Gazumped :(

Wassa123

We're FTB and have been looking for a house for around a year.

We found a 3 bed house in Newbury, on for 280k. We had the last viewing of the day and there had been "1 offer too low". We liked it although it does need a lot of work (was owned by an elderly disabled person, then tenanted for a few years). It's owned by a couple who are divorcing and so want to sell.

Now the estate agent said it's got no chain, and that the tenants are on a 1 month rolling contract. On a second viewing where the tenants showed us around, they said they had only been there 3 months? Being a renter myself, I know the minimum AST is 6 months, so theres something a bit dodgey there... but that's another matter.


Back to the main story, we made an offer first thing in the morning at the asking price of 280k, where there was now "multiple offers". After thinking, we raised it to 291k (we've been in lots of bidding wars and lost out even when bidding 25k over).

The estate agents said the woman wants to accept it, but would talk it over with the man. Now, oddly, another call from another staff member at the agency then phoned a few minutes later to say they were going to best offers over the weekend. We stayed at 291k and we still ended up with the highest offer.

Now I know from a previous attempt to purchase with this estate agent which fell through that they keep their properties on rightmove/zoopla forever until it gets removed by default. Even though the old sellers had pulled out it was still on there for months.

2 weeks after, "someone who viewed it back then made an offer just now" has gone and gazumped us. I thought this was odd as properties here go quite quickly, within a few days. They say it is an offer of 300k and the sellers are going to "talk about it". In the meantime, the estate agents want to know if we would match it as the original purchasers. I don't know anything else about the offer (proceedable, AIP, chain, etc). We've paid for the searches and booked a survey for next week.

The extra £9k would be £40/m which is ok when looking at the repayments, but it's 9k extra on a house which already needs work.

I don't know whether the estate agents are just playing games (like going to best offers).

What is everyone's opinion?

Pull out immediately as their deemed "untrustworthy" and might try something later on?
Pull out, hope the other buyer disappears, then they come back to us?
Offer to meet half way?
Say no, wait till to see if they accept it, then match it and hope they take us back as we've proved we're not messing around (i.e. mortgage applied for, survey booked)>

Innys1

Depends how much you want it.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend you getting into a bidding war because, if you do, you'll probably end up overpaying.

robotrobo

Wassa123 wrote: »

We're FTB and have been looking for a house for around a year.

We found a 3 bed house in Newbury, on for 280k. We had the last viewing of the day and there had been "1 offer too low". We liked it although it does need a lot of work (was owned by an elderly disabled person, then tenanted for a few years). It's owned by a couple who are divorcing and so want to sell.

Now the estate agent said it's got no chain, and that the tenants are on a 1 month rolling contract. On a second viewing where the tenants showed us around, they said they had only been there 3 months? Being a renter myself, I know the minimum AST is 6 months, so theres something a bit dodgey there... but that's another matter.


Back to the main story, we made an offer first thing in the morning at the asking price of 280k, where there was now "multiple offers". After thinking, we raised it to 291k (we've been in lots of bidding wars and lost out even when bidding 25k over).

The estate agents said the woman wants to accept it, but would talk it over with the man. Now, oddly, another call from another staff member at the agency then phoned a few minutes later to say they were going to best offers over the weekend. We stayed at 291k and we still ended up with the highest offer.

Now I know from a previous attempt to purchase with this estate agent which fell through that they keep their properties on rightmove/zoopla forever until it gets removed by default. Even though the old sellers had pulled out it was still on there for months.

2 weeks after, "someone who viewed it back then made an offer just now" has gone and gazumped us. I thought this was odd as properties here go quite quickly, within a few days. They say it is an offer of 300k and the sellers are going to "talk about it". In the meantime, the estate agents want to know if we would match it as the original purchasers. I don't know anything else about the offer (proceedable, AIP, chain, etc). We've paid for the searches and booked a survey for next week.

The extra £9k would be £40/m which is ok when looking at the repayments, but it's 9k extra on a house which already needs work.

