Offer at asking price rejected in favour of lower cash buyer, any advice?

[honeyy]

Hi

I’ve been searching for a house since September 2025 and finally last week, I viewed a house and it was just perfect!

It ticked all the boxes! For me and my children. It can imagine it as my forever home!

2 offers were made, myself and a cash buyer!

The cash buyer did not offer full asking, it was below asking - and myself offered full asking £495,0000.

my offer was rejected. The chose the cash buyer.

I am heart broken. I actually feel sick. After months and months, this perfect house came on the market!

Any advice..:

I think you have nothing to lose by putting a note through saying you are concerned that your true situation hasn’t been put forward by the EA that you offered £x have nothing to seek with £y cash in the bank with no notice and require a mortgage of £z which is approved in principle and £x times your annual salary.

Only my depressing house problems now. Must be a family thing.

@honeyy If it was me, I would be tempted to bypass the EA, and write a note to the sellers to explain your situation, and what you have offered, and give them your mobile number if they want to have a chat. It may be that the EA has not actually passed the correct info on, or they are ‘doing a favour’ for the cash buyer by promoting their bid. This happened to us, and we put a note through the sellers door asking if she was aware of our offer, and she got in contact with us and said she wasn’t aware of our offer. It was all a bit shocking - and the EA had not been truthful with us or her. There have been other incidences I have seen that suggest that this does happen… it may not be common, but you have nothing to lose by just popping a note through the door.

Edited to add - just seen another pp is saying same as me, above!

Im gobsmacked! I can’t believe this happened to you! And happens!

what was the reason why the estate agent did this?

Also did you have anything in writing to say your offer had been forwarded to the sellers?

Probably because the other buyer gave him a free holiday or something.

There've been quite a few threads that I've read on mn over the years where exactly this has happened.

I'm surprised you are shocked. A lot of estate agents are as bad as recruitment agents if not worse.

But even if you got something in writing to say that the offer had been forwarded, how can you prove that it has?

I’m in complete shock. I can’t believe it.

I could not fathom behaving like this or being any way dishonest with a patient.

I would get struck off! And end up in court.

The seller probably haven't even met the other family so how would they know?

My head has gone tonight. I think I will bypass the agent as I got a weird feeling anyway.

I will post a letter via Royal Mail as maybe going into their house might feel intrusive and I don’t want to scare them off.

Because they are trying to tell the op that the sellers don't care about money and to put her off contacting the sellers directly with a higher offer.

Usually the estate agent does the viewings

Yes, that's possible. But it is more likely to be the estate agent not being honest with the sellers about the op's position for whatever reason.

background on the house- it is a house that comes up maybe once in 70 years. It is a restored farm house ( house of 5 developments off a 1.5 million hall farm) the owners of the hall farm sold some land and developed stunning small redeveloped houses. Views are stunning. Horses. Animals. Fields. Private stone walls- stone house. Originals beams. Stunning inside. All updated to the latest spec kitchens and bathrooms.

@honeyy No, slightly different for us, and a long time ago, so we had no written confirmation.

The seller was supposed to be present at my viewing - I was told at the time that it would be the seller doing the viewing. Then last minute before my appointment I got a call to say if I could come 15 mins earlier and it would be with the agent instead of the seller.

I think a note in an envelope hand delivered would be fine - Royal Mail can take a long time, and you want to make sure the sellers know about this sooner rather than later. Just frame it very neutrally - say the date you viewed the property, and that you absolutely loved it, and made an asking price offer, and explain your circumstances (chain free, mortgage in principle), and say that you understand from the EA that they have accepted a lower offer, but that if that falls through for any reason your offer is still very much on the table.

… Thank you so so so much! You don’t even know how much you have helped and supported me.

I am going to do it tomorrow morning- i will put the increase offer today as I genuinely believe the house is worth what I want to pay.

And if I hear nothing back then I will leave it.

Im not going to lie, I’m a little bit scared incase they tell the agents that I did this and approached them.

That is always a risk, but there is nothing you can do about it.

Because they are trying to tell the op that the sellers don't care about money and to put her off contacting the sellers directly with a higher offer.

If they said that the offer was higher than the asking price then the OP would have been within her rights to up her offer too.