is buying a house always this hard?

wigglyworm

i made an offer on a house on thursday up for 129,950 my first offer was 120.
this was promptly rejected i then tried to up it to 121 but i was told i was wasting my time, so i went to 124. the ea phoned back later saying the couple whose house we had an offer on were trying to get a reduction on the property they had all ready agreed a price on, also from the same ea.
the ea said the couple would discuss it over night and get back to me.
on friday ea phoned to say the couple were hoping to get closer to 127 and asked if i was prepared to go any higher, so i offered 125 saying as a ftb i did not want to pay stamp duty. ea phoned later saying they were still trying to get the house the other couple had an offer on reduced.they said the other couple would discuss it that night and we would know by saturday or monday the outcome.by now i was getting p*****off, i phoned ea backing asking if they thought our offer would be accepted or was we wasting our time.
i said if we had not heard anyhting by saturday we would put an offer on another property, (this house was in the same road and it was cheaper but it was our second choice). saturday comes and i do not hear anything all day, then at 4pm ea phones and low and behold they have had another offer,ea asked if we were prepared to go any higher, i said no thats all we can afford.ea said they would put the offers to the vendor and get back to us by monday.i have gone through most emotions but mostly anger.
anyway a question is it acceptable to have two offers on different houses at the same time? as this pans out the other house could also be sold, and we would lose out twice.
sorry about long thread.

david29dpo

no one is going to pay more than 125, unless stamp duty is included, which sounds unlikely. yes, you can offer offer on as many house as you like.when one is accepted and taken off the market, tell the others you have found better. simple.

lilyann1

I would phone the EA and tell them you are going to put an offer in on the other house in the road whch is cheaper,but this one was your first choice and to stress again that you really do not want to pay stamp duty and will they accept £125k?
No one is going to offer more than that as everyone is going to want to avoid the stamp duty cost.

PoorDave

david29dpo wrote:

no one is going to pay more than 125, unless stamp duty is included, which sounds unlikely. yes, you can offer offer on as many house as you like.when one is accepted and taken off the market, tell the others you have found better. simple.

However, don't come back here complaining if someone ever puts in an offer on a house you're selling, then withdraws it on this basis!

It is a bit annoying for the seller, especially if you're the only person offering on their property

wigglyworm

thanks for the replies, i will wait to see how this pans out first.
i don't want to mess people around by putting in lots of offers, but i don't want to be messed around myself.when i put a offer in i am serious about buying the property,all i am talking about here is putting in a offer on our second choice property so as not to lose out if ea are telling the truth about second offer.the ea are taking their time over this, but i guess i should know more tomorrow.

ginger_nuts

to avoid stamp duty shouldnt your max offer be £124,999
1 penny less than the £125,000 .Or have I got this wrong .

cattie

The other thing you should bear in mind is that sometimes people do need time to mull things over & it's a little unreasonable to get so angry if they feel they can't give you a definitive answer for a few days. I once waited over a week for a vendor to agree to my offer. I knew they were hoping for a higher offer from someone else viewing over the weekend, but it didn't happen & I got the house.

It may well be that unless the vendors of the house you've offfered on get the price they are hoping for, that they will not be in a position financially to move to the new property & this sounds very much like the situation here.

Housebuying is stressful enough without you getting all worked up before you've even had your offer accepted.

I agree you shouldn't go above £125000 because of the stamp duty & the ea should fully understand the logic of this,

nrsql

Did you ask the ea if the other offer was over £125,000.
Sounds to me a bit like the ea thinks you are a pretty good bet and is playing games.

>> ea said they would put the offers to the vendor
They haven't already?

silvercar

We had to wait three weeks for the vendor to decide to accept our offer. As it was our maximum we had no option but let them mull over it.

kenshaz

silvercar wrote:

We had to wait three weeks for the vendor to decide to accept our offer. As it was our maximum we had no option but let them mull over it.

They where not mulling it over,they where waiting for a higher offer,but it never came

wigglyworm

your right i should chill out a bit,as a ftb this is all new to me.
i can't remember exactly what the ea said but it was something like, the vendor has all the offers and will decide what to do, i said they will probably take the higher offer, but as ftb we were good to go.the house the vendor has an offer on is vacant, so we can give him a quick sale. as far as the money is concerned he brought his place 5 years ago and has made 11K a year on it.
so i just wonder how much more he wants from it.