House buying nightmare, feeling done by agent

sarahb7538

Hi,

I'm hoping some of you more experienced house buyers can offer me some advice. I'm a first timer buyer with my partner we found a house loved it and it ticked most of our must have boxes.

Saw it at the weekend and at that point, someone had already offered the asking price, so we offered and added £550 to the price. Come this Wednesday there were two bidders in the running, us and the original offer. We were both asked for best and final. We were told the original bidder had increased their bid slightly so we offered another £1200 to seal the deal. I realise that we clearly have mugs written on our forehead....

Anyway, apart from falling directly into every estate agents dream scenario, I have since found out that the original bidder actually withdrew their offer yesterday. I don't think that they ever increased it.. I am pretty certain when the agent said they had increased their offer slightly it was a lie (they shouldn't be telling us that anyway!!). I know this because I found a post on a community page asking about this street and it's locality to HS2. (This is the only house for sale on this street) . Information was shared and the person that posted actually said they had put an offer in on this street and had withdrawn it.

Now we have looked into HS2 and feel the impact according to the current plans is far enough away for us to be happy with.

Estate agent should be coming back to us this morning, but not sure how to play it. I think we should tell them we know and reduce our offer to the asking price no more, and tell them we are not happy being treated this way. But my OH doesn't want to lose it for £1800. I'm really annoyed about it, I know it's partly our own fault for being nieve but what would others do in our situation.

need_an_answer

So often its very easy to get into a bidding war which clearly you have.
Now you need to think more clearly ans abjectively about the way forward.

Its really up to you what your offer is,you are quite entitled to lower it back to the original one or keep it where it currently stands.

Its the vendor who needs to accept your offer,the EA will always push for more but that's their job.

Another thing that you must also consider is even if whichever offer you put in is accepted it still needs to be consistent with the valuation at a later stage in the purchase transaction.
Things like HS2 whilst they don't bother you may be a factor when the mortgage valuation is completed.

Don't over offer even if you desperately love the house.

What I would suggest is that you go back with a final offer of whatever you decide and make it clear that the property then accepts no more viewing should it be accepted.Ideally a quick decision would be appreciated to as "you have other properties you are interested in"
This will protect you hopefully from the EA continuing to market and push for a higher price.

KL0001

Could there have been a 3rd offer, the 1st having withdrawn (as you!!!8217;ve seen on the community page) and the 2nd having made the offers and you being the 3rd.

Whilst I!!!8217;m sure it can happen, in reality your £1800 higher bid is only potentially worth about £20-30 in commission to the estate agent, do you think they!!!8217;d risk their reputation for that. Plus even if the have cheated you and you ask them do you think they!!!8217;d admit it?

Usually when it comes to buying houses £1800 is a drop in the ocean, if it really is the right house for you I!!!8217;d agree with your husband.

eddddy

If you look at this from the vendor's perspective...

You made an offer which the EA has probably put to the vendor.

Assuming the EA calls to tell you the offer is accepted, you want to immediately tell the EA that you're reducing your offer by £1800.

That would make most vendors furious. They will see you as a game-player.

Even if you later agree to stick with your original higher offer, you might have lost the vendor's trust.

bigisi

eddddy wrote: »

If you look at this from the vendor's perspective...

You made an offer which the EA has probably put to the vendor.

Assuming the EA calls to tell you the offer is accepted, you want to immediately tell the EA that you're reducing your offer by £1800.

That would make most vendors furious. They will see you as a game-player.

Even if you later agree to stick with your original higher offer, you might have lost the vendor's trust.

Exactly. It's your fault you got played by the estate agent, not the vendor's. Why should they lose out because you got a bit trigger happy with your offers? I'd imagine a reduced offer is going to be rejected.

mangog

You were willing to pay the extra £1800 to secure it when you thought you might lose it, so to my mind that's how much it's worth to you. I know it's annoying to feel like you were 'played' by the agent but you don't know for sure what happened, and for the sake of £1800 my advice is just let it lie. We were in a similar position of offering slightly over asking to secure the house we wanted - there was no other party involved but the vendors had a lot of interest on the first day of viewings and on the agent's advice they decided to hold out for more. Fair enough, I say - we were happy with the price we offered and so were they.

My way of thinking was that if the house had been listed at £5k more, I would still have made an offer, because it's the right house for us, and I'd have felt we got a bargain at the price we actually offered. For the same house. It's all psychological!

So if you like the house and you're happy with the price, I'd say that's all you need.

shortcrust

Where’s the 'nightmare' element to the story?!

bigisi

shortcrust wrote: »

Where’s the 'nightmare' element to the story?!

Purely in the younger generation's snowflake minds.

Mossfarr

Why don t you just wait and see if the survey shows any repairs are needed. That is the time to negotiate.

need_an_answer

Mossfarr wrote: »

Why don t you just wait and see if the survey shows any repairs are needed. That is the time to negotiate.

because my understanding is that they have not yet secured the property and are only at the offer making stage with the vendor.

its not SSTC and possibly not even under offer....far too early for surveys.

sarahb7538

Thanks to those that have replied with reasonable advice rather than just a dig for the sake of it !!!55357;!!!56900;. It has helped but things in perspective.

It might not seem much when your seasoned house buyers and have done it many times before but when you haven't it's an easy process to navigate. I just didn't think that estate agents were allowed to encourage you to bid against a non existant offer. Clearly I'm wrong and this is accepted practice and yes it maybe my own fault but I think anyone would feel irked if they had basically been misled..

Anyway, the vendor wants considerably more than the asking price and our offer combined even though there are no other offers on the table, so that's the end of that house.