Agent has told me to increase my (accepted) offer to avoid being gazumped!

d4n13773

Last week I made an offer on a property which was accepted subject to my providing ID and proof of finances.

Today I submitted them a copy of my mortgage in principle and a copy of a building society account which contains my £15k (of which I had planned to use £10k as deposit)

I am buying this as a second home to use for work so am not in a chain.

This afternoon I have received a phone call from the estate agent to tell me that an offer had been accepted on the property in October but had failed to progress - that offer was higher than mine (didn;t say how much) -& they didn't say why it hadn't progressed? But they said that this buyer was now in a position to progress, - they have suggested I increase my offer by another £2.5k stating that the vendor needs to pay off debts and my increasing my offer would enable them to do that and choose to progress with my offer!

Should I increase my offer at this stage? - I would have been prepared to pay that in the first instance, but there has not been any formal refusal of my offer (so I've not technically been gazumped...yet..!)

Part of me feels they have seen from my building society account that I've got some cash to "spare" (I haven't when you factor in all the fees and the work that would need doing to the house to make it habitable so would need to reapply for the mortgage) & are just trying to get a bit more out of me.

I've told them I'll think about it!

Any advice?

bigfreddiel

Walk!

Fj

G_M

Depends how much you want this property.

Personally I'd tell them to take a running jump, and then hope the other buyer let them down....again.

And if they then came back to me in a month or two, I'd offer a lower price.

But if you really want the property, then you have no choice, do you?

nubbins

Lesson number 1, never show an EA your financial position. Personally I would tell the EA you are happy to walk but you must be prepared to do so. If you love it then at best meet them half way but I would hate even doing that, expecially after the "paying off debts" bit.

Thrugelmir

nubbins wrote: »

Lesson number 1, never show an EA your financial position. Personally I would tell the EA you are happy to walk but you must be prepared to do so. If you love it then at best meet them half way but I would hate even doing that, expecially after the "paying off debts" bit.

Why would an EA want to jeopardise a sale? It's not the EA's house either it's the vendors.

Thrugelmir

d4n13773 wrote: »

I've told them I'll think about it!

Make the vendor sweat. Hint to the EA that you've seen another property that you are considering making an offer on. The EA will rely this back. Then await developments.

Marktheshark

d4n13773 wrote: »

This afternoon I have received a phone call from the estate agent to tell me that an offer had been accepted on the property in October but had failed to progress - that offer was higher than mine (didn;t say how much) -& they didn't say why it hadn't progressed?

Usually know as "the survey"

Davesnave

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Why would an EA want to jeopardise a sale? It's not the EA's house either it's the vendors.

Unfortunately, some do this sort of thing, even when logic says they have very little to gain.

A similar thing happened to us, and there was a gazumping effort later on, pushed hard by the agent. We know all the background now, as it's a rural area. The vendor didn't want any of it. She just needed out, fast.

We very nearly walked. Even the vendor's solicitors were needlessly aggressive. It was only friendly contact with the vendor which kept the whole thing on the rails.

moneyistooshorttomention

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Make the vendor sweat. Hint to the EA that you've seen another property that you are considering making an offer on. The EA will rely this back. Then await developments.

I'd incline towards doing this.

That was a mistake, in hindsight, to show them your building society book. Sounds like someone has just got greedy and thought "Oooh...they'll have £5k over after paying that deposit and I can grab some of that to repay my PERSONAL debts". They've ignored the fact you need money for fees, etc - they've seen it and they're making an excuse to grab for it.

So - yep hint (strongly) about another property and how much money you reckon you'll need to spend on any property you get (give some indication of work anyone would do on this particular property and that you feel is necessary to do "immediately").

seven-day-weekend

I agree that it is probably because they think you have extra funds.

We are buying a property to rent out and I put the EXACT amount of money in one place and showed the EA that. You can always move your money around again afterwards.

macman

EA is working for the vendor, not for you, so any 'advice' they give you is driven by that.