I don't know whether the estate agents are just playing games (like going to best offers).

What is everyone's opinion?

Pull out immediately as their deemed "untrustworthy" and might try something later on?
Pull out, hope the other buyer disappears, then they come back to us?
Offer to meet half way?
Say no, wait till to see if they accept it, then match it and hope they take us back as we've proved we're not messing around (i.e. mortgage applied for, survey booked)>

take a chance & dump them, you never know you may still get it . & i hope your house that you eventually buy will be a better deal for you, pick your selves up & have a look at the next house.
goodluck

Bossypants

That's horrible, I'm sorry.


Unless the property is totally unique, I would walk away, both on principle due to their unethical behaviour, and because you won't get a wink of sleep until exchange knowing that they might do it again at any moment.

jbainbridge

You've been messed about a lot already, I'd walk away. Good luck to the new buyers!

J_i_m

Personally I would pull out, and hope what went around.. came around.

charliewocka

We were gazumped on a property. It came to sealed final bids which we 'won' and the next day got a call from the agent to say an offer £35k or so over what we offered had been placed and we needed to raise the offer. We said no, let the person overpay. We then viewed another property, placed an offer which was accepted and two weeks later the original property came back to the market as the people who placed the offer had found 'the architects couldn't make what they wanted work' (was a bit odd as no architect went round). We think they realised how much over the value they had offered, or maybe was even a 'ghost' bid. We reinstated our offer and are in the (slow!) process of purchasing it.


I'm not a believer of fate but maybe it's true - what will be will be.

Innys1

charliewocka wrote: »

We were gazumped on a property. It came to sealed final bids which we 'won' and the next day got a call from the agent to say an offer £35k or so over what we offered had been placed and we needed to raise the offer. We said no, let the person overpay. We then viewed another property, placed an offer which was accepted and two weeks later the original property came back to the market as the people who placed the offer had found 'the architects couldn't make what they wanted work' (was a bit odd as no architect went round). We think they realised how much over the value they had offered, or maybe was even a 'ghost' bid. We reinstated our offer and are in the (slow!) process of purchasing it.


I'm not a believer of fate but maybe it's true - what will be will be.

I would have offered £10k less than my original successful offer, while making the original agent fully aware that I had found an alternative suitable property.

Odds are, it was a ghost offer which annoys the hell out of me.

charliewocka

Innys1 wrote: »

I would have offered £10k less than my original successful offer, while making the original agent fully aware that I had found an alternative suitable property.

Odds are, it was a ghost offer which annoys the hell out of me.

We were tempted to, trust me, but knew the demand for the house was high and there are personal reasons for wanting this house. We figured we were happy to pay what we originally offered.


Vendor EA is awful, rude, hasn't got a clue about the property, hates talking to the 'lady' (that's me!) as I put him in his place. Had a call today asking why exchange wasn't happening next week, which is when we had said we would target for exchange/completion. I told him that we had to change our mortgage application to different lenders due to the incapacity of the EA recommended broker, but more importantly the contracts pack hasn't even been received by our solicitor. He was a bit shocked when I told him that we had been keeping the vendor up to date directly and he was happy with things - soon put the EA in his place.

onlyroz

Have you checked out recent sold prices for the area to determine what you think this place is worth? Is it perfect for you in terms of size and location? Are there other similar properties for sale that would do just as well, or is this the only one of its type available?

My instincts would be to stick to your guns, assuming that your offer is sensible, see what happens, and in the mean time keep looking.

Wassa123

We've offered to meet halfway-ish at 295.

The estate agent is still waiting on the vendor.

I've said I'll have to cancel the survey tomorrow (scheduled for next week) if we don't hear anything by tomorrow as we wouldn't want to lose both the house and the fees for the survey!

We don't have much choice as our rental contract expires and a tenant is moving out in a few months and so we would have to begin a new AST which would cost ~£6k for 6 months.

It's a small down so there aren't a lot of options. If there were more properties on the market I'd tell them to do one but meh. Fingers crossed!