Selling a flat - moral dilemma

Dan29

Hi all

Am selling my flat in London as I moved to Cardiff a few years ago. It's been on sale for £325,000 for a few months and I accepted an offer of £310,000 on Tuesday. Now, another offer has been made, of £330,000.

Much as I hate to mess the first buyer around, and I am worried that karma will mean this new buyer being a nightmare and probably ruining my life, I'd be crazy not to accept the new offer - wouldn't I?

Thanks
Dan

Jay1b

It depends whether the first buyer was informed that it was closed to higher offers or not. When i brought my place i specified that it the property must be taken off the market.

Dan29

I didn't discuss that with the estate agent to be honest. I'm imagining that the original purchaser wasn't expecting it to continue to be marketed - whether the estate agent has done this or not, I now know about this offer which is too much more to completely ignore.

However, speaking to the estate agent again, I've discovered that the new buyer is going abroad for two weeks at 5pm and isn't willing to give them a deposit today to show his commitment, which seems slightly odd for someone who's prepared to offer over the asking price.

silvercar

I got gazumped to the tune of £35k 3 months after agreeing a price. 3 weeks later the vendor's own purchase (which had been going on for over a year) fell apart.

To be fair to you 3 days is not 3 months and it is unlikely that the first buyers have incurred any costs. Had you said you would not show the flat anymore?

Your call on the Karma.

The worst scenario is the new buyers can't proceed and the first buyers find another property.

Dan29

Thanks for your reply. I hadn't been asked by anyone about continuing viewings, although I believe the estate agent had said to the buyer that there wouldn't be any more. However I'm not sure whether the new offer has come from someone who originally saw it before the first offer was accepted anyway.

When you were gazumped, was it in a rising market (i.e. unlike the current one)? Presumably you didn't buy that property when the purchase which gazumped you fell through?

I guess the absolute worst scenario is that I lose both buyers and a flat which has been on the market for several months with no offers is not on the market during potentially the busiest month of the year forr viewings..!

stratford_2

I think it's quite odd for someone to offer over the asking price on a property that's been on sale for months - I can't see this being a serious offer, especially as the person is going away for 2 weeks. What is their finance/chain position and have they made offers and withdrawn them elsewhere?

Could it be that this person is trying to buy time - ie. they think you're unlikely to sell to the person with the lower offer while they are on holiday. They can then come back, offer less (before or after a survey which might find problems) and you're stuck with them, because your original buyer has gone elsewhere.

As for gazumping, I'm pretty much against it, having lost money last year as a result. However, if the orginal buyer has not had a survey or other work done, then I don't think the Karma stakes are too high although they will be upset!

Lorian

Ask the estate agent for details on which is most viable and able to proceed.

£310K from a first time buyer with a mortgage offer might be a better bet than £330K from someone wit no buyer lined up or a long chain.

Voyager2002

Lorian is so right!

InMyDreams

stratford wrote:

As for gazumping, I'm pretty much against it, having lost money last year as a result. However, if the orginal buyer has not had a survey or other work done, then I don't think the Karma stakes are too high although they will be upset!

Quite. There's gazumping and gazumping. This is less than a week. It's not nice, but it's not the end of the world. My parents were gazumped on the day they were due to exchange. Dad had already got confirmation that the exchange on their house with their buyers had gone through, and only found out about being gazumped when he phoned to find out if the exchange for the new house had gone though yet. Obviously the answer was no!

I think at this early stage, Karma is not the reason for not accepting the higher offer. Others on this thread have posted better reasons.

bookgirl_2

Are you certain this is a 'real' offer? EAs not unknown to do this sort of thing to prompt the first person to up their offer. Would definately request written details from EA including proof of finance/position before you can make a call.

Dan29

Thanks for your replies - I too was suspicious that either this new buyer/offer was invented by the agent or had some other problem attached to it, so I got the new buyer's number from the agent and gave him a call to put the issues raised above to him.

I'm satisfied that he's a genuine buyer although I do feel bad about the gazumping issue - not something I've ever done before - but I do take consolation from the fact that it was so early in the process, as a couple of people mentioned. I'm sure that's no help to the original buyer, but then again it's not very money-saving to lose £20k to avoid upsetting a complete stranger, although I'm struggling to sleep tonight as a result - not an ideal situation, and still finding it very bizarre that there were no offers for ages, and then two in one week.

Thanks again for all your help.
Dan