibuaibuaibu · 13/04/2023 19:48

Greenfairydust · 13/04/2023 19:35

Just that really....

I had put a very reasonable offer before Christmas on a house that had been on the market for a while. It was accepted.

The agents were horrible to deal with but things proceeded and I was told no more viewings would take place.

4 weeks later out of the blue I got a call that the owner had accepted another, much higher offer and I was heartbroken.

Well, today I saw that the house is back on the market and the owners has reduced the asking price by more than 15K as the sale fell though.

I just could not help but be pleased that the owner got what they deserve for being greedy/lacking integrity.

Anyone else got messed around by sellers only to see them get what they deserved in return?

Did you find a better house

StarbucksSmarterSister · 13/04/2023 19:49

I had an offer accepted at asking price and they agreed to take it straight off the market). Fortunately it was only about a month later ( so not as bad as yours) when the EA rang to tell me they accepted an offer from someone else. I then found the house I live in now which is much nicer. Their sale fell through and they eventually sold it months later for 10 grand less than I would have paid.

🙂

UncomfortableSofa · 13/04/2023 19:58

Must be tempting to book a viewing and waste their time!

Original poster

Greenfairydust · 13/04/2023 19:59

@aibuaibuaibu

Yes I had an offer accepted on another house. Doing the survey next week.

OP posts:

Eddielizzard · 13/04/2023 20:00

Yes it is good when greedy people get their comeuppance. Did you find another house or will you put in a lower offer?

Original poster

Greenfairydust · 13/04/2023 20:08

''@Eddielizzard
Yes it is good when greedy people get their comeuppance. Did you find another house or will you put in a lower offer? ''

I would not consider this house again!

Because the agent/owner can't be trusted.

But I also learned since that the house next door is a holiday let and there are marshes close by so potential issues with flooding. It did not come out when I did the initial searches on the Government long term flooding risk map for some reasons.

So it was for the best that I was gazumped.

OP posts:

Wavingnotdowning · 13/04/2023 20:13

We had a very similar thing happen. I was bitterly disappointed but then found the lovey house we are in now - much more suitable, and the family we bought from was so helpful. I was delighted when the estate agent rang me six weeks later - presuming I might still be interested. I pointed out that hell would freeze over before I considered buying a property from the appropriately named Mrs Batt! Her house eventually sold for less than we had offered. What goes around, comes around😀

Cicily · 13/04/2023 20:17

Happened to me recently. Fazumping is just shitty!

bert3400 · 13/04/2023 20:21

Yes way back in 2009 so still an unstable market from the 2007/08 crash. We offered asking price on a house we loved, accepted by seller . Two day before exchange he demanded another 15k ...we didn't have any additional money so had to pull out . A few weeks later we ended up buying a substantially bigger house for the same money - with a great garden and suberb location. Original 1st house remained on the market for 2 more years ( Ha ha you greedy tosser)

FetchezLaVache · 13/04/2023 20:25

Not my story, my friend's. After 12 years as model tenants, her family was given notice as LL needed to sell. Fair enough. They loved the house, so they scraped together the deposit, got a mortgage in principle and offered just below asking price. LL accepted. Then LL changed mind, as EA had convinced him that he;d get far more at auction. Friend and DH managed to increase their offer by £10K. LL wouldn't accept it. Friend and DH gutted, but managed to find another house to buy.

Auction date rolls round. House sells for £30K less than their final offer. Friend sends former LL a very short email that included the word 'Schadenfreude' and bought a bottle of champagne.

GasPanic · 13/04/2023 20:37

You don't need my permission to gloat. But you've got it anyway.

Gloat, double gloat and triple gloat.

Cottipus · 13/04/2023 20:37

We bought our house about 11 years ago. We viewed one house, amazing area but I didn’t love it. They listed at £300k and we offered £285k, our max budget- back then stamp duty was really expensive over £250k so the £255k-£300k was a tricky pricing position.

They rejected our offer and we viewed the house we live in now. Initially vendors of house 2 rejected our offer but came back a week later to accept, no messing around.

In the meantime house 1 agent started calling us, saying vendors would accept our offer if they could take the oven and some carpets and some such nonsense. This continued for a couple more weeks but we stuck with house 2.

Eventually saw on LR that they’d sold it for about £245k- so lost £40k from messing us around. In some ways it was annoying as we’d have happily paid well over that to be in that area! But I do love house 2 and we’ve had nearly 11 years here.

KievLoverTwo · 13/04/2023 21:44

bert3400 · 13/04/2023 20:21

Yes way back in 2009 so still an unstable market from the 2007/08 crash. We offered asking price on a house we loved, accepted by seller . Two day before exchange he demanded another 15k ...we didn't have any additional money so had to pull out . A few weeks later we ended up buying a substantially bigger house for the same money - with a great garden and suberb location. Original 1st house remained on the market for 2 more years ( Ha ha you greedy tosser)

I enjoyed reading this.

