Can you offer on more then one house?

[NewKidOnTheBlock99]

Hello,

So we viewed two houses over the weekend and loved both - we would be happy with either house even though they both have different pros and cons and are very different. We are under offer from first time buyers and very keen to get something else so we don’t lose them.

We will be offering around 5% under asking on both as they are both over budget so chances of getting either is quite slim , the one that we like ever so slightly more is definitely the more appealing one with a lot more competition so we don’t think we are in with much of a chance but equally we don’t want to miss out on the other one which I think we are in with a better chance of.

Can we offer on both? They are on with different agents. Or I was thinking maybe tell house 2 we are going to offer and try and string them along a bit until we know if offer is accepted on house 1…

There’s nothing to stop you doing it, no. It just means that you’re going into it knowing that you’ll be messing one vendor around; and run the risk that you have your offer accepted on house A, tell the sellers of house B you’re withdrawing your offer, then something happens with house A, and there’s no chance of house B sellers entertaining you again.

No. Agents all talk to each other during the conveyancing process so it often gets out if you offer on more than one property or if you look at properties after having an offer accepted. The EA will tell the Vendor (their client) so whilst your offer will be made neither EA nor Vendor will take you seriously.

As long as they're not with the same estate agents I'd do it. They could both come back and say no. As long as you don't start the conveyancing process with them both I don't see what the problem is.

You have to pick one of the houses so might as well make that choice now. I think it would be bad karma to mess someone around on purpose.

Yes you can.

Making an offer is not messing anyone around. You are happy to pay whichever price, on each house. It's up the owners to accept or reject. Go for it!

As they are on with different agents, you could do it to see which, if any, you could agree a price on.

But whether you morally should do it is a different question.

Surely you do have a favourite? Why not go for that one first and see what happens?

I wouldn't. I would fob the second favourite off with positive feedback but 'we have more viewings to honour' and keep it as a backup.

We actually don’t have a favourite because they are so different if that makes sense?! A feature we would lose out on, on one house would be made up getting a different feature in the other!

I think we will go for house 1 as that one is more likely to sell quicker… they already had an offer before any viewings had taken place…

We deffo wouldn’t start the process until we had picked!

You most definitely can and if you love both, then it’s a sensible thing to do to ensure you maximise your chances of getting at least one accepted.
You’re not messing anybody around as you’ve not started any of the conveyancing process

I absolutely think you can offer on both. Sellers should come back within 24 hrs anyway with a yes/no. I don’t think that is messing people about. Of course if you start the convayacing process with both that is different but of course you will end up with two sets of costs.

We offered on two and one offer was turned down.

Of course you can, it’s a business transaction, in this market, go for the best deal you can get, if you are happy with either property, good luck.

Before your offer is accepted, assuming the vendors accept your offer, the estate agents that are listing those housing will do a chain check. This means those two estate agents will ring your estate agent to check you do actually have a FTB in place. Your estate agent shouldn’t mention they’ve already done a chain check with another agent but it’s quite easy for them to mess up and say “you’ve already rang about this house this morning and we told you the chain was in place”. Before you start conveyancing you also need to pay a small upfront fee to engage them and for searches. So you would need to decide before instructing conveyancers but it’s likely the vendors will want your conveyancing info before they commit to you.

So you can. But it’s easy for it to go tits up. If it goes tits up you risk pissing off both vendors and not getting either house because they feel you’re shady and don’t want to do business with you. I think it’s a pretty shitty thing to do. You say to the agents of house 2 that you are still doing some viewings.

@PurpleBananaSmoothie thats not how it works at all. Vendors do not request conveyancing information before they decide to accept an offer. One gives an offer, vendor accepts (or not), then you provide their estate agent with your conveyancers details. They usually ask for this by 24-48 hours after accepting the offer. If the OP has 2 offers accepted, they simply call the EA of the one they no longer want and withdraw their offer. Conveyancers are not involved at that stage.

EAs don’t do a chain check before an offer is accepted either. This all happens after the offer is accepted.

Of course you can, in the unlikely event both accept just make sure you let the one you decide not to pursue know asap. We ended up doing it in totally different circumstances, our vendor couldn’t/ wouldn’t progress which seriously threatened our chain so we offered on another after waiting 4 months and then pulled out of house one. They’ve still not moved 2 years later so pleased we did !

You can do or you can offer on the phone you prefer marginally and tell the other agent that you are trying to decide between two houses but are certainly potentially interested.

You absolutely should offer on both and make it clear that you are doing so. It sharpens the vendors mind toward excepting your lower offer. There is nothing wrong with finding two houses equally appealing and negotiating with both to get the best deal.

I think this is good advice. Best to be up front about it so no one feels messed about but also doing the thing that best suits you.

This is nonsense. They won’t know. By that time you will have decided on one. Why not - it’s a free world…

Well, I’ve put an offer on two houses in the last 3 months. Both with different agents. Both we had to provide details of our estate agent for the vendors estate agents to check the chain to make sure it’s a proceed able offer. Our estate agents also wouldn’t give us the offers on our house until they had checked with people putting the offers in that they had proceed able offers on the table. Our estate agents then gave us what each party was offering, what their situation was and how big their chain was. We then made a decision. We wouldn’t have accepted someone who had put an offer in on another house, hedging their bets because they seem untrustworthy. As we put our offers in, we were asked for conveyancing details but that wasn’t officially started until the offer had been accepted.

Why don't you offer on your favourite, and then the other ask the agents if they thought an offer of £x would be accepted, given you have a complete chain.
Meanwhile your favourite will come back with their answer, and if a no you can hopefully retain the second house

If you go for both, you’ll have to pull out of one at some point, so it’s just kicking the can down the road in terms of choosing. Why don’t you just make a strong, firm offer with one, especially to establish if the vendor is a serious seller too. You could make another then if it feels like they are waiting for a better offer or not serious about starting conveyancing (or haven’t found their next property).

Offer on both and let the agent know, be very transparent, and let both parties know that you will be going with whoever accept first.

This is complete rubbish 🙄