Missed Out on Buying First Home - Gutted

johnwb89

No no I totally agree, I'm not doing that. I'm just trying to learn about worst case scenarios for myself in the future.

Glad I posted on here though,got some great advice. Sounds to me like the best bet with offering is to just offer what you can afford, but don't play games too much. Give your highest bid, or close to it, be honest - and then take it from there.

Surrey_EA

johnwb89 wrote: »

Thanks for this.

Last question! As I'm still a newbie to this. After a house goes to STC - Are you allowed to put in an offer or 'gazump' as it's known? I wouldn't actually like to do this as it seems shady, but I'm wondering what the rules of STC are?

Up until exchange of contracts legally you're free to do what you want, as is the seller, irrespective of whether they've previously accepted an offer.

However, morally it's a different question!

Davesnave

Surrey_EA wrote: »

Up until exchange of contracts legally you're free to do what you want, as is the seller, irrespective of whether they've previously accepted an offer.

However, morally it's a different question!

Depends. If it's not a run-of-the-mill property,and it's only been on for a short time, the agent or vendor might not have pitched it correctly. In that case, I'd argue that the market should determine the final value, as in sealed bids, perhaps. That's how I bought my first house.

I missed out on a property by being distracted literally just for a few days. The agent omitted to mark it as sale agreed on his web site and I phoned to ask for a viewing. The agent explained and I backed off, but if the same situation arose again, I wouldn't.

When one searches for a particularly rare property, spending hundreds of £ and hours on the task, it's quite a moral ask to walk away from it like that.

It certainly didn't make me feel wonderful, and the vendor probably missed out to the tune of £10 - 20k.

pinkpiglit

johnwb89 wrote: »

I'm on RM like a hawk at the moment haha

Don't wait for them to appear on Right Move. By that stage the EAs will most likely have telephoned all the buyers they have in their books to tell them about the new property they are in the process of listing!

Go in and see the EAs, call them up regularly, maybe even weekly, make sure they know who you are and that THEY call YOU when they get a new property.

jimbog

pinkpiglit wrote: »

Go in and see the EAs, call them up regularly, maybe even weekly, make sure they know who you are and that THEY call YOU when they get a new property.

Excellent advice. Wander in every week or so and chat to them about what could be coming up/what does the market's like/be on first name terms etc. so that they get to know you and are the first person they think of when something comes up

johnwb89

I've called a few and they were a bit like RM is the first port of call but I doubt that is the case. I have given them a very specific run down of requirements and price etc so fingers crossed.

Thanks for the help everyone, I'm still a bit down I completely messed up the last negotiation still though!

hazyjo

johnwb89 wrote: »

I've called a few and they were a bit like RM is the first port of call but I doubt that is the case. I have given them a very specific run down of requirements and price etc so fingers crossed.

Unless you're 'friends' with them, they'll not take a blind bit of notice of your details on file. They never really match properties and get in touch any more as everyone just looks on RM. If you're 'best buddies' with them and are maybe looking in specific roads and pop in all the time to see what's on the horizon, they may remember you. All you'll prob get now is just a load of emails with completely unsuitable properties sent through.

Muscle750

worst experience we had was buying a repo house the estate agent "advised" the figure to bid, we won it when i went to get the keys i had them thrown at me transpired after the estate agent was trying to buy it under another name which is illegal and i discovered i bid £30k over his bid. Not long after they folded.

elephantrosie

Pixie5740 wrote: »

It doesn't cost anything to make an offer in Scotland either. Yes the offer is put in through your solicitor but I've never been charged per offer and as the vendor pays for the Home Report which the buyer is free to view buyers already have a very good idea of what value the mortgage lender will place on the property.

therefore in england, buyer makes an offer and dont pay any deposit until surveyor etc completed?

johnwb89

* UPDATE *

Just to let people know, I rang the agent on an absolute whim last week with no hope, and just asked if there had been any movements at all - I had asked her to contact me immediately if anything changed so I had less than 1% hope.

Anyway! She tells me the buyer that went over asking has pulled out, and it was to go back on the market. I had a very strange mixture of euphoria and anger. I knew she wasn't keen on me for whatever reason, but not telling me seemed very harsh. Either way, I immediately offered asking price and it was accepted the same day. VERY lucky, but it shows that you just have to keep trying and remember to CHASE THE AGENT!

Now I'm having a mini mare getting an agreement in principal aha but none the less, looks okay at the moment.