Verbal acceptance of offer on my house

NAN63_2

Hello

I have received an offer on my house which is £6500 below the asking price which I have verbally accepted. Th asking price was for 'IN EXCESS OF £299, 995.' The buyer stepped up their offer three times, the original offer being £283,500. They are first time buyers which makes them attractive to me but I am left with the feeling that I should have kept to the original asking price bearing in mind th current boom in house prices. I felt the estate agent put a certain amount of pressure on me to accept that figure as they originally estimated that would get £285,000-290,000 so from their perseptctive it's a good offer but after having spoken with various people they said I should have stuck with the asking price as I probably would have got it. I have had just this one offer after 16 viewings within a two week period and now interest MAY drop.
The estate agent has just emailed me a letter to say that I have accepted the offer. Would this mean that I am now bound to this offer? I would think not as I have not signed anything yet.
I don't want to mess the buyers around but I wonder if it is too late to ask for more money? They asked that I take the proporty off the market now that the offer has been made but I said I would take it off for two weeks whilst surveys are being carried out and then it would go back on the market.

I would be very grateful for any advice as I am new to house selling.


Kind regards

Ciderarmy1987

If I was your buyer and you accepted and then asked for more I would walk away straight away as I wouldn't be able to trust you and would worry about this happening again in the future.

House prices are not "booming" at the moment, there is just a slight upturn in the market.

It could be that you miss out on this buyer by being greedy and then end up waiting and waiting for another buyer and having to accept something lower!

It could be that you could have got more from this buyer but that opportunity has gone now and you have to accept that you may have messed up slightly but at the end of the day it only 6K which is 2% which will significant isnt a massive amount of money relative to the cost of your house etc

spacey2012

You never take a property off the market until the deposit is paid to your solicitor in cleared funds.
This is one mistake you only make once and is a mistake first time sellers often make.

Dan-Dan

NAN63 wrote: »

Hello

I have received an offer on my house which is £6500 below the asking price which I have verbally accepted. Th asking price was for 'IN EXCESS OF £299, 995.' The buyer stepped up their offer three times, the original offer being £283,500. They are first time buyers which makes them attractive to me but I am left with the feeling that I should have kept to the original asking price bearing in mind th current boom in house prices. I felt the estate agent put a certain amount of pressure on me to accept that figure as they originally estimated that would get £285,000-290,000 so from their perseptctive it's a good offer but after having spoken with various people they said I should have stuck with the asking price as I probably would have got it. I have had just this one offer after 16 viewings within a two week period and now interest MAY drop.
The estate agent has just emailed me a letter to say that I have accepted the offer. Would this mean that I am now bound to this offer? I would think not as I have not signed anything yet.
I don't want to mess the buyers around but I wonder if it is too late to ask for more money? They asked that I take the proporty off the market now that the offer has been made but I said I would take it off for two weeks whilst surveys are being carried out and then it would go back on the market.

I would be very grateful for any advice as I am new to house selling.


Kind regards

I think you have had a great offer , above what the EA even reckoned

Dont be greedy

Wether you mark as sold or not is a different matter, if you dont , you could lose your buyers trust

mrginge

spacey2012 wrote: »

You never take a property off the market until the deposit is paid to your solicitor in cleared funds.
This is one mistake you only make once and is a mistake first time sellers often make.

If i had an offer accepted and the vendor took this attitude i would walk straight away.

Essentially you are asking me to start spending my money while you do your best to get someone else to outbid me. Perhaps i would be happy to continue if you were to underwrite any of my expenses in the event that you subsequently pulled out, but you wouldn't dream of doing that would you.

Thankfully most sane vendors would not have this attitude

Dimey

Seems a great offer to me. Be fair, you always have to drop a little. Compromise.

I think you should come to terms with what you've agreed and focus on speeding towards exchange so you have it pinned down.

If you want to save a few grand then negotiate on the house you find to purchase.

I agree that if you tried to renege on an agreement with me to get a tiddly bit more money, I'd walk away now before I invest in survey & solicitor fees. I need to be able to trust you.

Ciderarmy1987

spacey2012 wrote: »

You never take a property off the market until the deposit is paid to your solicitor in cleared funds.
This is one mistake you only make once and is a mistake first time sellers often make.

It really annoys me the some vendors take this view on selling their house.
Some people genuinely believe that they are doing buys a massive favour by letting them look around their house and subsequently put an offer in etc.

Regardless of the state of the market you are the one that is try to sell a house and its the only one that you can sell, whereas buyers have numerous places to choose between

NAN63_2

Hello
Thank you so much for all your replies. I woke this morning with my head spinning and am glad you confirmed my feeling of not messing people around.
Re taking propert off the market, I think this is a good thing as it shows I am taking the buyers seriously. They said they didnt want to go ahead if I didnt take it off the market so felt I had no choice plus its only for a two week period...I dont want to lose them as they are not in a chain.
I think it may take me a while to find a property so I hope to have 12 week period inbetween exchange and completion. Should I appoint a conveyancing solicitor now so that they can deal with estate agent from now on?
Many many thank yous!

DRP

spacey2012 wrote: »

You never take a property off the market until the deposit is paid to your solicitor in cleared funds.
This is one mistake you only make once and is a mistake first time sellers often make.

I think this is a very unusual attitude and not one many buyers will have much truck with! :money:

G_M

Until contracts are exchanged you are not bound legaly to anything.

You can withdraw from the sale, ask formore £, or just proceed.

It is up to you, how you assess the market, and whether you feel moraly bound etc.

No one here can tell you what to do.

Dimey

Yes you'll need to appoint a conveyancing solicitor. He'll have lots of questions you'll need to answer about your property - form filling - so you could get the ball rolling with that - it will need to be done whoever buys it.

Then your solicitor will be ready for when the purchaser's solicitor makes contact.

I'd advise you to keep in the loop between EA & Purchaser and your solicitor so you can push things along at your speed. Otherwise they all tend to blame each other for being slow.