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?

We were tricked into offering on a house at this stage (not knowing an offer had been accepted) and it just meant the original buyer was forced to pay £20,000 more.

I don’t care about the risk of them paying more, in all honesty. Neither the sellers nor the agent are encouraging us to offer at this stage.

Estate agents won't encourage it, they will not book viewings etc... once a house is SSTC as its off market.

After that the EA has no input, its the seller really and any decent moral person would shut you down instantly.

They would start back at the beginning where they lost 6 weeks of their time but also could cost money AND rock a whole chain of people possibly losing them their onward purchase. Even if its an empty house they have to pay money (insurance, tax, utilities etc...) so every month is wasting their money and increasing their risk. Why on earth would the be stupid enough to do that?

Unless you offer SUBSTANTIALLY more (like 20%) and agree to a 4 week completion (auction style) I would as a seller laugh at you for even thinking like 2% or 10% would change my mind on those risks. Even then I would be weary as you already showed you have no morals and you would probably change terms (insist on searches/surveys or Gizunder) after acceptance so I would still say no.

What do I think, I think only a see you next tuesday with zero morals would even consider it.

Surely gazundering only works if you offer more and are immediately proceedable?

Even if you wait until you’ve received an offer on your house the chain below it might be large and therefore it’s not an attractive alternative for the seller of they house you’d like to offer on.

EAs generally hate gazumping. Their interest is in getting the deal through and that's much more likely with the original buyer (who has committed to the costs of survey, legal fees etc already). If they are then gazumped it's back to square 1 and a much higher likelihood that the deal will fall apart (especially as at that point you know that both the seller and the new buyer are the sorts of people who do this sort of thing).

All of this counts for a lot more to the EA than the tiny increase in fees they might get. Say the original price is £500k and the gazumper offers £520k- the EA is only getting 1% (say) of that additional £20k- £200. In return they have to shepherd a completely new transaction through with a high likelihood of failure - double the work and a high chance of no fee at all.

People call that karma but it's obvious to anyone with basic foresight that that would happen, greed just blinds people and makes them morons.

If a person gets in bed with liars, cheats and thieves, I never get how shocked they are when that person then lies, cheats and steals from them. They knew what this person was like when choosing them as a buyer.

We had someone offer £50k more after we’d accepted an offer and we declined as we felt the risk of them dropping their offer close to exchange was massive.

They then did exactly that to another seller.

Common misconception.

EA work for buyers, buyers decided if they receive offers and who from. There is standard auto rejections where seller have pre-agreed no offers to be passed on. Things like 'x% under asking', 'non proceedable', 'morgage users' etc... and one of these standard ones is 'no offers after SSTC' which is a classic part of coming off market.

They'd be insane to accept your offer when you're not proceedable... Even if you can offer better options in terms of when they actually move. Presumably they do need to sell, or they'd withdraw.

Unless you can proceed without your house selling, you can't do anything until you actually have an offer and the chain beneath you is complete, and then you can contact the sellers or their agent... you do run the risk that they've exchanged by then, but you can't give a valid offer until then.

You've muddled buyers and sellers a bit there.

It is not unheard of for a vendor to specify they don't need to be notified about offers below £x.

But pretty unusual for a vendor to say "Don't inform me of any offers after sstc." Although technically it's not impossible.

@housethatbuiltme are you an estate agent? I’m not interested that you think I’m a cunt, morally devoid etc. I don’t care about the people that are currently buying it. They’re strangers and mean nothing to me. I care about what is best for my family and that is this house.

As I said, I can provide a situation that may be more valuable to them than money, as well as at least matching what they have paid. I think they are in a difficult spot currently and could potentially feel relieved at the prospect of pulling out of the current sale and agreeing something with us that would give them what they need. There is no chain either side.

I really appreciate the constructive feedback from estate agents- thank you.

I sell property of a different type. Its not uncommon for me to get a message saying "If this sale does nto go through I will offer $$$". I would never back down from the orignal sale as I have a reputation to consider. However if the original buyer does withdraw or cancel (if happens) then I feel free to go with the later offer. Its just business.

If there’s currently no chain either side, why would they sell to you if you need to sell your house and have no idea what the chain below that looks like?

The offer of 6 months etc doesn’t sound like it’s in your control to give.

We offered on a house but then found out it had a really complicated chain so we pulled out straight away - 1 year on it’s still only SSTC.

There is no chain either side

I'm not completely following this bit? In an earlier post you mentioned you had yet to receive an offer for your current property, implying there would be a chain.

If you need to sell another property there will be a chain.

If you're not reliant on the sale of another property there is no chain.

As I said, I can provide a situation that may be more valuable to them than money, as well as at least matching what they have paid. I think they are in a difficult spot currently and could potentially feel relieved at the prospect of pulling out of the current sale and agreeing something with us that would give them what they need. There is no chain either side.

It's all hypothetical at this stage though. Until you are under offer you have no idea how proceedable you are, or whether there will be a chain. You can make an offer whenever you like but most vendors who are already under offer would not reject their current buyers for an unknown proposition

As a seller I would be dubious but I think there is a “good” way and a “bad” way you can go about it. If I were you I’d pop a letter through the seller’s door expressing your interest in the house and asking how the sale is progressing, making clear that you would be happy to at least match the offer of their current buyer if they aren’t satisfied with how their buyer is progressing.

For all you know their buyer might have recently done a survey and is trying to reduce their offer or something. The sellers might be open to other avenues.

Interesting question :-)

I suppose it depends on the reason. There are imho perfectly reasonable circumstances under which an offer could be reduced where new information has come to light.

I am only philosophical about it in the sense that it will happen and why people do it. I’m not suggesting it’s morally right, nor have I done either personally.

When I had buyer who cut their offers (very) late in the day I simply played hardball and said I would put the house back on the market. In both instances the original offer was reinstated.

Until you are proceedable (which according to your previous post you are not) you really don’t have a better offer to put forward.

You may well expect offers in your property but as the saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

At present the best option is to tell the EA you are interested in the property and to contact you if the current sale falls through.

@Butterflyfluff @Mildura apologies for being confusing- the seller and current buyer have no chain either side. FWIW (nothing at this stage, I appreciate) the person very interested in ours is not in a chain.

I can’t explain the seller’s personal circumstances without being outing but i do think a delay would be as valuable as money if not more so potentially. If we sold imminently we would actually be able to give them that flexibility as we have somewhere else we could stay.

No decent estate agent would entertain discussions about an offer 6 weeks after an offer has been accepted.

Are you an estate agent?

All you can do is put your offer in either with the estate agents or the sellers. Either if the estate agents or sellers take the moral high ground, or actually quite a few bits of the buying process has already been done, they may tell you they won't be interested in your offer unless the current buyers pull out. If not, they may take your higher offer.

I recently sold two properties and only worked with non scummy estate agents, they only booked viewings from proceedable buyers with proof of funds or who had already sold, don’t allow no shows to book future viewings and were clear that they wouldn’t take offers after we had accepted our chosen offer.

No decent EA would mess around with an offer from a buyer who is not in even in a position to buy, 6 weeks into the sale when things will have always been done.

I’m not sure why the focus is on what the EA would or wouldn’t do?

As others have said, there’s nothing to stop you putting a note through the vendors door.

If the vendor is even going to consider this, they would need to be happy with how proceedable you are.

You cant make an offer you arent proceedable.

Right now I'd do this....
If you know them tangentally I would knock and say
"Hi im so and so.... I'm selling but not yet proceedable. If I was / when I am i would LOVE to make an offer i can do x y and z - is that something that could be of interest?"

That will give you a gauge.