What to do after being gazumped?

greatgimpo

As an aside comment, no government has a reason to change this ludicrous system of house buying. You've shelled out money, so income tax, business tax and VAT will be paid. In this case there's only one loser - you if you cancel or even go through with it.

anselld

SephirothX wrote: »

Pulling out will cost me money as well in lost fees and renting here for longer

Surely you cannot stand to lose much. You have time to cancel solicitors and survey. You will be "losing" £5k straight away by upping your offer.

Personally, I walk immediately when the vendor starts these games.

SephirothX

I went and matched the offer and told them it's my final offer and they say they won't accept further offers from the other buyer but it has really soured the whole experience of buying the place and I am always going to be wondering whether I did the right thing.

I think it's more the thought that there's no comparable properties on the market that I like enough right now that made me go along with it. I mean I could wait 6 months for a comparable property and find the seller unwilling to budge on price due to it being new to the market.

If the surveyor comes along and values it at 145k or even anything less than 150k I am going to have some serious thinking to do. It's not too late to pull out I guess. I'll also be checking the market right up until exchange - something I wasn't doing before this.

Patti_Shepherd

I would certainly not enter a bidding war, I'd tell the agent of my intention and walk away. If this is the estate you've set your heart on, write a series of postcards saying you are keen to move to this area, that you are able to proceed quickly and pop them through the letterboxes of houses you like. With a bit of luck, someone who's thinking of moving will see the benefit of selling without an agent and you could use that to negotiate a reduction on the price. A win win situation.

dinkylink

Best of luck with the purchase in that case. If it's the one you want in the grand scheme of things £5k isn't that much and isn't worth losing the property over. I understand it leaves a somewhat bitter taste though. Good idea to see what the survey throws up and then go from there if necessary. And like you say you hold all the cards as a ftb. Could pull out on day of exchange if you wanted to and after how the vendor has acted I dare say you wouldn't feel to guilty about doing so!

Funnily enough when I bought my first property 7 years ago I think the EA probably squeezed a few more grand out of me which I could have got away without paying if I was a bit more hard nosed about the whole thing, but it was obvious I was a ftb. Still bugs me to this day a bit, but I still own the property and the value has probably gone up by about £90k so yeah that few £k looks pretty insignificant now.

POPPYOSCAR

da_rule wrote: »

You should insist though that the property is taken off of the market. You could also ask for an exclusivity agreement or pre-contract deposit agreement that will discourage them from doing this again.

Means nothing.

We did this, had it all in writing with £1000 paid deposit and still got gazumped.

We with the help of our brilliant solicitor ended up matching the other buyer and exchanging on the same day, which secured the property.

SephirothX

My main concern now is that the valuation will come up with a figure closer to my original offer. At that point I'll be more inclined to tell them to go with the other buyer. It's one thing thinking you might be slightly over paying but it's quite another having it confirmed by an expert in valuations.

getmore4less

A significant portion of the mortgage payment is just rent(of the money) so be careful counting the full payment when comparing with rent.

SephirothX

That's true I suppose. Although I was planning to over pay the mortgage significantly to reduce interest paid.

I just had a thought. An estate agent wouldn't invent a fake bid of £5k extra and risk losing the sale but what is to stop a vendor having a mate ring the estate agent and place a bid that they have no intention of carrying through?

I can't help being suspicious. I mean what kind of person decides to gazump someone a few days after Christmas on a property they had viewed a month earlier? And if you're going to gazump why would you offer the asking price? For all you know the other person was buying it for the asking price.

I was told by the estate agent that the vendor had lost the house they wanted due to a bad survey and had to go for a more expensive property and that's why they wouldn't budge on the asking price when I suggested me being a first time buyer with the sale underway should mean they might accept less than the other buyer.

The more I look into previous sales in the area the more I am having second thoughts. I mean in April 2016 a similar house that was semi detached with a garage sold for £147.5k.

leespot

I would personally have counter offered with a figure in the middle - you can always go up but never usually down.