Vendor went with the lower house offer!

Mickygg

As above. Over the years I have stressed that you can lose out by trying to go in too low and increasing small amounts still below asking price.
This exactly happened to me although I was on the other end. Whenever I buy I think what is my maximum and then offer a fair price I'm happy with then may or may not increase a bit. My last house I offered x which was a little below asking but house was too high. In the meantime there was another bidder who was over the course of a couple of weeks offering small increases still below asking price. They accepted mine and then the other bidder upped theirs suddenly to above asking. The vendors stuck with mine as I did not mess about and they said they trusted me more as they were worried the other bidder may suddenly go lower with their offer at a later date.
Don't get me wrong the vendors met with me and said they did consider it but in the grand scheme of things although they would have loved the extra £10k, completing sale without potential hassle was more important.
Going in low trying to grab a low price can go against you and it has to OP.
My advice is if you see a house that you really really want and can afford to pay don't lose it due to playing games going in too low, especially if house has just come on the market. I would have been gutted to lose my last house, really gutted, so I reflected this in my offer price.

TheGardener

I had 4 offers and I didn't take the highest - I lived in an area where local families were struggling to compete with investors and 2nd home buyers and I sold to local couple who desperately wanted to stay in the area and needed a home. Their offer was £10K lower but their value to the community as a young, local family was worth far more to me than the investor who would probably not have spent more than 2 or 3 weeks a year in the property.
As someone with a business that relied on local support - it wasn't pure altruism - and it made me feel good

Davesnave

According to your post, this was a house priced £100k below the typical price of comparables and needed around £50k worth of work.

Why, then, if the asking price was so reasonable, did you submit offers below it, especially knowing you had an early viewing before the property went 'live?'

When our current property, also needing work, came to market at a highly attractive price, we met it straight away, recognising the owner's requst for a quick sale without any messing.

Later, when someone else came along with a significantly improved offer, she stuck with us, because we'd met her realistic price and moved as fast as possible with the conveyancing, allowing her to escape a difficult life situation quickly.

AnotherJoe

Always easier to raise a conspiracy theory than admit you screwed up.

Davesnave

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Always easier to raise a conspiracy theory than admit you screwed up.

Well, it is plausible that agents will favour friends/business partners if they can, but opportunities will be limited in the info age..

I've recounted a story here before, where we continued observing a Welsh wreck from a distance after a viewing, witnessing the agent meeting some guy whom he clearly knew and the house going awol from the internet shortly after. It was suspicious, because we felt the agent was trying to put us off, saying that the house would probably be listed by Cadw when it sold. We'd told him we had plans for significant change, maybe demolition!

Last year, I found the house on the internet. The purchaser had kept a blog of his work on it. It had indeed been listed by Cadw and the renovation had been strictly controlled, using traditional materials andmethods throughout.

The reality was, we English, with no appreciation of Welsh traditional building, had seen just a pile of stones, so never had the slightest chance of making the property work for us.

teamgb

We viewed a house and offered the asking price. The owner had died.


The agent told us the house had sold and no further offers would be taken.


Months later a builder who I supplied with materials and was working on the house informed me it had been sold to a solicitor who works with the agent.


He had paid £20000 below the asking price.

AnotherJoe

Sure, this happens. I know of one, though 30 years ago.

But in this case reported by OP why did the agent even bother soliciting bids and raise teh issue that the bidder might contact the vendor? Why didn't they just say to the seller "well we've advertised but no one is interested" and not bother getting people interested?
The OP can always contact the vendor if they want to be told "we didn't like your chiselling cheapskate attitude when the house was already £50k under fair market value"

babyblade41

I accepted a lower offer as A, I'd agreed to it first and B, they were in a more beneficial position , ie no finance and not selling another property

AdrianC

ozwoz84 wrote: »

We've been gazumped before

Then you should understand why the vendors didn't want you to gazump the offer they'd already accepted.

pattypan4

we did similar in the distant past, accepted an offer and a day later received a higher offer. I believe in karma and stuck with the lower offer, we were never going to be gazumpers, honest through and through, which is why it is upsetting to know that my `cash` buyer who made a lower offer which I accepted, is not a cash buyer as my solicitor recently told me. This buyer is waiting for a mortgage offer. Really I am gutted by this fibber, who has also made me jump through hoops. My neighbours all know and she is coming to a very small close community, maybe that will be her karma