Buyer’s property marked Under Offer - following on from my post last week!

[sunnyjayne]

So a recap. There was a family interested in our property (which is a sale for probate which is granted, to settle our Mum’s estate and also buy onwards). They have given us an offer and after a couple of back and forth’s we accepted it! Great! Also I’m very emotional

I WAS interested in their property and was pipped to the post while I deliberated and got my budget straight. I since found out I’d have been the preferred buyer for simplicity and we each loved one another’s houses!

I see that their property is listed as Under Offer on the agent’s site, when every other property is SSTC. Two things:

what does this mean as I was told they’d accepted an offer and they have offered on ours which we’ve accepted

also, does it mean I could still offer on it??

I’ve been pretty sad I lost out and even though it would be a stretch I can’t see anything else that comes close. I am disabled and really also need things to be simple. I can only get out to view houses once or twice a week seeing one or two at a time so I’m quite anxious as I’m gonna be out on my ear in 3-4 months! That’s just background info not really necessary!

I should probably just let it go 😄 I thought I had til I saw that online, but I’m also wondering about it for our sale.

If you are in Western Australia, Under Offer means contracts have been signed.

It may still fall through if one of the conditions of sale is “subject to finance approval “ or something like that so do keep in touch with the agent.

I’ve never understood this either tbh but it must mean not SSTC (in England/Wales) in which case I’d get your offer in asap! Go in firm and positive with proof of your affordability etc so they have confidence it’s a genuine strong offer.

DD is going through a house move as we speak, the one she was buying said “under offer” until the agent had got all their proof of funds, details of her sale and had completed the memorandum of sale. It was only like that a week before it changed to SSTC.

I thought they meant the same thing, just different terminology

They do mean the sane thing. The house I’ve literally just exchanged on says ‘under offer’. I assume it’ll change to sold at some point.

I am just selling my parents house -
"Under offer" means they have had a offer but they haven't decided whether they will accept the offer yet, so in theory you could swoop in with a better offer and they could decide to accept your offer instead. (And then the other buyers could swoop in with a higher offer and the sellers could swap to them again....)

"SSTC" means Sold Subject to Contract which means the offer has been made and accepted. It might not go through, but it would have to be because the terms of contract couldn't be agreed upon, or had been agreed upon, but couldn't be met.

In other words "Under Offer" - sellers get a better offer and they can ask the current buyer for more money, and go to the next people if not. Or buyers faff around, sellers can move on if someone else is interested!

"SSTC" Sellers can't change the price, or decide they like someone else more, they also probably have agreed how long they will wait for the sellers to sell theirs, and can't sell to someone else in that time. The only re-release to the market would be if the buyers messed up the agreement e.g. said they couldn't pay what they'd agreed on.

An estate agent is obliged to pass on any proceedable offer. If they’ve exchanged then no, you’ve lost it unless one of the parties pulls out. To be fair, and I don’t like what I’m about to point out, you have what they want so there is perhaps more weight to your offer here..

Agents definitely use the terms interchangeably. Whether that is because they don’t understand the difference or don’t care, I’m not sure.

If you are interested in it, offer on it. The worst they can do is say no.

Oh my gosh, send your offer first thing today! This sounds just ideal for both of you to swap houses, surely they would jump at the opportunity. ‘Under offer’ when we sold our house meant an offer received but not accepted yet (in 2024).

Possibly regional, but in my experience the two terms are used completely interchangeably!

So many responses thank you so much! I’ve been flat out unwell so just wanted to write a note of appreciation. The agent said that under offer with be changed to SSTC soon and explained the difference, just until things like finances are all checked out and solicitors in place (tho I’m paraphrasing from memory).

I may still just say look if the sale falls through then bear me in mind. Such a weird situation to be in as that sale means we’ve sold here!

now dealing with a lot of feelings of grief, panic needing to find a home and nothing coming on the market now and pressure from agents and sibling who both want things to proceed quickly, sibling has had offer accepted on their purchase out of this sale. Which is great! Just feeling the pressure. Thank you again. Will try to respond individually where I can

Tbh I think you’re overthinking it. Different EAs use different terminology and it basically means the same thing, in England at least.