We've been gazumped and I'm distraight!

Tiger_greeneyes

hayleyatthemill wrote: »

We are first time buyers and having missed out on two places we really wanted already, when we found a house we really liked last weekend we went straight in at the asking price (£125,000). There was a lot of interest and 4 other offers on the table (allegedly...), so on Tuesday when we were told that the vendor would accept £130,000 that day for a quick sale we went for it. Offer was accepted, but 2 hours later we received another call saying a higher offer had been placed and could we up ours. We said no as we'd really stretched ourselves on the £130,000 bid in the first place. Were then told on Thursday the house was ours and our offer was accepted again. Having been stung once already and feeling mistrustful of the sellers we asked them to take it off the market and cancel all viewings, which they did. Got the ball rolling with our solicitors etc. Then 4pm on Friday we receive another call from the estate agents to say there's another bid and as it's just over ours the vendor wants to arrange final, sealed bids from us by 5pm on Monday. What do we do??? Totally gutted and feel like we've been played. Do we stick to our guns and tell them where to go and risk the other people getting the house we want for £500 more than us? Or try to go a bit higher and hope that this will be the end of it? I don't trust these people any more, think even if we do go up again they'd still accept a higher offer if one was made.

Sorry this is such a long and tedious post but feeling very distressed and disheartened with the whole house-buying process and need subjective advice!!! Cannot believe that these people have treated us like this - how can they sleep at night???

Let's hope that karma prevails... someone could come along, put in an offer for £150k, then pull out after a couple of weeks of faffing about

Sorry if I sound unethical and immoral today, I've had a bad week at school. I think the little darlings have found a secret stash of E numbers :rotfl:

I'd leave the offer on the table but not get involved with sealed bids, they've treated you poorly. Chances are that nobody else will go to sealed bids anyway.

I hope you find something much better

cazmanian_minx

Bad luck Anu - but I'm sure something better will come along.

The same thing's just happened to us, we'd put an offer in on a derelict Grade A listed watermill in Scotland, which had the potential to be the house of our dreams, only to get knocked out of the bidding by someone offering £20k more - an extra 50% over our bid and 20% over the offers over price, which we just couldn't afford to top, given the scale of renovations the place needed. As far as I know, they haven't had it surveyed - the agent told us that we were the only people to have it surveyed - so if they didn't know about the wet rot at the very base of the roof beams where they touch the walls that means the whole roof is going to have to be removed and replaced, they could be in for an expensive surprise...

Caz

santashelper_2

i know its hard to see the bright side at a time like this but the same thing happened to us 9 years ago we found a home we liked and were 2 days away from moving when our buyers pulled out at this time house prices dramatically increased by about £10k for a large 3 bed i was devastated as not only had we lost our dream home and our buyers but were outpriced as our house was a small 3 bed and did not increase as rapidly as the larger homes i thought it was the end.

Anyway a few days later one of the estate agents called us to look at a 4 bed house which was way out of our price range we were reserved as we thought no way could we afford this anyway we went and had a reluctant look thinking this would be a waste of time, however the estate agent said why dont you put in an offer my husband is a bit of chancer and made a offer of about 12k less than the asking price and low and behold a day later we were told the offer was accepted as the vendors were moving abroad and had a few weeks left they didnt mind loosing some money as where they were going they could get more for their money 9 years on our house is worth £160 k more than we paid for it and the house we lost has increased by less than this so things happen for a good reason sometimes its just we cant see it at the time.

Im sure your opportunity will come along to just wait and see even when the most hopeless situation seems hopeless sometimes something comes along when you least expect it.

Poppy9

Just remember if it's for you, you will have it.

On a much more trivial level I've spent 4 weeks looking for a car after selling mine. I was getting desperate and a friend who had offered to sell me her 4 year old car for £4200 in the first week offer was looking tempting so I asked her on wednesday if we could negotiate. She then started her bargaining at £4500 which I wasn't prepared to come anywhere near. Later that same day I spot the same make car but only 14 months old with a higher spec and lower mileage for £5k. I had to travel over 100 miles to collect it but it was worth it. When I felt down I just kept thinking that I would get the car I was meant to have.

ivavoucher

The same thing happened to me.

Had our offer accepted, spend on full survey, bore holes (£1000) and then got gazumped.

This was 10 years ago, very upset at the time; we thought it our dream home.

We soon found a new house to buy and guess what; it has increased in value at twice the rate of the one we missed out on.

It was interesting to see the house come on the market a couple of months ago, just after we had ours valued.
Went to view it and was tempted to put in an offer and then pull out at the last minute just to get my own back on the gazumpers but it is not really their fault, it is the sellers and they, I thought should have reimbursed my out of pocket expenses.

It has now sold.

Makes me smile to think I can now buy 2 of those.

If it is meant to be it will happen, if not your time will come so don’t despair.

:-)
Good luck
Ivavoucher

marty1888

You could always vent your frustrations and mess around with the bidding.
Offer the EA £12500 over the asking price if someone else is offering £10000.
That way you either force them to pay up or pull out.
The person prepared to pay 10k more obviously doesnt give a flying filddlers about you and the seller just sees £££££ signs.
String them along for a few weeks and then just say your circumstances have changed and you cant go ahead and pull out or if the field is clear say you have done another mortgage check and only come up with the original asking price.

meme_3

Mum and Dad had this happen last year! Refused to up the offer and pulled out. Less than a week later, the agent phoned to say that the new 'sale' had fallen through and offered the property back to them. Again refused...
They've now found a nicer property, and the original one is still on the market! Some agents try it on!

mchu6am4

ivavoucher wrote: »

The same thing happened to me.

Had our offer accepted, spend on full survey, bore holes (£1000) and then got gazumped.

This was 10 years ago, very upset at the time; we thought it our dream home.

We soon found a new house to buy and guess what; it has increased in value at twice the rate of the one we missed out on.

It was interesting to see the house come on the market a couple of months ago, just after we had ours valued.
Went to view it and was tempted to put in an offer and then pull out at the last minute just to get my own back on the gazumpers but it is not really their fault, it is the sellers and they, I thought should have reimbursed my out of pocket expenses.

It has now sold.

Makes me smile to think I can now buy 2 of those.

If it is meant to be it will happen, if not your time will come so don’t despair.

:-)
Good luck
Ivavoucher

If I were you, I WOULD have played it on with these devious gzumpers - and put in an offer etc. and string it along for a couple of good weeks and then pull out and then also tell them that's what they did a few years ago!!!!

hayleyatthemill

Wow - thanks for all the replies, this is my first ever post and I had no idea how much better it would make me feel!!! Can't help feeling there should be a change in the law to protect buyers' interests though. Maybe I've just been too naive...

Tiger_greeneyes

hayleyatthemill wrote: »

Wow - thanks for all the replies, this is my first ever post and I had no idea how much better it would make me feel!!! Can't help feeling there should be a change in the law to protect buyers' interests though. Maybe I've just been too naive...

You're not naive Hayley, I think every purchaser gets a shock at some stage or another when they find out their rights are non-existent.

I'm glad you're feeling happier