Estate agents: how do I go about gazumping and what do you really think about it?

[Gazumping101]

As the title says- are there any estate agents willing to suggest how best to make an offer on a house at least 6 weeks after an offer has been accepted on it? And do you care about whether people do it- is it just about money?

I’m not an estate agent. As a buyer and a seller this is an uncomfortable area. I’d say your circumstances v the accepted offer circumstances are almost certainly more important than the value.

People are hypocritical & greedy, they despise gazundering but often ok with gazumping.

You approach the agent and tell them what you would like to offer. They may pass that on to the vendor, they may not.

Was just about to write almost the same. Generally seen as more acceptable than the opposite 🤷‍♀️

Imo if you’re ok with one you have to be ok with the other!

Not an estate agent but I would imagine how keen they are will depend on if there is a chain

as a seller, I wouldn’t accept a higher offer as I wouldn’t trust a gazumper not to mess me around!!

Shouldn’t be allowed, we should have legally binding offers like the rest of the world and doing this would be mean you have to repay double the buyers deposit.

Strictly speaking it's the seller who would be gazumping, you would be trying to tempt them to do so. I'm in Scotland and our house buying/selling system makes gazumping less likely. I wouldn't do it and wouldn't want to deal with someone who would. I think it's like cheating, if someone will do it with you they will also be prepared to do it to you.

Also not an EA, but six weeks is a long time. I’d imagine you’d have to have a seriously attractive offer, both in terms of value and ability to proceed quickly to be of interest.

Not an EA but bought and sold 8 houses over the years and been subject to both the G’s (though not done it myself).

You’ll get a lot of people on MN taking the moral high ground in both actions but I’m pretty philosophical about it.

A house is (for the vast majority) their primary asset and most expensive purchase/sale and my experience is that the majority of people will take actions that serve their personal financial best interests, morals be damned when they are faced with such a situation in real life.

Not everyone of course, but most.

if you choose to do this then you will need to contact the EA with your offer or the vendor directly (for example I had an offer posted through my letterbox).

Is it all about the money/offer? No. Just (if not more important I’d how proceedable you are.

In my case £10k more from someone who still had a property to sell was not worth risking the firm lower offer from a committed buyer (who had behaved impeccably through the process) with no chain.

Other people may have felt differently however depending on the urgency to move and the relative value of that £10k to the house houseprice vs the risk.

If the offer had been £50k more may have given it some thought rather than dismissing it. Similar at £10k if my buyer had been flaky/delaying/trying to re- negotiate etc

In short it can (and does) work if you have a very good proceedable offer and the chances of success are higher if the current bidder is messing the seller around.

I only know one person who has successfully gazumped and the day before exchange they dropped their offer to the original one. Sadly for the seller they were in a chain and just couldn’t afford to say no.

that person is generally a selfish shit though so maybe that has coloured my view of people who do it!!

I suppose the only way it might be ok ish is if as a buyer you’ve been pushed to accept an offensively lowered offer (or maybe been gazundered!) and the new gazumper brings you nearer to the fair price of the property…maybe…

I still wouldn’t trust a buyer who did either

The agent just wants a sale so if they have already secured a sale with a proceedable buyer then they might not be interested in passing on your offer. They won't tell you this though.

If you are serious, you would be better off going direct to the sellers.

How likely you are to succeed really depends on the benefit it offers to the party you offer it to.

I am not an agent but ...

Let's say a 200K house and you offer 220K. To the EA on 1% commission then they will get £2200 rather than £2000. Which is not a lot of extra for risking collapsing a sale. So in order for it to be worth it to them they would have to be either a) really convinced that the original sale was not going to go through, or b) really convinced that the new offer was. The fact that you are already willing to do something "relatively unconventional" probably indicates you are likely to take further steps later on in the sales process that might be "unconventional", such as dropping your offer at the last minute before exchange and potentially compromising the sale. TLDR it's not really worth the risk, unless they think the first offer is on really shaky ground.

