In England, is it okay to put offers on more than 1 house at a time?

jjlandlord

I don't think OP ever suggested that he would not let the seller know that he was dropping out, or that he would make offers on properties he had no intentions to buy.

ognum

ethank wrote: »

Personally, I think it is a bit of disgrace. Why put in an offer if you know you will not proceed with the property.

I've been through the pain where a buyer has put an offer in, told me they want a quick deal, and everyone is instructed on the sale, offer accepted on the new house, and then a survey has not materialised.

When you are buying and selling - people are often emotional about the whole sales process - entering into the 'spray and pray' mode of offers in the hope that one will be accepted to me is just wrong. It wastes time.

I would never take my house off the market until such time as a survey takes place now.

The reason you need more than one offer in is that sellers want the best price and often take time to decide who they will sell to meanwhile another three houses have gone under offer while you are waiting for the seller to make up their mind whether to go with you or one of the other 6 offers they have received.

You clearly live in a place where you wait six months for one offer, in some areas it is not like that and buyers loose out by waiting, why should they?

Of course once an offer is accepted the buyer should withdraw their offers on other properties and go straight to survey and solicitors but many buyers just don't get that far because of the time it takes for the seller to choose a buyer.

SnooksNJ

ognum wrote: »

I think you must live in a slow moving market I have had best and finals on three properties at the same time and got none.

Why can't I have several offers in and hedge my bets just like the seller who is asking for bids from 10 people.

Most properties I am interested in have several offers and the seller decides how is that different from me making several offers?

In this scenario did the seller say yes to all 10?

ognum

SnooksNJ wrote: »

In this scenario did the seller say yes to all 10?

No clearly not but they took their time to show 25 people the property, gather 10 offers, think the offers over and then go to best and final giving everyone three days to get the offers in 48 hours later they made a choice.

So from first offer after seeing the property to decision took three weeks, would you suggest that those people offering do not offer on another property in those three weeks when they have a 9:1 chance of getting the property.

Get real!

olbas_oil

I think a formal offer comes with the assumption that, if accepted, you would proceed with survey and instructing solicitors etc. You are very nearly there, but not quite.
I think I would get into a conversation with the agents. Explain how you are interested in two houses, and would go with the one that represented best value. You would like to know whether an offer of '£x' would be acceptable. Thy would encourage you to put it forward, but you should explain that you don't want to get into a situation where you may feel that you are disappointing one party or the other, and so would like some feedback before making it formal.
Although they work for the seller, I am sure any agent would welcome the opportunity to negotiate a deal, when the alternative is simply not being given a chance.

Jhoney_2

ethank wrote: »

I would never take my house off the market until such time as a survey takes place now.

As everyone is free to do as they please until exchange, I think its fair enough. e.g the vendor could suddenly decide not to sell even after surveys, searches etc without restitution to the purchaser.

Similarly, vendor takes property off the market as part of acceptance of offer - surveys etc take place and then the buyer's dream house becomes available... and they pull out. No restitution for vendor.

Sometimes it's just nerves, FTB inexperience or people/(EAs?) playing games, but communication and time frames are a great way to make sure both vendor and buyer are/stay on the same page as everyone is trying to read each others intentions until legally defined.

unhappy_shopper

ognum wrote: »

The reason you need more than one offer in is that sellers want the best price and often take time to decide who they will sell to meanwhile another three houses have gone under offer while you are waiting for the seller to make up their mind whether to go with you or one of the other 6 offers they have received.

You clearly live in a place where you wait six months for one offer, in some areas it is not like that and buyers loose out by waiting, why should they?

Of course once an offer is accepted the buyer should withdraw their offers on other properties and go straight to survey and solicitors but many buyers just don't get that far because of the time it takes for the seller to choose a buyer.

I fully agree with the above post. For our latest purchase, we attended open-days wherein more than 50 interested parties were marched through the house on a Saturday with the offers to be placed by Tuesday. So we viewed on an average 5-6 houses every Saturday. On such occasions, if you want to buy a house, you have to make offers on multiple houses. I guess this is the scenario that the OP is referring to; not going ahead with the purchase of 3 houses simultaneously.