Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Withdrawing offer on house

5 replies

Reliablesource · 21/06/2025 09:10

I am looking to relocate to a small town 200 miles away, which has made viewing properties tricky. However, I made an offer on a house a week ago which was accepted. It’s a fantastic property but my one concern when viewed it was that it is on a main route into the town and not set back far from the road. Traffic noise didn’t seem bad on first viewing.

When I made the offer, I asked to book a second viewing as well so that I could take some measurements for furniture, and I drove down again yesterday to do that. When I arrived, the traffic was noticeably worse. Also, as it was such a hot day, the windows were open this time and the traffic noise was evident continually throughout the open plan living area/kitchen and the 2 front-facing bedrooms. 3 double-decker buses rumbled past within 30 mins.

It’s a popular coastal town and I know that the traffic will be much worse in the height of the summer. My heart absolutely sank. As I’d be living alone with no busy family noise around me, and working from home, I feel this would be a big issue with no way to solve it.

I want to withdraw my offer and feel I should do this straight away obviously to allow the vendor to re-market it quickly. But I am also worried because it’s a small town with just a couple of EAs and undoubtedly I will have to deal with this EA again when other properties come up.

Any advice on how best to explain my withdrawal to the EA so that I can still deal with them in the future, as they are obviously going to be peed off with me? Didn’t sleep for worrying about this.

OP posts:
Geneticsbunny · 21/06/2025 09:19

Just be honest with them. You can't buy a house because you are embarrassed about making a miatake. However, in future never make an offer without a second viewing.

sbplanet · 21/06/2025 09:34

Just be honest and say, sorry but on second viewing the traffic was worse than you'd thought. Can't be helped, the faster you tell them the better.

Cactusmumma · 21/06/2025 10:01

Definitely be honest with the EA. We were selling a beautiful house once that had a high flood risk. We had several full asking price offers that were withdrawn a few days later when people started really digging into the flood risk. We were open about this but think people fell in love with the period property and then a few days later, their sensible head kicked in. It’s very common.

Luckily in our case a buyer came along (still at full asking price) who didn’t care. The same will probably happen to these people. Some people can deal with busy roads, others can’t. They’ll be aware of this and the EA will definitely understand.

Reliablesource · 21/06/2025 11:04

Thank you for the replies, I appreciate them. I have never previously made an offer without a second viewing but loved the house and thought I’d struggle to make a second viewing, given the 200 mile distance. However, am very glad I did that yesterday as I had a niggling doubt. I have lived on busy roads in a city before and managed, but now realise that part of my reason for moving to a small town in another county is to get away from hustle & bustle.

I will let the EA know today. Hopefully they will be ok with showing me other properties in the future as I would hate them to think I’m flaky. I’m very serious about wanting to purchase the right property in the right place.

OP posts:
OtiMama · 21/06/2025 12:53

I agreeing about being honest and emphasise the fact you don't live near as it shows you couldn't have easily just driven by other times too. Also mention to the EA you are still looking etc. Ultimately they want to sell houses so if you're interested I can't imagine they would turn you away.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page