House buying

lukekelly19

I know this is in the wrong section of the forum. Have put a copy in the 'house buying' section, but can't delete this one! Will delete it when I work out how!

Hello,

Me and my partner have been looking for a house for a while. We had an offer accepted on a house (house 1) in March. However, the sellers are still looking for a place to buy so we've looked at a few alternative houses to give ourselves options in case they pull out.

We've seen one house that's a similar price (house 2) and better in some respects (extra bedroom, bigger garden). The old owners died and it's gone through probate, so presumably could be bought relatively quickly. 

We are thinking of putting in an offer. The problem is: it's being sold by the same estate agents as the house we've agreed to buy (in fact is in the same street).

So my question is: what do you think the consequences of making an offer on this house might be? I realise a 'memorandum of sale' has no legal standing. And that the sellers of the house, not the estate agents, decide who buy their house. However, I worry that if we bid and don't get house 2 (a distinct possibility), we will have upset the estate agent, who will tell the sellers of house 1 and who will be annoyed and pull out. I would be annoyed if someone agreed to buy my house and then pulled out in favour of another house in the same street.

Any advice much appreciated!

Lindsey006

I would talk to the estate agent and just explain your position. Ultimately the estate  agent will want to sell both houses and I think a good communicator, which hopefully the estate agent is, will just explain that you are concerned that things are not moving forward, but that you still want to buy, to the sellers of house 1; not sure that they would need to declare you have made an offer. Even if it was a different agent, they are likely to talk to each other when validating the offer so they would find out anyway. I think it is just best to be honest in these circumstances.

TheJP

Lindsey006 said:

I would talk to the estate agent and just explain your position. Ultimately the estate  agent will want to sell both houses and I think a good communicator, which hopefully the estate agent is, will just explain that you are concerned that things are not moving forward, but that you still want to buy, to the sellers of house 1; not sure that they would need to declare you have made an offer. Even if it was a different agent, they are likely to talk to each other when validating the offer so they would find out anyway. I think it is just best to be honest in these circumstances.

As the EA works for the seller they may see you as a flaky buyer and advise the seller to re-list the property. They could also advise the other property if there are multiple offers that yours isn't a serious one as you are making offers on multiple properties. Its a risky game to play. I would figure out which house i prefer, which you can afford and go from there. If its not the one you have an offer on then i would pull out and offer on the other.

ACG

If I was a seller and someone pulled out after making an offer because I could not find somewhere I wanted to buy, I would understand. I would not be overly happy but ultimately its nobody's fault, its just one of those things where everything did not line up. 

I have no idea what an agent would think, most of them are not human so who knows. I suspect they probably dont care as they would still be getting their commission but I think they would understand. They do have an obligation to the vendor though to let them know you are looking at another property - I think. You could argue that GDPR kicks in but I am not sure how that would work and ultimately if they want to let the vendors know off the record they would do.