Handpickled · 13/04/2023 21:48

My buyers demanded a £15000 reduction the day before we exchanged. I refused. They didn’t know but I could buy my property anyway. They came back and said fine they would proceed without the reduction but I said nope not even if you offered the same as a bonus. They told the estate agent it wasn’t fair. Poor babies. Sold it the next week for a higher offer.

DoTrollsShitInTheThreads · 13/04/2023 22:12

I'm enjoying this thread. Our system for conveyancing in the UK really needs updating to stop some of these awful tactics.

ThirdWorld · 13/04/2023 22:24

This is from years and years ago, but I've never forgotten it!

My little brother put an offer for his first flat. He was so excited and spent loads on solicitors and searches etc etc. The week before exchange he was gazzumped - the seller had a better offer. He was really upset at losing all that money but ended up with another just as good flat.

Anyway the original seller came back to him about 3-4 months later and said the sale had fallen through and did he still want to buy. He pretended to be all excited and said that yes he'd love to, even though by this time he's moved into his new flat.

He wasted months of their time. And as they did to him, a week before exchange he pulled out...

Still fills me with glee years later, how dare they do that to my wee brother!

English property law is shit!

THisbackwithavengeance · 14/04/2023 06:53

Yes it's normal for to be a bit smug.

However when it comes for you to sell a property, you accept a reasonable offer from Buyer 1 who you don't know from Adam.

Buyer 2 also unknown to you then comes along and offers a much higher price, are you then going to decline out of loyalty and fairness to Buyer 1?

Of course you're not! You're not running a charity or a housing association. You want the best possible return on your sale. End of. It's not being greedy or unfair.

Your problem here OP is that you've made it personal.

Fedupofdiets · 14/04/2023 07:05

Handpickled · 13/04/2023 21:48

My buyers demanded a £15000 reduction the day before we exchanged. I refused. They didn’t know but I could buy my property anyway. They came back and said fine they would proceed without the reduction but I said nope not even if you offered the same as a bonus. They told the estate agent it wasn’t fair. Poor babies. Sold it the next week for a higher offer.

If I was ever in this position I would love to do this! You were very lucky though to be able to proceed without the sale.

Buildingthefuture · 14/04/2023 07:06

We have been gazumped twice, both times very close to exchange, so money spent on surveys/solicitors etc. It was shit. But also both times, we found much better houses and proceeded with those, so that when the other seller came back to us after their miraculous higher offerer didn’t actually materialise, we told them to bugger off. Both ended up selling for more than £50k less than what we had offered. And yes @THisbackwithavengeance Option 2 is exactly what I would and have done. Once we have accepted an offer, that’s it. No other offers considered, higher or otherwise. It’s not personal but I prefer to conduct my business with integrity.

Fedupofdiets · 14/04/2023 07:06

ThirdWorld · 13/04/2023 22:24

This is from years and years ago, but I've never forgotten it!

My little brother put an offer for his first flat. He was so excited and spent loads on solicitors and searches etc etc. The week before exchange he was gazzumped - the seller had a better offer. He was really upset at losing all that money but ended up with another just as good flat.

Anyway the original seller came back to him about 3-4 months later and said the sale had fallen through and did he still want to buy. He pretended to be all excited and said that yes he'd love to, even though by this time he's moved into his new flat.

He wasted months of their time. And as they did to him, a week before exchange he pulled out...

Still fills me with glee years later, how dare they do that to my wee brother!

English property law is shit!

Didnt he still have to pay the Solicitors fees though?

hoophoophooray · 14/04/2023 07:12

Oh we had this as well. Lovely house, offered £365k. They accepted, and we got on with things. About 2 weeks before exchange they came back wanting £5k extra. We simply didn't have it so had to pull out. They decided to go to auction and got £290k for it!

We ended up in a much nicer house that we paid £250k for - it needed work but it's now a fabulous house and we had it valued recently at £700k (we converted loft and added a rear extension)

Romer5 · 14/04/2023 07:28

We were gazumped. That offer fell through. We went back again to have another look and he wouldn't accept our original offer and was, in fact, very rude to me when he happened to be at the house. We didn't proceed. It did sell for a little less than our original offer. We didn't get a better house and I still feel sad about it today.

DollyBantry · 14/04/2023 07:30

Same happened to us - the vendors shafted us then came crawling back months later. Luckily we were not in a perilous position house-wise so had been able to park our plans in the meantime. We were able to set the new terms and extract every last concession we wanted from them (they were desperate to sell by the time they crawled back).

Also noticed recently that the house they moved to now has a massive housing estate planned just beyond their back fence.

Karma’s a bitch.