So…we are selling our house to move to a slightly larger one (kids getting bigger etc).

We accepted a full asking price offer from our second viewer, no messing around.

This is sort of standard in the village as it has great schools, it’s a nice village but it isn’t ridiculously expensive as the villages just to the north.

The person that first viewed it offered 10k under asking, then 4k under asking (we had accepted the full asking price offer by this point), then full asking (and put a letter through our door), about a week ago offered 5k over asking and then yesterday 10.5k over asking.

Now I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing…

What would the assembled STW masses do?

10k is a lot of money but we’ve accepted an offer.

What happens if we take the higher offer but then the survey comes back with that it’s not worth 10k over asking?

I bloody hate house buying/selling…

Think of it this way. If you had one viewing, and accepted an asking price offer, no hassle, straightforward, you’d be inwardly delighted.

The person that first viewed it should have offered the asking price, but thought they’d try it on with a low offer. Chances are they will try it on again and knock you down via the survey, so you may end up with more hassle and not an extra 10K in your pocket.

The only thing I might do is make double sure that your actual buyer is ready to proceed and use the fact you are being deluged with bigger offers to get the sale completed without delay.

I bloody hate house buying/selling…

Me too. And hopefully, if you stick with your straightforward buyer, it will teach the other lot a little bit about misjudging the market with lowball offers.

I’d be concerned they are offering high now to win it, then push you down the road to the point of exchanging & find a reason why they can’t give you that extra £10k over the asking price they offered.

Maybe i’m just a cynic though.

That’s a tough call. Obviously morally you have accepted an offer and should stick with it but £10k is a lot of money and at this stage its real, cash-in-your-pocket money. If you can get over the moral bit then the worry is whether this seller will mess you around. they’ve already shown they are happy to play a bit loose with the rules. if it does fall through it sounds like the house will be an easy sell if it needs to go back on. How much of a pain would that be? Being able to tell the seller that you’ll put it back on the market if they mess you around will sharpen their focus. Oh and you have accepted an offer so you are a monster and a baby robin killer for even considering it 🙂

If you’ve got what you want then just move on. If you leave it more than 6 months then you’ll be in a falling market and having to accept a significantly lower price.

martinhutch has it nailed there.

Push your first buyers along to complete quickly and take comfort from knowing you did the right thing.  Hopefully the good karma will then follow you to completing on your purchase of your new house.

If you leave it more than 6 months then you’ll be in a falling market and having to accept a significantly lower price.

He’s moving up so a falling market will help, however unlikely that is.

That’s a lot of money. I’d take some advice from your solicitor or agent. People wouldn’t think twice about screwing you over so look after yourself and remove personal feelings from the situation, it’s a business transaction.

I take it you love in England? The process is different there I am told. I’m glad I live in Scotland and we don’t have to go through quite the same process, my sister lives in England and got gazumped, house chain collapsed, buyer pulled out last minute etc… The whole process seems to be a bit more fragile in England.

Think of the whole thing as business. £10k pays a lot of your bills for the move.

Good luck.

Also depends whether you have found a house to move into, and how prepared you are to risk that side of the transaction when this new lot play games, muck you around and then force you to stick it back on the market in a few month’s time.

remove personal feelings from the situation, it’s a business transaction.

Agree with this, but there would be significant value for me, and I suspect the OP, in minimising the hassle involved with the sale. The other lot seem to be treating the offer process like an Ebay auction, and bypassing the agent in the first place should ring alarm bells. I wonder if they have an offer accepted on another property with your agent?

I was in a similar situation a few months back. I’d looked the guy in the eye and shaken his hand so it was his and the higher offer was turned down.

You were happy with the price it went on at, you were happy when you were offered that price. I’d stick with them personally.

I’d go with the offer you accepted from second viewers, because I expect the “chancer” to drop their £10k+ over your wanted price after the survey, for things that won’t cost £10k to sort out.

