Cash buyer beat me to it and I didn’t get any chance to do anything about it?

billy2shots

verb

gerund or present participle: gazumping

1. 1.

   INFORMAL•BRITISH

   make a higher offer for a house than (someone whose offer has already been accepted by the seller) and thus succeed in acquiring the property

I stand by what I wrote. It is not technically gazumping until the the person has successfully completed on the property.


I forgot how fun MSE can be with members highlighting typos thanks for reminding me @AdrianC

Mickey666

jordan3939 said:

Yesterday I put in an offer on a flat and the estate agent informed me someone had gone higher than the asking price. I said was it 5k more? If so I will match and she said it was. I then got a call later saying the seller had accepted his offer as he was a cash buyer. How is this fair??? I was going to offer more if they came back to me but I didn’t get a chance to. Any tips for battling against cash buyers for next time? Thank you.

Why does it have to be fair?  Life isn't isn't fair, so why expect the house-buying process to be fair?  Just be glad that you're even in the position to be able to afford a house - billions of people on the planet don't have that luxury.  Is that 'fair'?

Hannimal

Deleted_User said:

jordan3939 said:

How is this fair??? 

Because it's the seller's property. Therefore they choose who to sell to.

I mean, it's not fair. It's not fair that some people have enough cash to buy a house and others need a mortgage and some will never even be able to get a mortgage. But seriously though, surely an adult who is ready to buy a house should know that life is not fair. It's a business transaction. A cash buyer is more desirable than someone buying on a mortgage. Someone without a chain is more desirable than someone on a chain. Such is life. It sucks when you're not the one with all the cash but nothing you can do about that.

Thrugelmir

Hannimal said:

Deleted_User said:

jordan3939 said:

How is this fair??? 

Because it's the seller's property. Therefore they choose who to sell to.

I mean, it's not fair. It's not fair that some people have enough cash to buy a house and others need a mortgage and some will never even be able to get a mortgage. 

We all have choices as to how we spend the money we earn. Whether we borrow or save.  Generally saving as a habit has been poor in the UK for a very long time.  With a buy now pay culture. 

Hannimal

Thrugelmir said:

Hannimal said:

Deleted_User said:

jordan3939 said:

How is this fair??? 

Because it's the seller's property. Therefore they choose who to sell to.

I mean, it's not fair. It's not fair that some people have enough cash to buy a house and others need a mortgage and some will never even be able to get a mortgage. 

We all have choices as to how we spend the money we earn. Whether we borrow or save.  Generally saving as a habit has been poor in the UK for a very long time.  With a buy now pay culture. 

Well this is rather tone-deaf. Have you seen what the living costs in UK cities are and how those compare with salaries? You would have to have a mad salary to be able to save from normal income to become a cash buyer in most UK cities. Average UK salary is around 30k, so after tax around 22k, each year. Cheapest houses in the city I live in sell for 220k.

[Deleted User]

jordan3939 said:

Yesterday I put in an offer on a flat and the estate agent informed me someone had gone higher than the asking price. I said was it 5k more? If so I will match and she said it was. I then got a call later saying the seller had accepted his offer as he was a cash buyer. How is this fair??? I was going to offer more if they came back to me but I didn’t get a chance to. Any tips for battling against cash buyers for next time? Thank you.

Increasingly I am seeing vendors accept offers from people who dont try play games on negotiations.   Maybe it was just the fact that the other buyer went in on a better price and just wanted to get a deal done? 

SpiderLegs

Hannimal said:

Thrugelmir said:

Hannimal said:

Deleted_User said:

jordan3939 said:

How is this fair??? 

Because it's the seller's property. Therefore they choose who to sell to.

I mean, it's not fair. It's not fair that some people have enough cash to buy a house and others need a mortgage and some will never even be able to get a mortgage. 

We all have choices as to how we spend the money we earn. Whether we borrow or save.  Generally saving as a habit has been poor in the UK for a very long time.  With a buy now pay culture. 

Well this is rather tone-deaf. Have you seen what the living costs in UK cities are and how those compare with salaries? You would have to have a mad salary to be able to save from normal income to become a cash buyer in most UK cities. Average UK salary is around 30k, so after tax around 22k, each year. Cheapest houses in the city I live in sell for 220k.

Well what you have just done is compared a national average salary with house prices in an above average city.

Nobody with even a modicum of intelligence is going to fall for that reasoning.

Salemicus

jordan3939 said:

Yesterday I put in an offer on a flat and the estate agent informed me someone had gone higher than the asking price. I said was it 5k more? If so I will match and she said it was. I then got a call later saying the seller had accepted his offer as he was a cash buyer. How is this fair??? I was going to offer more if they came back to me but I didn’t get a chance to. Any tips for battling against cash buyers for next time? Thank you.

It's extremely fair. If anything, the estate agent favoured you, because she gave you the advantage of bidding last, knowing the other buyer's bid. You chose to only match, when you could have easily gone a little higher. They didn't come back to you because there were no further bids after yours.

If all you do is match the other buyer's bid, you can't logically have expected to have more than a 50% chance of success. If you want to be accepted, you have to make the most attractive bid. Either bid the highest amount, or bring something else to the table that makes your offer especially desirable (like being chain free, or, as here, a cash buyer).

jordan3939

Thank you for all your responses - it is my first time of making an offer so a learning curve

Thrugelmir

jordan3939 said:

Thank you for all your responses - it is my first time of making an offer so a learning curve

There's no need to overpay. Property is like waiting for a bus. More will along shortly.