OMG - we're in danger of buying a house

[NoseyNooNoo]

Having been outbid a few weeks ago by a couple who were in 'as good a position' as us, we've had the EA on the phone to say that the buyers' buyer has pulled out and if we could match their bid the house is ours. We were sorely tempted to say either a) 'naff off' or b) 'how can this be, they are in as good a position as us renters? We have decided to not bite our nose to spite our faces and have asked the full asking price (gulp!)

Full asking price stretches us but we've come to the realisation over the last few weeks that we need to spend that extra to get the type of house we want - so we'll have to just accept it. I'll have to do all my shopping this month because they'll be no treats for the next few years.

Oh, and the cheek of it, there was a real stress on us needing to complete by end of July - what a joke, if that was so important why did she go initially with someone in a chain? Having been stung before trying to buy from someone who imposed a deadline we won't be stressing about meeting it.

I'm not getting excited this time. These things never go to plan and I just drove past it and it doesn't make my heart sing but I know it ticks a hell of a lot of our boxes.

my advice would be stick to the price you offered they sound like thier chain will colapse with losing thier buyer you now have the upper hand and hold the cards let them sweat it out. remember they put themselves in this position by going for a higher offer which was clearly the more risky option and look what greed has got them! stick to your own price its not worth overstretching your self for someone elses benefit especially if its not making your heart sing. remeber this is a game of chance and if its not meant to be then it was the wrong house for you. good luck and do not stress or be presurised by some lame EA, getting a buyer at the moment is hard work for EA let them earn their salaries!

Nosey - don't know what to advise really but kittycat sounds sensible.

Really hoping it works out for you (although worried about you leaving me on the shelf )

Well we offered full asking price because someone else will offer it - half decent homes around here get asking price quite quickly. We really reappraised our budget over the last few weeks and realise it's what we have to pay unless we want to really compromise.

I popped into the EA to give her a copy of our passports this afternoon. She didn't have the courtesy to fake a smile/gratitude for saving her bacon, or even say hello/goodbye to the ankle-biters.

We are certainly not going to bust a gut on the July deadline - it gives us 9 weeks and the house she is buying hasn't even been built yet - apparently her builder insists she completes by end of July. Well last summer we offered on a house where the vendor was buying a new-build and we were given a 4 week deadline. Well it took 3 weeks for the vendor to even instruct a solicitor, he delayed access for the surveyor and he never replied to questions and then 9 weeks later and £3k poorer we had to pull out due to the house being a death-trap. I spent the whole summer stressed-out - never again!

Fruitstick, I'm nowhere near being off the shelf yet. I'm just peering over the edge again. I'll probably find myself at the back of the shelf in no time!

We had another turn of events today. Another EA rang today to say vendor of another house who declined an offer of ours in March has reconsidered so if we could offer £10k more it's ours. The EA couldn't help herself and said there was another interested party - unfortunately she's alrady been caught out saying that about this house before but it's a definite 'no' from us because what we offered was all it was worth. We've said we'll get back to her but have no intention of doing so - silly cow.

As for the house we are buying, we haven't received the promised memorandum of sale and thus we aren't expending any effort or money until we get that. There's supposed to be a deadline and yet it's them wasting time.

Hmm NoseyNooNoo, I can't believe the greed of some vendors at the moment. I guess it's a sellers' market, but it also seems to me that you're in a strong position as it's you they are coming back to when things go wrong for them!

Well if there is anything wrong in the survey we will ask for a reduction. However, had we dithered I'm confident it would have been sold to someone else.

Still haven't had the memorandum of sale - we're not doing anything until we received that.