Had your offer accepted and then pulled out before exchange? I want to hear your experience.

nicenic

I am currently looking for a property to buy, mainly projects. Many of them have many issues and I have found sellers very reluctant to sell subject to survey. The market is so crazy I get the feeling people just make an offer and then pull out later if they discover issues, or lower their offer after acceptance. This means that they offer as if everything is fine which is usually higher than what I am willing to offer with a few questions still needing answers. I am thinking of changing tactics to offer higher but I want to know what the consequences are of pulling out before exchange. Will that agent 'blacklist' you and exclude you from offering on other properties or tell vendors that they have been messed around by you before, and advise against accepting your offer? What are your experiences? Any estate agents here, would love to hear from you. 

moneysavinghero

Depends on the reason why you pull out. If the EA thinks you are pulling out for unreasonable reasons then they may mark you down as a timewaster and be less happy to spend their time on you (especially as the market is now crazy as you say; they may humour you more in a dead market).

If you pull out because there are clearly issues with the property that warrant a drop in price and the vendor is unrealistic in their demand to still want full price, then the EA is more likely to still want to work with you.

amandacat

If you have an offer accepted, have a survey done and you are not happy and can't re negotiate on price then you can walk away-noone will blacklist you for that. It is what most people do.

AnotherJoe

nicenic said:

I am currently looking for a property to buy, mainly projects. Many of them have many issues and I have found sellers very reluctant to sell subject to survey. The market is so crazy I get the feeling people just make an offer and then pull out later if they discover issues, or lower their offer after acceptance. This means that they offer as if everything is fine which is usually higher than what I am willing to offer with a few questions still needing answers. I am thinking of changing tactics to offer higher but I want to know what the consequences are of pulling out before exchange. Will that agent 'blacklist' you and exclude you from offering on other properties or tell vendors that they have been messed around by you before, and advise against accepting your offer? What are your experiences? Any estate agents here, would love to hear from you. 

All offers are subject not just to "survey" but buyers whim.

Why not just make an offer, without caveats, rather than stating "subject to survey" because that's not only superfluous but immediately gives the vendor you are already in the  mindset of looking to lower the price you've only just offered !

 

AdrianC

nicenic said:

I am currently looking for a property to buy, mainly projects. Many of them have many issues and I have found sellers very reluctant to sell subject to survey.

You want to buy a project, then you're basically saying "...and brace yourself for the chiselling-down when a surveyor says it's a project."

but I want to know what the consequences are of pulling out before exchange.

Nothing at all except for some wasted time and fees. There is, quite simply, no legally binding contract to purchase the property until exchange of contracts.

lozenlady

We pulled out before exchanging on a house, the property was on an unadopted road with no evidence of a management company and had extensions added against the deeds. The vendors solicitors were unhelpful and unwilling to answer our queries so we chose not to proceed. 

We lost approx £2k but better than being stuck with a potentially unknown cost if we had proceeded.

nicenic

@AnotherJoe I am being asked to make offers that are not subject to survey. So what I am saying is, I am tempted to make such offers and then if there is an issue back out on 'buyers whim' as you say. Of course it is legal but I personally feel uncomfortable doing it so was seeking opinions on the acceptability of doing it morally, and what consequences there are if any. @AdrianC I understand there are no legal consequences, was more asking if anyone had suffered any other consequences, as I suggest, being dealt with differently by EA in the future. 

AnotherJoe

nicenic said:

@AnotherJoe I am being asked to make offers that are not subject to survey. So what I am saying is, I am tempted to make such offers and then if there is an issue back out on 'buyers whim' as you say. Of course it is legal but I personally feel uncomfortable doing it so was seeking opinions on the acceptability of doing it morally, and what consequences there are if any. @AdrianC I understand there are no legal consequences, was more asking if anyone had suffered any other consequences, as I suggest, being dealt with differently by EA in the future. 

Thats crazy, never heard of that before. that would raise massive warning flags to me, what do they expect, if the survey says "£100k of repairs needed" when you thought there was just a loose roof tile, you will still buy, LOL?

I was going to say,  perhaps to be fair to the sellers, if this is a wreck that both expect needs say £50k or thereabouts spending on it, they dont expect you to drop your offer by £50k because thats already in the price, but what happens if the survey says, £100k needed ?

Anyway, I would go ahead, and if the survey is well off what you expect, say you didnt realise Mars was in retrograde so you are pulling out  

But, just to check, are you bidding on houses that "obviously" need £50k worth of work and are looking to drop the price by that when the survey says that yet when its already baked in? 

To answer your last Q, I have read here of a few "serial dropper outers" being banned but that's very uncommon AFAICS, and just how many houses have you seen / are likely to bid on that this is likely to happen?

 

Slithery

As above, it all depends on your reason for pulling out. As long as it's a viable reason you should have no problems.

AdrianC

nicenic said:

I understand there are no legal consequences, was more asking if anyone had suffered any other consequences, as I suggest, being dealt with differently by EA in the future. 

So long as you aren't an idiot about it, offering on everything then changing your mind, or waving perfectly predictable issues around over an obvious project, then I can't see any huge risk.

Sure, some EAs may advise sellers that a different buyer would be preferable - but they aren't going to turn you down flat.

Thrugelmir

lozenlady said:

The vendors solicitors were unhelpful and unwilling to answer our queries so we chose not to proceed. 

Solicitors don't answer queries. Vendors do.