Just been gazumped...

PRDMKT

I've just been gazumped on a property which was offer accepted at £300k and part way through the conveyancing process. We've bid it up to try and latch on currently at £332,500 and still not getting much luck, 

Who on earth am I bidding against! lol 

At what point is sensible to walk away?

Mark_d

Well you don't want to waste the £500 you paid for a survey.  So might as keep bidding as high as you can go, or until you feel that the property is not worth that amount.

If you end up paying £400,000 for the property, remember that for the rest of your working life you will be paying interest on that extra £100,000 (vs. your original accepted offer).

propertyrental

Good advice above but I'm a stubborn and grumpy old man - I hate gazumpers and would give them short shrift. Walk away unless they revert to the agreed price.

But of course it's a personal decision and you may want that particular property enough to be will to be taken for a ride pay a bit extra.....

RHemmings

It's sensible to walk away when you no longer want the house at the price and/or if you no longer trust the vendor. And, that could be affected by the fact of gazumping. Personally I would ignore all sunk costs, otherwise you may end up seriously affecting your future financial health to try and save money (and time) that will not be significant in the long term. 

You've gone up over £30k already. That's a lot, and over 10% of your initial bid. Do you really still want the property at this, or a higher, price? 

There's no way to know for sure who you are bidding against, or whether you are bidding against anyone other than yourself (probably unlikely), unless the EA is seriously unprofessional and leaks bidder details. 

This is one of those situations in life that is both complicated and difficult to know what to do. Best luck for the best possible resolution. 

BarelySentientAI

PRDMKT said:

At what point is sensible to walk away?

When the price is more than you think the property is worth.

Dispassionately, not getting carried away with bidding etc. 

Would you have been happy offering £332,500 in the first place? If no, then you should already have walked.  If yes, how much higher would have been happy to offer then?

Do not fall for the sunk cost fallacy.

Gentoo365

I would drop out unless there is still a 'bargain' to be had. Simply due to a lack of trust in the seller.

You don't even know if any offer is really accepted, you may agree a price and they drop out again later or ask for more.

They may 'accept' an offer so you continue to progress and spend money on getting ready for exchange and then decide later what they want to do.

This is of course true for all property purchases but this one has a history of the seller doing it, so they are comfortable doing it again (and may lack integrity in other ways you don't know of yet).

For me, the only reason I would be ok with a last min reopening of price negotiation is if the sellers onward purchase was falling though and all parties needed to consider what they can do to keep the chain from falling apart.

hazyjo

I'm also stubborn and would have walked. Plus I'd have hoped whoever they let gazump me dropped their offer at the last minute. Karma and all that...

nicmyles

I just wouldn't entertain the idea of buying a house from someone who'd accepted my offer and then later rejected it. You have to have trust in the other party when buying property.

Grumpy_chap

How much is the "sunk cost" through the conveyancing process thus far?

When the offer was accepted at £300k, did the OP consider that fair market value, or did the OP go dancing down the street as they couldn't believe the bargain they secured?
Where does the current price at 10% higher than accepted offer sit in terms of fair market value?

Is there actually another bidder, or is the vendor trying it on?

gwynlas

For me it would depend on initial asking price, we do not knnow if this was a £350k house on which you made a silly offer which was accepted.

Bigphil1474

Likely many above, I would have walked by now. I would have walked as soon as they said they'd accepted a higher offer. I would also not use that EA again.  Should have been taken off the market and EA should have not accepted any more offers as soon as you provided affordability evidence. What goes around comes around.