AIBU if I accept a higher offer

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Accepted offer from lovely young couple at full asking price. A lady also offered full price, but I thought the couple were keener and I really liked them so chose them (neither would go higher at the time). Today the lady offered 50k extra. So conflicted now, don’t want to let the lovely couple down, but - 50k! Don’t want to go back on my word, but - 50k! Would prefer to see the couple living in my house, but - 50k! Would I be an awful arsehole if I accept the higher offer now? What would you do?

Does the lady need a mortgage? Presumably your house won't be valued at 50k more so will she still get a mortgage?

You're likely to regret accepting this. Look a gift horse in the mouth on this occasion.

‘A non refundable deposit’ …. How on earth would this work? What would happen if you pulled out? What if her chain collapses? What if…o please.

you would have to get a solicitor to draw it up, which would be I think quite expensive as it is very much a non standard agreement. Presumably they would have to hold the deposit, as well. If I was your buyer, I wouldn’t be prepared to pay for a solicitor to oversee that as an extra expense, especially since it was signalling that you didn’t trust me.

If it’s been just 3 days then as bad as I would feel for your current buyers I would accept the offer. I don’t know if a non refundable deposit is even possible but I would be asking for some guarantees even if not as high as £50k.

Make sure she can prove funds before you accept.
When we bought our house, we had to go to best and finals. Our offer was accepted. The day after, the other party offered 100k more and the vendor accepted. But then it appeared that they couldn’t prove funds and guess what, the vendor came back to us! We offered the same money but negotiated more of the contents to be left so the vendor ended up being worse off. So OP, just be careful.

I’d want to see the ladies AIP, and or evidence of funds to support purchase. If she is getting a mortgage then would the mortgage company agree to the over pay?
for non refundable deposit it would need to be written up by solicitor, perhaps reduce the £50k extra and have her fund the legal fees to secure the deposit? Assuming the deposit is from her own savings and is tangible not reliant on her sale/chain etc.

Lovely young couple they may be but don't for moment think they wouldn't shaft you if the tables were turned. All's fair in love, war and the UK housing market.

As it’s only been a few days, I’d take it as the couple won’t have incurred any costs yet. But I’d be very suspicious- that is a massive increase, and especially in the current market.

as PP said, can the agent see the lady’s proof of deposit funds and AIP now, to prove she can genuinely afford it? Ideally before you reject the other offer

We had buyers who hadn’t incurred any costs. Our neighbours came along and offered £50k more. We went with them. It’s business and made a difference in our onward budget.

but, if the buyers had incurred costs we wouldn’t have dropped them or at very least would have paid them back.

this was at the height of the market though. I’d be a more concerned about last minute gazundering now.

How would you feel if somebody did that to you?

And I bet she drops the price just before exchange.

Well the first thing you do is let the original buyer know so they can counter if they wish to. Would you split the difference with them as you preferred them in the first place?

So within a period of three days, this purchaser has gone from thinking she could find another suitable property to realising that she can't and hence offering a higher price on yours .... hmmm, really?

£50K is a heck of a lot of money, take it.

The woman sounds like a but anyway...

If you accept and their mortgage company then says it's not valued at 50k more then they won't get the money needed.

This.
I wouldn't trust this buyer. You got a good sensible offer from people that are probably more trustworthy. You will never see that extra 50k, she'll either pull out or lower her offer just before exchange.
And you can't get legally binding nonrefundable deposit before exchange.

Older lady does not need a mortgage as downsizing, and currently selling hers to a buyer through my estate agent so he knows her situation accurately. But he did describe her as “picky”.

Yes that 50k is coming off after survey

And you can't get legally binding nonrefundable deposit before exchange.

Apparently you can. My partner's work colleague just made 50k when his house sale fell through when the buyers pulled out.

I don't know what agreement was made though.

You accepted an offer 3 days ago because neither would go over that and suddenly in 3 days she’s not found anything else on the market. She’s full of shit. And unless she’s shitting money, she hasn’t found £50K overnight. She’s absolutely going to pull out last minute or drop the price by £70k at the last minute. I don’t know how you would enforce a non refundable deposit because what if the survey finds something that does warrant the price being dropped. It’s £50K and it’s a lot of money but I don’t think you should trust her.

I wonder how picky she will be on the morning of exchange? Looking for a 60K reduction or she won't exchange maybe?

Oh she’s “picky”, aye? This translates to = she’s a total pain in the arse who will shaft you on the first sniff of the home survey and the day of exchange.

It's only three days...

There are lots of stories here about sellers favouring a "Iovely couple/ young family" only to be messed around with unreasonable demands. Both buyers have some uncertainty attached, you can't really know that either won't mess you around later, so take the additional money.

You can have a non-refundable deposit. You just need a solicitor to draw it up which will cost you.

We were the buyers in this situation - the people we were buying from pulled it after all the docs had gone to the solicitors…2 months later we got a call asking if we were still interested - their fab new buyers had fallen through!

funny enough we said no