I’m glad I live in Scotland and we don’t have to go through quite the same process,

Really? Offers Over is properly stupid, and you could still get done like this anyway

I would also stick with the offer I had accepted(and maybe quietly ring the agent to see how their survey/mortgage is coming along).

I’d rather sell  to viewer 3,4,5,or 6 than the first chancer.

Gazumping causes a lot of suffering and financial pain, as said with potential for chain to collapse and people are shelving out a lot of money in the process. I hate it and wouldn’t want to inflict that on someone I’d accepted an offer on.

I guess it would depend if you really need the money though. If you feel you really want the extra cash, I’d be honest to the accepted offer saying you’re considering accepting a higher offer and need the money. Maybe they’ll up their offer, though not fair really.

Personally I can’t see why this hasn’t been made illegal in England. Also there needs to be a lot better protection from people making offers, being accepted, and then pulling out because they can’t get the mortgage.

Did the accepted offer request you take it off the market? First thing I’d do especially at asking price.

And yeah, can you be sure the better offer can actually go through with the deal?

Yeah if the higher offer were guaranteed I’d certainly be tempted but in the situation you describe I’d go with the offer you’ve already accepted

Test the gazumper’s commitment by asking them to pay a £10k up front deposit that’s held by a solicitor and non refundable in the event they try to renegotiate the price or withdraw from the sale.

I got gazumped by some throbber during my last move.

If it happens to me again I will put putting in an even higher offer, then pulling out of the sale of the last possible second to waste the greedy **** time and money on solicitors fees.  People who do this are absolute helmets IMHO.

(actually I wouldn’t ’cause I’m not a complete ****, but you get my point)

Don’t bring morals into it, It is, unfortunately, the rules of the game in this country. Part of the negotiation and risk and ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, signed, sealed and delivered’.

However I do wonder how this is legally acceptable. By accepting an offer you have formed a legally binding contract with someone, even if it was verbally, so to just turn your back on that if someone comes in with a higher offer is breach of contract. But that little bit of law seems to be readily ignored in this application.

If it were me I’d go back to the person I’d agreed the price with and give them the opportunity to raise their offer, but ultimately if they couldn’t get close (i’d probably give them a few grand benefit of the doubt) then I’d go with the higher offer. Don’t kid yourself that if the tables were reversed they wouldn’t do it to you.

By accepting an offer you have formed a legally binding contract with someone, even if it was verbally,

Not worth the paper it isn’t written on.

s.2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989

By accepting an offer you have formed a legally binding contract with someone, even if it was verbally,

😂😂😂

It all depends if you are a man of your word or more akin to something that I need to scrape off the sole of my shoe, with a stick, wearing gloves.

Choose your buyer and give them a timescale (six weeks?) to complete. Explain the plan to all interested parties

Don’t kid yourself that if the tables were reversed they wouldn’t do it to you.

Guy we bought our house off turned down subsequent higher offers, he told us he’d agreed a sale with us and as far as he was concerned he’d given his word on it. I believe I’d do exactly the same. The “don’t be a dick” rule of life

remove personal feelings from the situation, it’s a business transaction.

I don’t agree with this, buisness like life should be conducted im an honourable fashion. I’d go with the accepted offer. But make sure the buyer knows of the interest in the property.

Don’t be a dick.

Gazumping and gazundering are both dickish behaviour.

Guy we bought our house off turned down subsequent higher offers, he told us he’d agreed a sale with us and as far as he was concerned he’d given his word on it. I believe I’d do exactly the same. The “don’t be a dick” rule of life

Pretty much this. If you’ve agreed the sale then go through with it.

By accepting an offer you have formed a legally binding contract with someone, even if it was verbally,

Even in Scotland this really isn’t the case anymore…

Choose your buyer and give them a timescale (six weeks?) to complete. Explain the plan to all interested parties

This sounds like a fair plan. I’d then give the original buyer first refusal and agree a reasonable timescale.

ask the gazumper for 20k over and see what they do.

