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

[Greenfairydust]

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?

''@THisbackwithavengeance · Today 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.''

Nope.

The owner and agents lied about not doing any more viewings which was a condition of my offer (that the house be withdrawn form the market).

They got what they deserved.

It also was a bad business decision for them: had they kept their word, the house would have been sold to me by now and the money would be on their account.

Now they have no sale, likely forked out for solicitors fees and the house is back on at a reduced price. So they will likely get less than what I offered.

And I would decline a higher offer in the scenario you suggest if I was a seller because:

• I have basic integrity
• I also know that a higher offer from someone who might not be able to proceed further down the line is worth nothing compared to a reliable offer from a buyer who is in a good position as I was when I offered on that house (no chain and large deposit)
• I would assume the buyer might offer a higher just to secure the house and then negotiate back down at survey stage.

The moral of this story is that karma is a bitch...

This takes me back over 30 years when we were about to buy our first very small house . Our maximum budget , very tiny and a town away from where we really wanted to be . However we were very exited when our offer was accepted.

After we had the mortgage in place and literally days before the survey , the EA told us the couple wanted us to enter a contract race with another couple who had offered after us , but a very small amount more than us . We were literally at the top of our budget , so couldn’t increase the offer .

We spoke to the EA again the following day , to clarify if we got there first they would definitely sell to us , as we had a good head start . Thanks to his honesty, he said actually the seller planned to sell to the other couple anyway and just wanted a back up plan .

At this stage we pulled out , and took a few months to regroup our feelings and start looking again . Such perfect timing , because the sellers other buyer in that time pulled out , they crawled back to ask us to buy it which we refused . The property market crashed , letting us buy a much bigger 3 bed in our home town .

When we saw the property still up for sale , and at a far reduced amount , I had my own gloating moment , which judging by the length of my post I’m still not over!

@Greenfairydust sorry, I still disagree.

Wanting the best price for your property is not being greedy. It's being sensible. Those sellers owed you nothing. And yes it backfired on them big time on this occasion. So yes, call it Schadenfreude if you will but you're wrong to call them greedy. They don't owe you a cheap house.

I love reading these!

When we last moved we were let down on our first house but by then we're desperate to move. The market was going crazy so that, added to our desperation meant that we got into a bidding war on a house and bid our maximum. We did think it would be worth it as it was going to be our home for 15+ years. One of the reasons we were keen was that the EA had confirmed that the sellers had found their onward purchase and wanted to move quickly.
Our offer was accepted and we immediately asked our solicitor to get going and booked a full structural survey (at a cost of £1k+).
Just before the survey the surveyor asked if our solicitor had anything he'd like him to check. I checked with the solicitor and he said hadn't received anything from the seller's solicitor and they weren't responding. I immediately called the EA and luckily spoke to a new person (not the sleazy guy who has been dealing with us). She quite innocently informed us that the sellers had not found anywhere to move to so hadn't instructed a solicitor.
We were angry that they had lied so cancelled the survey and looked at another house with another EA. Luckily for us they were desperate to sell and had no inward chain. We got an offer accepted and once it was all progressing we pulled out of the other one.
The EA went crazy calling us demanding to know what we were doing. I explained that they'd lied to us and we didn't trust them and had found a better house. He was adamant that there was nothing better than this at the same price point in the area (there was!). We refused to say where we were buying.
Our new purchase went through quickly and smoothly.
About a year later I looked up the sale price of the other house ... can't lie that I did have a smug smile when I saw it eventually sold for £40k less than what we were willing to pay for it!

Well then set the price at what you want instead of wasting time and money surely.

I wouldn’t do this , not good house buying/selling karma and not a way I operate . If I have made an agreement for a sale I stick to it as I think it’s morally a shit thing to accept a higher offer but each to their own I guess.

We were buying a commercial property, house with a business on the land.
We were well on with getting finance sorted and we had already sold our house.
Unknown to us and the agents, the vendor was running another buyer at the same time and whoever was going to get to completion first they were going to sell to. The other buyers obvious made more progress than us, so we were dropped.

We found another property, without a business but enough land to be able to build one. As the property was cheaper we had enough equity in our old house to build the business without borrowing extra. We live in a beautiful area, whereas the other property was great from a practice point of view but not in a particularly nice place.

For some reason, the buyers they chose to go with ended up moving in 8 months after we moved into our property.
I had a wry smile the day I found that out.

@THisbackwithavengeance · Today 07:56
@Greenfairydust sorry, I still disagree.

Wanting the best price for your property is not being greedy. It's being sensible. Those sellers owed you nothing. And yes it backfired on them big time on this occasion. So yes, call it Schadenfreude if you will but you're wrong to call them greedy. They don't owe you a cheap house.

Again you are wrong .

My offer was not equivalent to wanting a ''cheap house''. It was a good offer.

They will get less than I offered now as the house is being advertised at about 15K less than what it was before....

There is nothing ''sensible'' about losing a reliable buyer for the sake of a few thousands and ending up not even getting a sale and having to reduce your house.

And yes that is greed overriding common sense and decency.

''Those sellers owed you nothing''. I think that type of attitude is all that is wrong with the current system, people who have no basic integrity are allowed to mess people around even after an offer as been accepted and money invested in survey/solicitors.

I think you are trying to convince yourself that it is acceptable behaviour. Many of us just see it as what it is: greed and dishonesty.

But aren't you tempted to put in a lower offer anyway, just for the hell of it, and mess the agents around? I must admit I would be.

Thoroughly enjoying all of these - we can all have a gloat together!

When we were looking for our current house (our forever home), we fell in love with a house and put an offer in at asking price. It was at the top end of our budget. The owners decided they would go to best and final bids and literally at the 11th hour another couple put in an offer £15k over asking.

