Offer accepted. Can I bid on another?

[HelenFi]

My partner and I have had an offer accepted on a property.

We went to see another property a few days later (as this was already scheduled) and also really liked this property. We arranged a second viewing and still liked it.

Both properties are lovely and have equal (but different) pros and cons.

The second property is listed slightly over budget and we have no idea how open the vendor would be to offers. I think we would both really like to know if an offer would be accepted for this house because then it feels like we could properly make a decision.

Are you allowed to offer on another property when you have already had an offer accepted? If we do make an offer, are we honest about the fact that we have already had an offer accepted (presumably not)? How would others go about making an offer on this?

If relevant, we currently live in a shared ownership house and have a buyer. If they were to pull out for whatever reason we would likely sell again very quickly as they are in high demand in our area.

Technically yes. You are not committed to buying the first house until Exchange. But you will be hated and despised by nearly everyone who finds out you have done it. No one will trust you on any future transactions.

You can. People do. But it's a pretty shitty thing to do. A lady made an offer on two properties including ours a few years ago. Unfortunately for her, the other was on my mother's house. The two estate agents subsequently blacklisted her.

What need to do is make a decision very quickly and then drop the house you don't want before any money and time is spent.

It's fine to realise you may have made a mistake, but don't string along two separate sellers for ages and then drop one.

I wouldn’t think anything of it and there is no reason people would find out.

I would, however, choose one as soon as you agree on a price and stick with it. You just withdraw the other offer.

The housing market is full of sharks and I have experienced few with integrity in many house moves. The market needs reform but, until that happens, you have to play the game according to current rules.

Agents talk to each other. It will most likely come to light. Your original seller will see you as uncommitted. The new sellers will see you as unreliable.

It doesn’t sound like you are sure if you prefer the second property, even if you could get it within budget. Work that out first. Then if you think that’s your favourite, speak to the agent about chances of a lower offer being accepted.

People do it all the time. Though it isn’t a nice thing to do, you can’t spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a purchase that may not have been the best choice for you just to be nice.

We had an offer made on our property and the woman had said she was also viewing another property.. so we were a bit nervous that she’d drop out. We then got more offers on ours and accepted one of them and the lady was pissed at us even though she was still viewing other properties! It’s not a good look

Depends how long since offer accepted. If it was a couple days I'd say go for it, offer. If it's been weeks bad form, but still not illegal. End of the day if it's going to be your forever home I personally wouldn't give too much thought to pissing a couple people you'll never see again off. Just make your decision quickly.

We did this. Had an offer accepted on a probate property that would have needed a full renovation to get to modern safety standards (cloth wires throughout, no GSH, leaking roof, etc) which didn't come to light until after our L3 survey and electrician report. We were very concerned but committed to the purchase until the house we lost out on a few months previously came back on the market suddenly. They'd lost their buyer, we put in our offer straight away, they accepted and we removed ourselves from the first house purchase. We had to change our mortgage offer to the new address, but it worked out fine.

Did we feel bad about messing someone about? A bit, yes, but we felt better not having bought a house needing so much work doing to it before we could even live comfortably in it. And it was priced far too high for the state it was in. We had to look out for our own interests after all.

Unfortunately in England it is allowed, but it shouldn't be, and I wouldn't do it.

You need to decide if you want the house you currently have an offer accepted on. If you do want the current house, there's no need to put in an offer on the other. If you don't want the house you have an offer accepted on, you need to withdraw and then you can continue house hunting and put in an offer on second property. Anything else is stringing people along and you end up with a bad rep with estate agents etc.

Legally you’re not locked in and either party can change their mind. Do it before too much has been spent on progressing the first sale though, to save everyone time and hassle and give them a chance to re advertise it for sale asap. Just be aware they can do the same to you if someone else comes along with a higher offer or better circumstances to proceed.

On a purchase as expensive and important as a house you need to do what’s right for you even if that means pissing off a few people or inconveniencing the first sellers. You’re not morally obliged to buy a house you don’t want any more.

People who randomly make offers and withdraw them are so annoying. I had three of those timewasters when I sold my house last year. But of course, you can withdraw your offer.

Would you be happy for the seller who accepted your offer to still be letting people view and bid on their house? If you can't honestly give a whole hearted yes you know what you're doing Is a shitty way to behave. It's not illegally, but that doesn't make it ok.

This might be just how you've phrased it, but it reads like you want to make an offer on another house, let another vendor accept the offer - and only THEN decide whether you might immediately drop out of that or your original purchase. Absolutely don't do that, that's NOT how the process works.

You need to make a proper decision about what you want to do first. Only make an offer on the second Property if you are sure that's the one you want to commit to.
Realistically you have behaved badly - if you still had houses to see and decisions to make you should not have made an offer on the first house, you should have waited to see all the houses and then picked just one to proceed with. However, you are where you are and you can't be expected to buy the wrong house just to save face. But you are messing people around and you need to sort it out asap so you are proceeding with one house only.

We made our offer because other offers had been made and we wanted to be at the table to have some proper thinking time before the option was removed from us completely if that makes sense. We did say when we put our offer in that we had 3 others still to view. I appreciate what you're saying though very new to this game.

Literally not even 2 weeks since our offer was accepted! Thanks for your thoughts.

I am not one of these people. I have looked at soooo many houses and obviously two have come along at once!

Technically you can, but it’s selfish behaviour. You want both vendors to accept an offer, so that you can decide which one to proceed with.

In the meantime, you’ve made others miss out on their purchases as the vendors accept your offer in good faith. If I found out you were viewing properties/making offers (same estate agent?) I wouldn’t sell to you. I’d assume you were a time waster who couldn’t be trusted to behave reasonably during what is a potentially long and stressful process, even when people behave properly.

Buying a house is a cesspit of flexible morality; your seller would almost certainly rescind their acceptance if they got a much higher offer, or if they decide they don't want to move. Our system is terrible and people behave in all kinds of upsetting ways.

Do whatever is best for YOU, but do it with kind words and thoughtfulness, and do it quickly.

And yeah, don't view/offer on houses with the same agent as property 1 unless you want trouble.

It doesn't sound like you love the first house anyway so I would pull out regardless of whether you get the 2nd house or not. It's a lot of money to spend on something that you're not happy with or buying as a back up plan.

You seller may think you are one of those people.

At two weeks into the conveyancing process, your solicitors have surely received memo of sale, the buyers have sent the contract pack and you have commenced searches, no?

Either way, you're legally allowed to chance your arm elsewhere and pull out for any or no reason, if you've changed your mind.

Thanks for your thoughts. Different estate agents and two different areas.