From the sellers perspective its a bit different, because they gain £££££ more, so the risk balance to them changes. Rather than the measly £200 they actually get £20000 extra, which is enough to make a lot of people see £ signs. Again how receptive to this they are likely to be depends on a range of stuff. Like for example how much the current buyers have mucked them around during the sales process and whether they have to move to a schedule (in a chain) and how risky your offer is (for example cash offer or mortgage) and whether your exchange timeline fits in with their own.

These are just some of the things that I might think about. Other people might have other perspectives/viewpoints.

Why dont you frame it in a more subtle way. Approach the agent and explain that you would like to offer on the property but that you understand a sale is currently in progress. Tell the agent that you would like them to approach the seller to consider you as a back up option should the sale not proceed smoothly and that your happy to pay "x".
It might be ignored, it might not. You would have to leave it up to the agent and seller to consider. As others point out your proceedability is key. If you have only just accepted an offer and your buyer hasn't had a survey etc your not in a strong position. If you have cash in the bank and offer to show proof of funds that might be different.
Should you do it from a moral perspective? I think it's acceptable if you frame the approach as I want to be the back up buyer.

Buying and selling houses, as many other things, is a financial transaction. The trouble is that emotion is intrinsic because houses are peoples homes.

Six weeks is some way into the process, solicitors will have been appointed, searches requested, money spent. The purchasers will be understandably upset, having invested time and money in the purchase. The seller may see pound signs and agree to your offer, if you are in a better position to buy, rather than their current purchaser.

Whether it’s morally acceptable is up to the belief and conscience of individuals. I couldn’t do it and didn’t do it when someone knocked on the door and wanted to buy my sold STC house.

And that is fair enough, but as per my previous post is not actually taking a moral stance on the issue.

Rather it’s looking after your best financial interests because you’ve made the call that the potential new buyer isn’t trustworthy and this it’s better for you to stick with the current offer.

If you (or anyone else) knew with a reasonable degree of certainty that the potential new buyer was committed to the sale and was offering considerablly more £££, could move faster, wasn’t in a chain (some or all of these reasons) plus that offer was significant enough to vastly offset money already spent on fees on the original sale then some people would seriously consider it.

That said the fly in the ointment is always going to be the question “can you have that degree of certainty” they won’t shaft you down the line - but that could also be said for your original buyers.

Not everyone who offers (even through the designated process) does so in good faith. I’ve had two buyers in the past who dropped their offer days (in one case hours) before exchange. There had been no prior indication they would do so.

Post a letter through the sellers door. Or Call the agent and express interest, ask them to let you know if anything happens… sales collapse all the time. I did this and about 6 weeks later I got a call saying it was back on the market as the buyer had lost their buyer.

Estate agents are legally obliged to pass on all offers from prospective buyers up until exchange.

What does it matter what they estate agent thinks about it?

Your higher offer gets them more commission. They are not moral arbiters.

They have too give all offers.

Yes but they don't always do that. Especially if the property is already 'sold stc'.

Do you also look at gazundering in a similar, philosophical sort of way? It's the same thing but the other way around. Personally, I would take a similar moral stance against both a seller/buyer who did these things, as I suspect @treeowl might.

If the seller did accept a high offer when they have made an agreement with someone else, it would be them rather than @Gazumping101 who was doing the gazumping. He/she could just say that they really like the property, would be keen to offer 'x' amount if the sale fell through and see what the response was.

Thank you all for your responses (and for being kinder than I expected on such a controversial topic).

We are using the same agents who have been professional and treated the house as now not available. We have yet to receive an offer but have had a recent flurry of serious interest from proceedable buyers so this post was in anticipation and of an offer being made on our house.

We do vaguely know the sellers and could put a note through. They have some complicated circumstances which mean that I think they would consider an offer from us as we can probably match or beat the offer made by the current buyers plus the flexibility to delay completion by 6 months or more if they wished. This could be as valuable to them as the money- even more so.

Do I make this proposition to them asap without even receiving an offer on our house yet? I don’t want to ask the agents when exchange is due as I presume they can’t/ don’t want to tell me and it’d make things awkward with selling our house.