Things I learnt..

TBagpuss

You are advocating lying. Had you been the 'preferred buyer' you would have got into that position through dishonestly representing your position.

And while in your specifc case, the other buyer turned out to be flaky, in many, probably most, cases that would not be the case.

Also, if you were to lie, it would become apparent fairly quickly once solicitors got involved.

It's a really, really bad idea. And dishonest.

antcurious

mrginge wrote: »

Here is my summary of the OP

• Lie to your vendor.

• Pretend that house buying is like being on X factor.

• Become a nuisance to EAs, almost to the point of stalking them.

• Get a good solicitor. Stalk them if required. Ring them up constantly if you feel the need. Or not if this will annoy them.

• Get a good surveyor. Make sure you hassle them.

• Get a good removal company. Perform background checks on their staff and hang round their offices in disguise while filming through the windows.

Here is my summary of your summary:

You can't read

But you got me on the lie. That IS what I advocated, though see my further comments on this.

antcurious

TBagpuss wrote: »

You are advocating lying. Had you been the 'preferred buyer' you would have got into that position through dishonestly representing your position.

And while in your specifc case, the other buyer turned out to be flaky, in many, probably most, cases that would not be the case.

Also, if you were to lie, it would become apparent fairly quickly once solicitors got involved.

It's a really, really bad idea. And dishonest.

Remember, I am looking at our transaction retrospectively and in this case, I would have had plenty time to sort a mortgage in the time it took for the other buyers to waste the vendors time. It's only a bad idea if you're not prepared to potentially lose the early fees that are payable and the goodwill of the parties you're dealing with. If you are are prepared to lose this, I would say it's a particularly good idea:)

Depends what it means to you and how badly you want what you're after.
As for being dishonest, yes it is.

marksoton

antcurious wrote: »

Keep in mind, at this point you've already gone with the other offer. When that one goes belly-up, or if you just come back to me wanting to squeeze me for more money, I am IN the game, without the letter I am/was not.

Who says you are?

A cosy up letter would actually put me off selecting you.

spadoosh

antcurious wrote: »

To those commenting on my first suggestion to lie. In my situation, I had to wait four months before the other buyers with their big deposit turned out to be flaky.
My point is I could have been the preferred buyer from the beginning simply by stating I had X deposit and in doing so save the seller and myself the 4 months heartache. I would have done this being aware of my own chances of having a mortgage ready come the time to exchange.

So personally I feel ethically ok about it depending on my own finances and on the knowledge the vendor ultimately just wants to get paid for the house. I am NOT advocating pretending you can buy something when you can't. This goes without saying.

As a FTB you wouldnt really have a clue about your financial position until you actually applied for a mortgage, its been accepted and they agree a valuation figure. What would you have done if you said you had the larger deposit all went through nicely and then your mortgage company holds a retention? You'd look a tit pulling out at that stage when theyre asking well where is the remainder of the deposit you said you had? Not to mention you have no idea on the other buyers finances.

Playing games adds to the problem of buying and selling houses. If people didnt mess about and BS it would be a simple and straightforward process and there'd be a much smaller forum for house buying and selling.

Its just buying a house, im not trying to get a closely guarded secret out of Dr No fighting sharks with lasers on their heads.

Im sure youre happy with your flutter in the property market but i dont think youve discovered any property secrets. Advocating complicating the process (the lying about your position bit) seems counter intuitive.

PS Congrats on the new home, took me a while to stop telling everyone "thats my brick that".

antcurious

marksoton wrote: »

Who says you are?

A cosy up letter would actually put me off selecting you.

Not you that's for sure! But you're missing the point. After having my offer rejected, I either shut up and move on, or I write this letter which COULD put me back in contention later on.

In your case this would not work, but I'm not saying in all cases it would, am I?

antcurious

spadoosh wrote: »

As a FTB you wouldnt really have a clue about your financial position until you actually applied for a mortgage, its been accepted and they agree a valuation figure. What would you have done if you said you had the larger deposit all went through nicely and then your mortgage company holds a retention? You'd look a tit pulling out at that stage when theyre asking well where is the remainder of the deposit you said you had? Not to mention you have no idea on the other buyers finances.

Playing games adds to the problem of buying and selling houses. If people didnt mess about and BS it would be a simple and straightforward process and there'd be a much smaller forum for house buying and selling.

Its just buying a house, im not trying to get a closely guarded secret out of Dr No fighting sharks with lasers on their heads.

Im sure youre happy with your flutter in the property market but i dont think youve discovered any property secrets. Advocating complicating the process (the lying about your position bit) seems counter intuitive.

PS Congrats on the new home, took me a while to stop telling everyone "thats my brick that".

Thanks, yeah we're pretty excited:) Though technically it's more Nationwide's brick than mine, I try not to think about that too much!

In your example of the bank's valuation being under, or keeping a retention, you're absolutely right, we might have been in trouble, but like I said before, someone might want to take that risk. The point is, given the right situation, this would give you some chance, where before there was none. I guarantee you someone reading this will happily take the chance to look like a tit if it meant they got onto this elusive ladder.

I take your point about not knowing the outcome of a mortgage application, but it's not a black and white thing. With respect, there are FTB'ers and FTB'ers, not all equal in their financial position, not all equal in their knowledge of underwriting. Again, given the right situation, someone will take that chance and call it more of a calculated risk.

You're absolutely right, these are not property secrets, I thought of them more as subtleties that could be exploited. Except of course for the first point, that is absolutely not subtle in the slightest:j

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

marksoton wrote: »

Who says you are?

A cosy up letter would actually put me off selecting you.

Even though you think he'd pay more? You'd sell for less to somebody else just because he wrote you a letter?

marksoton

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

Even though you think he'd pay more? You'd sell for less to somebody else just because he wrote you a letter?

Yep. I don't appreciate manipulation.

spadoosh

antcurious wrote: »

Thanks, yeah we're pretty excited:) Though technically it's more Nationwide's brick than mine, I try not to think about that too much!

Easily appeased when you look at the deeds.