Gazumping. Should we do it?

[Itsrainingten]

We viewed a house about 6 weeks ago. Loved it. Had a second viewing and wanted to make an offer. Spoke to seller, explaining we were awaiting an offer on our house first but we had someone who had seen it 3 times and was apparently "just waiting for her husband to return from his business trip on Friday" and then would offer on ours. Well unsurprisingly she then went radio silence. I was in touch with sellers EA regularly letting them know we wanted it but still weren't in a proceedable (?) position. Even put forward a full asking price offer if they'd hold on for us. They didn't want to wait. Fair enough. Well this morning I looked on RM and it says it's SSTC. It wasn't on Friday. Thing is we've literally (like 2 hours ago) accepted an offer on ours so now we ARE proceedable. We are considering getting in touch and offering them £750k - asking price was £735. What do you think? Is this too immoral? Would you do it?

It’s a market. You are now willing and able to offer more than the current offer. Just do it. You don’t owe the other potential buyers anything and the seller will
come to their own conclusion. Original buyer may decide to up the ante with a counter and you will then need to decide
None of this is “immoral”

its a business transaction! people take this so personally!

offer on the house! they can only say no. yes gazumping sucks ive had it done to me and its heartbreaking BUT its business, not personal

Do it OP and don’t even feel slightly guilty. Up the offer if you really want it. I was a conveyancer for 10 years and so many people do it! Buying and selling is a brutal game and chains break down all the time, people get gazumped, couples break up, people occasionally die half way through the process… there are thousands of reasons why a sale won’t go ahead and I bet the other buyers haven’t even instructed solicitors yet so it’s not like they will be out of pocket. And even if it had been further along in the process you could always offer to buy their searches/survey as I’ve had a few brave gazumpers try to do 🙃

The agent has a legal obligation to put all offers forward and it’s also their job to get the best price for the seller. You could call the agent, tell them you have now accepted an offer and would like to offer £750k. The other buyers might not be in a chain, so even with a lower offer, they could be a better buyer. You don’t know if you don’t ask and if you didn’t offer, someone else might as it’s a new sale. If you were a new enquiry, trying to view the property, that would definitely be a no, but you have been in frequent communication with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they viewed it on Saturday and had an offer accepted today

This is a bonkers plan. How would you even know? And how would you know if they're telling the truth. Just get on with making an offer, and don't worry about it.

You might not be able to gazump, OP. We’ve come across a couple of houses recently (NOT marked as under offer or SSTC according to Rightmove, before anyone shouts at me), called the estate agents to arrange a viewing, and they’ve said they’re in negotiations so not interested.

It’s worth a try but you might just drive the price up if the other people offer even more than you. As a seller I’m also not sure that I would trust you as I think it’s pretty unethical behaviour and because it’s such a shitty system you have to put a lot of faith in the people involved in the chain. I’d be wondering if something better came up whether you would pull out last minute.

@Itsrainingten - hello! I’m actually slightly behind you in terms of selling (ours is still on the market) however, am in a similar position and viewed a house last week which both of us loved & put an offer in the following day even though ours hasn’t sold yet. Sellers aren’t willing to hold out for us, I rang the EA today who told me that three others are viewing this week. If for any reason we were to find ourselves with a buyer & the house we want goes to one of those viewing I would be VERY tempted to offer slightly more. There is a small part of me that feels strongly about fate and that whatever house we end up in is the one we are supposed to have. It’s tricky.

In what way are the sellers flakey?

Presumably that poster means if they accept the OPs offer whats to stop them accepting someone else’s next week or whatever.

If you want the house then put in a higher offer. Not illegal.

Just phone the agent and say if the house becomes available again, your offer would be asking price + 15. Perfectly honourable and up to them to decide what to do.

You can do it. They can accept or decline. That's our property buying system, not like in Scotland. Happened to us (we were gazumped and ended up having to pay £30k more). It's pretty shit but don't ask, don't get. If you're happy to deal with vendors who would accept that and are therefore happy to accept that the same could be done to you, crack on. Nothing to lose.

You do not actually know what offer has been accepted.

I would ring the EA tomorrow, and say you are now proceedable as you have a buyer for yours, a chain length of (however many, or your buyers are FTB with approved mortgage) , you have solicitors in place, you are porting your current mortgage and will only have a low £100k mortgage to value so know that will not be an issue whatever the mortgage valuation. It may well be your previous offer is above the offer they accepted and/or that the would be buyers are less stable buyers than you with a longer chain etc

I think your mistake here is to be too emotional about a significant financial purchase. You seem to think that you already have a connection with the house and the sellers which is probably a bit naive.

The other thing is that you should be prepared for this not to just come down to the cash price. The other buyer might have no chain and no mortgage. I wouldn't swap that for £15k in their position.

I’ve come to this board because I’m in a similar position. I wanted to buy a house. Set my heart on it. I stupidly thought I could do a deal with the owner and avoid agent and that it might tip the balance in my favour if my offer would be without agents fees.
bad mistake because I wasn’t informed about another offer and the owner just told me they have accepted someone else’s offer. I thought I’d be first refusal and I would have beaten their offer.

a friend of mine just suggested I still have time to make a higher offer now. I think that would be awful of me though.
so I guess that’s the same situation as you. It’s tricky but i don’t think I can gazump. Doesn’t feel ok to me. I’m really shocked to be in this situation though. I know how horrible it feels trust me

Put another way, if you were seller, wouldn’t you want to know if someone was interested in putting in another offer? I’d be a bit miffed if I never got to find out an offer was there just because someone was being too British about it. You really don’t know the situation of the other offer…they might not be remotely interested in changing now but they might have accepted an offer from a buyer who seems flakey/ has a long chain or all sorts of things they would rather avoid because that was their only option. The time to act is now though! And be prepared for it not to go the way you want.

DSis accepted an offer of a couple of grand less as she didn't want to sell to the other people offering who had DCs in her kids school. She didn't want to see them every day. I thought it was a bit odd myself but other people thought she had a point.

Just putting that out there.

If I was selling my house, I’d be gutted to find out later I could have got an extra £15k selling to the first family who showed an interest, but they were being too polite so I’m £15k poorer and they haven’t got their dream home.

I think buying & selling is a dirty business and people do all sorts of dubious things that they wouldn’t do in everyday life. A lot of people saying they would never do it have probably never been in your position so don’t know what they might do.

I’ve pulled out of a house purchase close to Exchange when a better house suddenly came on the market. Different situation but I know you can feel bad about doing certain things but do them anyway with such an important purchase.

I think you could try making an offer and see what the EA/vendor says. They may not be interested anyway. The moral dilemma mainly lies with the current owner.

I would certainly let the EA know you were interested should the sale fall through but could I gazump? No, absolutely not.

Sold Subject To Contract. The contract is when you exchange.

A house isn't sold until contracts are exchanged. Up until then you can do what you want.

Estate agents do some pretty dubious things all the time in house selling. I wouldn't worry about other peoples ideas of "ethics". I would go to the seller direct and talk to them personally. The EA will almost certainly have their own agenda.

If I were selling though I would want more on top than the amount you have offered. You are trying to appeal to the sellers greed, so a miserly couple of % increase is unlikely to do much there. If it were me I would want at least 5%.

It could well be the dream home of the successful buyer. None of us know how much that buyer offered either. The OP can make her offer and the estate agent should pass it on to the vendor.

You don’t even know the other potential buyers and you owe them nothing. Morals are just bollocks made up by human beings to keep the peace. Make an offer, if you win the house then that’s great. The feelings of a couple of strangers are not your problem.