We shrugged it off, found our lovely home and had an offer accepted. A month later the first house was back on the market and it stayed on there for MONTHS. It eventually sold for less than we had offered.

Never been happier that someone’s greed bit them in the arse.

We had schadenfraude but in a really sad way. Our buyers were a nightmare, came round en masse without the EA and I was told that they just wanted to make us an offer for a few bits they wanted.

They spent a couple of hours going through the house wanting pretty much all of the curtains, appliances, furniture and outdoor furniture thrown in for free. And becoming increasingly aggressive. At the time, I had a baby and toddler and my husband was at work so there wasn't anyone else to back me up.

I stood my ground but was really pissed off. It then came to light that some other buyers had offered £50k more but the EA hadn't put the offer forward. The original buyers were still being awkward about a few things so we switched to the other buyers, which I felt very uncomfortable about but it was too much money to turn down (the original buyers hadn't yet paid for their survey).

On the day of the move, the mother (it was a multi-generational family) died. She wouldn't have known it was the day of the move but I felt really bad.

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.

I confess I've also gazumped someone. We had made an offer on a near derelict house and the seller wanted three weeks to consider our offer. At 5pm on the last day, they received and accepted a higher offer.

We'd missed out and been messed around on several houses over the three years we'd been house-hunting. The next day, we increased our offer and she accepted.

Is that morally wrong? Quite possibly although the other buyer hadn't incurred any costs at that point as it was only 24 hours later.

Me too. When we sold our last house, there were 3 people who were really interested in it. They all put offers in, and we accepted the highest one, which we were delighted about as it was from our 'preferred couple' anyway (yes I know it doesn't matter really, but we were happy that they loved the house as much as we did).

That evening, I heard a wee noise at the letterbox. One of the other bidders had put a note through the door saying that they really wanted the house and would pay £5k over the other people's offer. I phoned them and declined - they were really taken aback!

Fedupofdiets we were lucky - I appreciate that.

We offered full asking price on a house we loved but the owner was absolutely awful. He didn't tidy up. It was disgusting inside. He didn't even flush the toilet! He was very wealthy and greedy.

It was one of those houses that you knew you'd have to pull up the carpets on moving day because you didn't want your DC touching them.

He was so cruel to us. And demanded more and more. Eventually we found the same house on another street, bought and moved in quite quickly!

We checked LR a few months ago to see that the first house was sold for 25k less than what that man initially wanted! 😱

We laughed SO much.

We're now looking at relocating long distance and this thread has put me off 😂 conveyancing is just too stressful

Yes, we were not in a chain found a lovely house, made an offer but because asked for a quick sale as I'd need to move into a rental for 6m if I didn't buy quickly, they asked me to cover 6m rent for them. I said no chance and walked away.
They sold for less than I offered them 6m later.
We went into a rental, glad we did tbh, and then completely moved area. That was 4 years ago.

My DP's got gazumped on a house and a few years later the whole back of the house fell down due to subsidence!

I don't see that as karma for the person that gazumped them, but rather just a lucky escape for my parents!

When I sold last year and the sign stayed up saying STC, I got 2 letters through the door offering to better whatever offer I had accepted. It didn’t even occur to me to follow them up. I had accepted an offer I was more than happy with, I had met the buyers and liked and trusted them.
I didn’t even know it was legal to proceed with 2 sales at once, as a buyer I would not knowingly get into any kind of race no matter how much I loved the property.
We are buying now, saw a place we liked this week but have some viewings lined up next week and are waiting for those before making a decision. A friend suggested I offer now in case it goes in the next week but if we had an offer accepted I wouldn’t feel comfortable continuing to search. Also, I fear we would end up being perceived as unreliable buyers.
As a side question, would it be worth explaining the situation to the agent of the house we liked so that they can contact us if they do receive an offer in the next week?

Exactly, and don't lie and say you are going to accept the offer and stop viewings.

If everyone assumed everyone was lying or would pull out last minute for a higher offer, then no-one would ever buy or sell a house. There has to be a modicum of believing that someone intends to stick to what they've agreed in writing.

This isn’t gazumping. You made the first offer and increased it in response to a (possibly fake) second offer.

This isn’t gazumping. You made the first offer and increased it in response to a (possibly fake) second offer.

Is that not gazumping? I thought it was putting in a higher offer when the vendor has accepted an offer and taken the house off the market.

Not entirely sure why the EA didn't give us chance to counter the higher offer but she didn't.

We had an offer accepted on a house. Put our house up for sale and sale agreed in 10 days. We thought great. The sellers had their onward purchase arranged as well but that seller needed somewhere to move to so still not complete.
The sellers seemed a bit odd about a few things. I asked about some damage for example and they denied it being there. I just wanted to know if they'd identified the cause.
They were also horrified that we could see on Zoopla that's they'd previously advertised it and the sale hadn't gone through.
After solicitors were instructed but thankfully pre survey the sellers decided they wanted more money. We said no, even their estate agents said it wasn't worth any more.
They tried to sell again a while later for a higher price but didnt get anywhere.
Our buyers stuck with us and we bought a bigger nicer house. The garden is also better.
The other house has still not sold and this was about 2 years ago. Were in our forever home and love it.
We're not very far away and I wonder if we'll bump into the one day. Given the stress they caused us (and our lovely buyers) I'd rather we didn't see them again.

Ours didn’t have another buyer but just suddenly demanded an extra £10k. We walked away. 7 months later the estate agent calls my mobile and says the owner is willing to accept our original offer… er no, we’ve purchased a didn’t house now and are very happy! The house sat on the market for another year and eventually sold for £20k less than we’d originally offered.

There is no “U.K.” system for conveyancing

Scots Law applies to Scotland.

There is no gazumping under Scots Law and there never has been.