Just remember, if you go for the higher offer, that the next time someone takes something or some money from you by being dishonest;  the appropriate reaction can only be to pat them on the shoulder, smile admiringly at them and say “well played, well played”. 😉

Hold a contest.

The first one to knock your front door with a bag of cash in excess of your asking price gets the keys.

They don’t sound like very nice people – do you really trust them to complete the sale ?  Is the massive legal hassle and stain on your kharma worth £10K ? Another vote here for “Dont be a Dick”.

This happened to me when I sold my house in Rossendale. A young woman viewed and I told her through the agent that we expected lots of interest and would accept only the asking price. She offered £4000 below. We received an offer for the full price and I accepted it. The young woman came back offering £2000 over. I told the agent I had already made an agreement with the second buyer and wouldn’t be drawn into gazumping. 22 years later I’m happy I did that.

Looks like no survey has yet taken place, so the person who bid you accepted isn’t financially out of pocket?  Impact looks like it is just time, i.e. they will need to continue their house search.

Its not a nice thing to do, but £10.5k is likely to really help out in a house move. I’d be asking them to put the money into your solicitors hands. I’d also be asking for confirmation that they have been accepted for a mortgage and would also be putting in place strict timescales for completion.

It is a dickish thing to do. I wouldn’t feel nice about it. I’d like to think I’d be morally strong, but in all honesty I know how much the money would help me so would be persuaded.

Being a greedy selfish git I’d also be thinking how much would be used for the move and what new bike I could have!

I was in a similar situation a few months back. I’d looked the guy in the eye and shaken his hand so it was his and the higher offer was turned down.

This for me x1000

I’d go with the offer you accepted from second viewers, because I expect the “chancer” to drop their £10k+ over your wanted price after the survey, for things that won’t cost £10k to sort out.

This is very likely to happen!

Don’t bring morals into it

Why not? If I agreed a price with someone then I will stick to that agreement. I asked for x, I got x and I am happy. Its money grabbing people like you who are making the whole house buying shenanigans a whole lot messier and stressful.

Don’t kid yourself that if the tables were reversed they wouldn’t do it to you.

That shouldn’t have anything to do with it. You sound like a 5 year old squabbling in the playground “yeah but miss, he did it first so why can’t I? Its not FAIR!!”

It all depends if you are a man of your word or more akin to something that I need to scrape off the sole of my shoe, with a stick, wearing gloves.

I think that statement should end the thread…. 😉

I would be very sceptical of a bidder who behaved like that. Even if I was to consider it i would ask for proof of funding first.

The suggestion that you request a 6 wee period to exchange from your chosen bidder is sensible. in fact, i would tell t hem you have received a higher offer but you have elected to give them a fair opportunity to exchange (and complete).

Of course, your chosen bidder could wake up one morning and decide your house is not for them, right up until they sign the paperwork…..always try to have a plan b, and that might be the second bidder.

The over bidder may well play you to get the offer accepted then chip at the 11th hour, to less than you had before. their behaviour suggests they ver wel might.

A good agent should be able to manage this process for you.

and no, until a pen hits the paper, there is no contract.

My foolproof advice for house buying/selling…..

Take an instant dislike to everyone you meet in the process – it saves time.

You won’t get a better real-life example of the Tory dream – one where brinkmanship, bluster and waving banknotes around before reneging on promises more often than not wins over making someone a straight and honest offer.

Your game-player is unlikely to stop playing games once you let your steady buyer go – this then puts them in a position of power…….

I am in the moral camp as well.  YOu have an agreement.  stick to it.  I also doubt the chances of you actually getting the extra money

We were “invited” to gazump by an estate agent showing us round a house.

I said “I wouldn’t be very comfortable doing that” and we promptly left.

We really struggled to buy a house, missing out on 3 (after refusing the above) before we bought ours, but I’m still happy with our decision.

Gazumping is a properly horrible thing to do to someone, so don’t do it or allow it to be done.  And, as above, they’re likely to give you grief later on in the process.