Is it strange that the seller wont accept a higher offer?

SevenOfNine

anotheruser wrote: »

The problem is though, people as a whole love money.

All those posters saying "glad the seller didn't accept your offer" - how much would you take to change your mind? 20k, 30k, 40k?
Everyone has a tipping point. Unlikely someone will offer 40k over the asking price, but there is no hiding behind morals and whatnot.

Speak for yourself (& davesnave & many others perhaps), but you don't speak for me. I would have said no, we were selling an inherited house that in the circumstances we were devastated at even inheriting.

Doing what I would consider 'the dirty' on our cash buyer for the sake of even more money would not have made me feel pleased with myself.

No 'moral highground' being hidden behind except from your point of view. Just a simple 'no', but others are quite welcome to do whatever they think best.

david1951

I think the argument isn't that we would renege on an accepted offer, rather not accept it in the first place if we thought higher offers might be achieved through a bidding process

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

I don't think Gazumping even comes into it if all offers are made in the course of a single day.

In this case of course the OP hadn't even SEEN the house yet. It's more than likely they wouldn't have offered more on it once they had. The fact that they said, sight unseen, they were "prepared to put in a far higher offer" could even be seen as an indication that they are not a serious prospect, because it's a daft thing to say. So in those circumstances deciding not to rock the boat makes a lot of sense for the vendor.

Davesnave

david1951 wrote: »

I think the argument isn't that we would renege on an accepted offer, rather not accept it in the first place if we thought higher offers might be achieved through a bidding process

This is close to my thoughts.

The OP's post struck a chord with me, as I lost out on a special property some years ago through no fault of my own. Like the high moral grounders here, I walked away, knowing that the vendor could have achieved a substantially higher price if it had gone to bids. I have no idea what their response would have been. The place was only marketed for a day or two.

It was only later I began to wonder why the agent was so keen to close down any further enquiries.....Surely not a backhander?

So, I think it might be fairer to all concerned if accepted offers were conditional on a week of marketing, going to bids if two or more decide they want a property.

This is how I bought my first house and it was stressful, but sorted quickly. For Seven of Nine's benefit, I'll add that the person benefiting from the proceeds of that sale was incapable of knowing a good deal from a bad one, as was her representative, so the process ensured that a fair price was achieved.