Which offer should we accept?

[User543211]

Hi all,
We're in the fortunate position of receiving 2 offers of asking price this morning. Property has been on the market for a month. We have to decide which to choose.

Buyer 1: A young couple, currently renting in London (4 hours from here) but one half of the couple is from this area and we vaguely know them/their family. Buying with a mortgage and have a mortgage in principle.

Buyer 2: A local middle aged couple, again we sort of know them. They have sold to cash buyers who are buying with inheritance. They would be buying ours without a mortgage. The people buying theirs have had financial approvals and the estate agent told me it's now 'with solicitors'.

Both say it's their max offer and won't go any higher.

I was leaning towards the renters but was just reading that the mortgage aspect might increase the chances of it falling through compared to a short chain. What do you think?

Probably the cash buyers because mortgages can fall through

Cash offer. If they are the same. Much less to go wrong !

Let the renters have it - they need it because they don't already have a house.

They are from a a very wealthy local family who have 2 successful businesses. The estate agent also didn't describe them as first time buyers - I don't know for sure but I suspect they (or he at least) already own a property somewhere that they rent out. So I don't think they 'need it' in that sense. But I take your point.

I suppose if they are the same offer its a bit who you like the most.

My family had terrible issues with 'cash buyers' who turned out to not have the right paperwork, not have the right cash, tried to then significantly reduce their offer towards exchange because they had no mortgage to then reapply for. Like you say in the current climate mortgages can be a bit dicey but if they have a mortgage in principle granted they should be quite solid.

Since they both seem to be in proceedable positions, I’d go with what your gut feeling is.

Normally, I’d say cash buyer every time, but in 2024 we ‘sold’’ our house to a cash buyer, who we were told was exchanging the following week and moving in with relatives the following week, on completion. Twelve weeks later, it turned out that they needed a mortgage and couldn’t get what they needed to buy the house. It wasn’t a question of negotiating the price down either. They were about £80K adrift.

Which of the couples did you feel absolutely loved the house? I would go with them.

Be wary. Your cash buyer (let’s call him Mr A) - is their cash coming from selling their property to their cash buyer (Mr B)? In which case it’s still a chain AND Mr B might not actually have the inheritance in a bank account yet. That’s quite common “oh we are using inheritance” but the probate isn’t settled so it’s all delayed and then Mr B needs a bridging mortgage.

Ask your estate to get a written statement from Mr A’s solicitor that he or she has seen a bank account in the name of MrB showing the funds are ready (NOT just a probate statement). It needs to be from your buyers solicitor not the estate agent. Say that you will sue if it turns out both Mr A and Mr B are not cash buyers

Remember the golden rule: all estate agents will lie through their teeth repeatedly.

Agree so much with this post. Probate can and does take months and months. Unless they have the inheritance money in their own bank account I would not go with them.

Buyer 1 because they have no chain.

PP are talking about cash buyers but they don’t have the cash yet. I’d take a chain-free buyer with a mortgage deal over a chain any day.

Thanks all. So the estate agents showed the chain cash buyer couple around and I showed the younger ones around so I can't really go off who I prefer as I haven't seen the others for years and don't know them that well. They both have children around my age, they met later in life after the death of his wife when they had 3 very young girls (I went to school with them, it was so tragic at the time I remember it very well). They want a house where all their children can come and stay with their grandkids.
The estate agent told me all the 'financial checks ' were done whatever that means.
Young couple like i said come from money. So maybe they could step in if the mortgage went pear shaped. Can't rely on that of course.
I might call and check the status of the inheritance.

This was my initial reaction but apparently it's statistically still more risky than the other situation. Which surprised me.

Yes this. Have you asked the EAs opinion of the buyers OP?

When we sold the EA told us that one set of buyers were the most keen and excited buyers he had ever seen. So that helped sway our decision as we thought they were less likely mess around and cause problems.(And we saw on our Ring doorbell and camera in the garden the massive smile on her face as she looked around during the viewing.)

The estate agents didn't meet the younger buyers as they weren't available for the viewing.

We were thoroughly messed around by two separate cash buyers. They like to use it as a lever to get things their way. I wouldn’t be rushing after them particularly. As someone who has recently obtained probate on a difficult estate with IHT and is currently doing probate on a relatively easy estate- the difficult one was granted in six weeks, and from what I’m hearing from other people on the bereavement threads, easy probates are taking two or three weeks.

Very difficult to choose. They both have pros and cons. Do you know who offered first?

I’d go with couple number 2, as they have had the financial checks done and have no mortgage. Also, because some years ago we were that couple!
Nowadays the financial checks are stringent when buying with cash due to all the anti money laundering rules. The buyers will have to provide bank statements to show where the money is coming from.

This is the reply from the estate agent:

I can confirm that we have received all proof of financial qualification from Mr and Mrs XXX buyers. It has gone through probate solicitors, and we have confirmation from their probate solicitors that funds will be received shortly. The paperwork and progression of the sale will continue as normal as the funds will be received before exchange of contracts. The solicitors are about to hand in draft contracts. We currently have a predicted exchange of beginning to mid July. They are no chain and have nothing to sell and will be using all cash from savings and inheritance.

So not a done deal...

Cash buyers.

Couple with nothing to sell

In my experience cash buyers can be difficult as they see themselves as having a lot of power with not being in the chain and can get demanding knowing the pressure the rest of the chain are under so id be tempted to go with the first one.

Probably A, what's the situation with their rental, do they just have to give one month's notice? With B I would worry they'd haggle on price if their buyer's try to knock down the price after getting a survey done etc. I don't think there's a huge amount in it though, and you'll get time wasters and buyers pulling out at the last minute for odd reasons.

When we sold with B&F 4yrs ago, we went with the third highest offer who were cash buyers.
All potential buyers were sold & proceedable (that was a condition of even getting to view the property) but as PP's have said, chains can collapse, mortgages fall through etc whereas a cash buyer is not dependant on these.

With us it was not the money but the potential for a smooth transaction.

So they are in a chain, with probate issues and funds not released at the start of the chain. I'd go with the renters.

Couple A. They are able to proceed now. Probate can take ages (whatever the solicitor says!) the cash buyers aren’t cash they are waiting for a sale.

my cash buyer messed around forever and a day. Couple with a mortgage in principle (renting) turned up and all went quickly and smoothly.

We've previously purchased with cash (albeit from the sale of our existing unmortgaged house) five times and like to think we've rushed things through as far as humanely possible on each occasion. For example, we've managed to go from offer accepted to exchange in eight weeks. So not all 'cash buyers' even if the money isn't waiting in the bank, are a pain.

However, on our last sale and purchase (where we were buying a probate house) in 2024, our buyers messed us around somewhat with regards to being cash buyers - or not - from the get go. First they told our EA their sale had completed and they had sufficient cash to buy ours outright. Next they announced that whilst their sale had completed, they needed to additionally sell a plot of land in order to buy ours. Ages was spent trying to establish their actual financial position (our EAs were shit!) and eventually they declared they had plenty of cash - sufficient to buy ours outright and make some fairly expensive changes such as a new sewage treatment plant 🙄

So I'm on the fence whether cash buyers are the better option! In your case though @User543211 I think I'd go with couple A.

Oh, and I take with a very large pinch of salt any EA's claim that a viewing was "the most positive" they've ever done. In the case of one lady buyer (same house), our EA who was branch manager, announced it was the best viewing in all her many years in the job. The woman was "ecstatic" and would definitely be offering. Of course, she didn't.