Advice please Gazumping / Estate agent mix up

oodlenoodle10

Thank you all for your advice and opinions. All very useful and helpful.

We haven't heard from the estate agent today, and I haven't called them. I intend to call them Monday.

We are going to do the right thing and keep with our original buyers and hopefully run off into the sunset with the profit made on our house, as long as everything goes to plan.

It feels as though a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Cheers:beer:

Mrs_Optimist

You have achieved your asking price with a buyer who is in no chain - whats the problem? You have agreed a sale on your house it is up to the EA to tell the other interested party that they co~~ed up. The other buyer was too late. I suspect that if you went with the higher offer they would suddenly find reason to reduce the price at exchange so they would not be paying any more anyway. You are in a fortunate position and should be proud that you have some morals.

hearts

I agree with some of the other posters. You have got your asking price so where is your moral dilema? So you missed out on another couple of grand. You have achieved the price you were looking for and have made the deal. Accept it and move on.

jangor_2

Just a little addition. I put my house on the market about ten days ago. I had several viewers, one of which made a reasonable offer and I accepted. I rang the Agent of the house I had been interested in, explained the situation and had my offer accepted after a lot of toing and froing. The next morning the Agent, acting for me, rang me to adviser my buyer had pulled out after 7 days because the original property, he had been interested in, had come back on the market, leaving me to advise the Vendors and Agents of the property I had hoped to buy the present position. As the property is empty it has now been put back on the market as the owners, understandably, are not prepared to wait until I find another buyer. It hurts.

Nenen

I agree with most of the previous posters that you are right to go with the original agreement. However, I would put one proviso to your current buyers (that might also keep the 2nd buyer sweet)...

In your position I'd get the EA to earn their money by telling buyer 1 about their mistake and saying that despite this you are people of your word and that providing they can arrange their suvey (commiting them to several hundred pounds spent) by x date and exchange by y date then you will not let this second purchaser view. This makes it clear to 1st buyers that they do need to commit (and might help to avoid the situation Jangor was unfortunate to get into) whilst maintaining your integrity. The EA can then tell buyer 2 that as you are people of your word you have given buyer 1 a set time (as above) and that EA will be in contact with him should buyer 1 not meet the deadlines.
HTH good luck

Cardinal-Red

I'd just like to add something, from your original offerer's point of view.

If I were in their position and had received the assurances that they had from you, I'd be thinking hard about remaining involved in the purchase if even at this early stage you're entertaining other buyers.

I think it's fair to say the market has changed significantly over the last 12 months and I believe all the power is with the buyers now, where previously it was with vendors.

Like many others have said, embrace your very fortunate position and treat your prospective purchasers with courtesy they deserve.

In terms of your estate agent query, would you be willing to pay extra to the agent if they, for example, had you on their books for months and incurred expenses over the average amounts on advertising, manpower etc. Just a thought.

Good luck though!!

ashcarrot

Keep the original buyer, dont show it to the new weird sounding buyer whos willing to offer a price before seeing a property. If I was a buyer and heard you've shown it to someone else I would drop out before i spent fee's on valuation etc..

Nenen

So what happened oodlenoodel? I'm waiting with baited breath to find out what you did and how it went!