Making an offer on a house

Exodi

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Exodi said:

The owners are probably accepting your offer as a 'backup' but keeping the house up in hopes that they may get an offer closer to the asking price. I doubt they'd think twice about shafting you if one came in.

We've had both sides on here - there has been at least one previous thread asking "if an offer isn't binding until exchange, how many offers can I have accepted before I decide which house I actually want to buy?"

Oh yes, I've seen a few threads like that!

"I've had offers accepted on 3 different houses, but still can't decide which one I want  "

  

Exodi

Fredw56 said:

I agree with every criticism of the English system. Licence for dishonesty. The Scottish system is not the great exemplar that people claim though. 

(warning, anecdote alert)

My parents use to live in France, and they tell me that an accepted offer was immediately legally binding and told me about their neighbor who was successfully sued by their buyer, as they had initially agreed to their (relatively low) offer by text.

Now I don't know if that's true or not, but I think I'd prefer anything over the current UK system. Has always felt strange that someone can invest thousands of pounds into solicitors, searches, surveys, etc for the buyer to be able to turn around 5 months down the line, with a "lol changed my mind, soz".

It seems so backwards that multiple buyers would need to get multiple surveys on the same house. I can't imagine the frustration caused by "the survey says the roof is about to fall down"... "oh does it, well the price is the price"... well thanks a lot, I'm £500 out of pocket now.

I think this is usually the time someone brings up that this was trialed in the past, and was largely unsuccessful.

user1977

Exodi said:

Fredw56 said:

I agree with every criticism of the English system. Licence for dishonesty. The Scottish system is not the great exemplar that people claim though. 

I think this is usually the time someone brings up that this was trialed in the past, and was largely unsuccessful.

Or that we've had Home Reports (which include a seller's survey) in Scotland for 15ish years now and they mostly work fine.

Exodi

user1977 said:

Exodi said:

Fredw56 said:

I agree with every criticism of the English system. Licence for dishonesty. The Scottish system is not the great exemplar that people claim though. 

I think this is usually the time someone brings up that this was trialed in the past, and was largely unsuccessful.

Or that we've had Home Reports (which include a seller's survey) in Scotland for 15ish years now and they mostly work fine.

Don't get me wrong - if there was a vote to move the English system away from legally binding parties at the last possible moment, I would be the person at the front of the queue.

Requiring multiple different people take out multiple different surveys on the same property at their own expense, in case the buyer is trying to pull a fast one (and there is no recourse if they are because 'caveat emptor') makes no sense to me.

hulu72

Fredw56 said:

The agent is trying to keep you on your toes. It’s nasty but that’s agents. There are agents who show everything as for sale until the contract is exchanged. Others mark it SSTC but carry on in secret. All agents are liars but they only have responsibility to their client and that’s not you. When you are the seller, you see it all very differently. 

There was a time when then agents just settled for easy money and made no waves. No longer it seems. 

I agree with every criticism of the English system. Licence for dishonesty. The Scottish system is not the great exemplar that people claim though. 

Little bit harsh in generalising all agents together. There are some terrible agents out there, who have no concern for their client, however there are also many very good agents out there who will always act to get the best possible price for their client. Unfortunately, with the race to the bottom on fees and clients refusing to pay anything over 1%, the former types of agents are only going to become more commonplace

JReacher1

I wouldn't pay any legal/survey costs until the house is marked as SSTC.  Otherwise you're just wasting your money if someone else tries to buy.

squidley

The sellers have not accepted our offer. Although strictly speaking they have not rejected it either. They have said come back when your buyer has a buyer and we can then negotiate a price. I think at that stage we will only proceed if the property is taken off the market. In the meantine we will keep looking elsewhere.

Thank you everybody for your comments.  They have been very helpful. 

CSI_Yorkshire

squidley said:

The sellers have not accepted our offer. Although strictly speaking they have not rejected it either. They have said come back when your buyer has a buyer and we can then negotiate a price. I think at that stage we will only proceed if the property is taken off the market. In the meantine we will keep looking elsewhere.

Thank you everybody for your comments.  They have been very helpful. 

You've accepted an offer from a buyer that isn't proceedable?

caprikid1

squidley said:

The sellers have not accepted our offer. Although strictly speaking they have not rejected it either. They have said come back when your buyer has a buyer and we can then negotiate a price. I think at that stage we will only proceed if the property is taken off the market. In the meantine we will keep looking elsewhere.

Thank you everybody for your comments.  They have been very helpful. 

So it sounds like you are not currently viewed as proceedable. That would make the seller reluctant to take their house off the market, I think you will hit this issue if looking at another house. The problem is not really the agent or seller it is your perceived ability to proceed. I would keep the pressure up on your buyer to sort their sale out, obviously you have taken an offer from a buyer who is not proceedable and expecting others to treat you the same, sadly not all sellers are as trusting and patient as you. Good luck

When negotiating a discount you need to have both strong position and strong reasons for the discount in order to realistically achieve it.

squidley

Thank you. That is very helpful. I live and learn. I will wait for my buyer to get a firm offer.