Offers for two properties have been accepted

JohnBravo

Thrugelmir said:

JohnBravo said:

Thrugelmir said:

JohnBravo said:

Thrugelmir said:

JohnBravo said:

To what stage would you wait before pulling out one of the offers? 

Before you are suspected of attempting to commit mortgage fraud. Then there'll be no purchase at all. 

Interesting so how this ties to two offers that have been accepted by two vendors but none of the offers handshaked with the offer proposer?

I don't know then why people are so happy about accepted offers if people are pulling out.
I haven't even handshaked any of them, there was no exchange of contracts.
I think you are talking about some later stages.

If both your offers are accepted what do you intend doing next......... nothing? 

I simply pull out from the offer that was auto-accepted the last.

Doesn't sound as if you are bothered about either property. Presumably if there's another property available on the market you'll offer on that as well. 

No, I am bothered about these 2 properties but considering the scarcity on the market and like 3-4 months of waiting for the purchase to happen + some hops on the way I tend to send more than one offer.
If you buy with a mortgage and you don't want to put too much debt on your shoulders there is no perfect place but a compromise.

Chandler85

You can make an offer on two places, I don't think there is any issue there.

The issue becomes if you have both offers accepted and have the properties removed from the market due to the offers being accepted, effectively making a vendor wait for you.  If you don't put that condition on your offers and they are still marketed while you get two surveys done then you are at least being upfront with the vendors and also not stopping them finding another buyer.  You accept the risk that they might.

You shouldn't have two offers accepted, two houses off the market when you are only going to buy one.

Thrugelmir

Schwarzwald said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

The OP is clearly morally bankrupt.

You shouldn't put in 2 offers, vacant or not. You're stringing people along.

[...]

 the EAs pressure you to make offers asap, and you make two, because you dont know if they will be accepted.

The conspiracy theories start to kick in. As people fail to realise that it's actually their emotions that they've lost control of. The EA is simply sounding out whether you are a timewaster or a serious buyer. There's no harm in being honest with the EA. Whether it's because you are viewing other properties or just need time to think matters through more carefully. Plenty of threads on here of people who buy the wrong property and soon realise it. 

JohnBravo

Schwarzwald said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

The OP is clearly morally bankrupt.

You shouldn't put in 2 offers, vacant or not. You're stringing people along.

[...]

I think this is non-sense. Making 2 offers on 2 properties is totally fine IMO.
Just imagine you go house hunting on a Saturday, end up seeing two great houses, the EAs pressure you to make offers asap, and you make two, because you dont know if they will be accepted.

I think this is a v normal situation, kind of the reverse of the vendor booking multiple viewings on the day to see how many offers they can get, they also don’t book one viewing and then wait for an offer before booking the next.

 I think it comes down timing: (i) Did you make the 2nd offer before or after knowing that the 1st offer got accepted. And (ii) once the 2nd offer is accepted, how long do you take to make a decision?

 I think a few days is fine, more than that, you are potentially screwing around with people.

 To further qualify the entire discussion though, I would also differentiate between the seller being a private house owner or being a business. The impact on the latter if you pull out is probably less sever and you could take a bit more time. If the seller is a private house owner, potentially even a family with kids and in a chain as they are also buying … not great to screw them around. But this is all morals, and morals ain’t universal.

Exactly, the withdrawal from their auto-acceptance happened less than 72h so I don't think it's a big deal.

To answer the others. This was not a property that I commit to buy but then changed my mind later in the process.

And to clarify. The 2nd offer was not placed after the 1st one was accepted. All offers were auto-accepted by the vendor around the same time.

Perhaps I should be more professional but if you are a 1st time buyer and 1st time seller how professional can you be?

I think it's down to the agency to double check things because effectively more than 50% of buyers/sellers they deal with are newbies.

In this case the initial offer was with the agency exactly for a week then I upped the offer only then they came back to me.

A couple thousands of £ makes a difference how they treat you but this can backfire onto them. I upped the 2nd offer a day before the 1st offer got accepted.
The agency don't tell you daily that the offer is too small and the vendor is not thinking about your offer for a week but basically is waiting for a better offer.

Everyone gets tempted and if there is some movement with the sale assumes better offers will come but then you risk missing a window of opportunity.

hazyjo

theoretica said:

It doesn't seem very different from people applying for lots of jobs and when job one is offered asking for a few days to make up their mind (ie hear from job two).  If it is only a few days of indecision there is a good chance the seller can go back to an unsuccessful offer.  And if it it goes on for more than a few days the seller's agents will start expecting more expensive things, like surveys being booked...

I see it more like dating two people when each thinks they're exclusive.

It's the sort of thing where until you've had it done to you, you don't know how upsetting it is.

If I got a buyer, I'd be over the moon. Telling everyone, toasting to it, and crossing fingers. Even without an onward purchase, it's still a human being selling it.

When you lose a buyer, it's a horrible feeling. Back to square one.

Well aware many fall through, but if I found out it was because they had offered on two and were stringing one of those along, I'd be gutted/fuming. Especially if I'd instructed my solicitor to start work.

Not here to lecture, just adding my 2p for any future readers considering doing the same.

JohnBravo

hazyjo said:

theoretica said:

It doesn't seem very different from people applying for lots of jobs and when job one is offered asking for a few days to make up their mind (ie hear from job two).  If it is only a few days of indecision there is a good chance the seller can go back to an unsuccessful offer.  And if it it goes on for more than a few days the seller's agents will start expecting more expensive things, like surveys being booked...

I see it more like dating two people when each thinks they're exclusive.

It's the sort of thing where until you've had it done to you, you don't know how upsetting it is.

If I got a buyer, I'd be over the moon. Telling everyone, toasting to it, and crossing fingers. Even without an onward purchase, it's still a human being selling it.

When you lose a buyer, it's a horrible feeling. Back to square one.

Well aware many fall through, but if I found out it was because they had offered on two and were stringing one of those along, I'd be gutted/fuming. Especially if I'd instructed my solicitor to start work.

Not here to lecture, just adding my 2p for any future readers considering doing the same.

The whole process is long and flawed and disappointment can arise at any stage. And I don't think sellers should be treated better than the buyers. What I see here is that if a seller disappoints a buyer then no one including the agency cares but if a seller is disappointed then people are lamenting.

I am a human being too and I was waiting for a response for a week but was ignored but they should simply refuse the offer rather than leave it in the air. Only when I topped up the offer they expressed interest but these 2k extra are peanuts.
They must calculate better than I do and happy faces and handshakes are just courtesy.

If it is within 72h even after the offer was auto-accepted both sides should not care.

If it was more than a week then yes you can feel disappointed but less than that it's just a theater to move the blame onto a buyer knowing the whole process takes like 14+ weeks and it is not foolproof.

jenni_fer

I've re-read this thread from the beginning again a couple of times to try and make sense of it but am really struggling.
As you are talking about being ignored and 'auto accepted' I assume you've made offers via online agents?

I've never known of anyone to want to 'think about it' when they have had an offer accepted, the act of making the offer is usually the decision from the buyer side and then once it's accepted it's full steam ahead. I can kind of understand the need for a couple of days given both were being made simultaneously though. But only a couple of days and with full honesty.

I don't see the point as a buyer...make the decision before wasting any time or money surely? As a seller, I think it'd pull out immediately if I found out you were hedging your bets, plenty of people desperate to buy my house so why go with someone who isn't committed!!