Vendor holding offers to see who completes first?

SmellyCat6782

Hello! My brother gave a very generous (15K over asking) offer for a house and rather than accepting or rejecting it, the vendor has said they are very grateful for the offer but have had other offers and would like to see who completes first. During the viewing they were told by the vendor that there had been an asking price offer from a first time buyer. My brother's house is about to go on the market. I am a bit puzzled as to why the vendors have done this - if it's all about speed, surely go with the FTB with no chain? If it's about money, either accept or reject and hope for more? It seems strange and unfair to leave people hanging on, and surely it would be quicker to accept an offer so that solicitors can be instructed etc.
My brother would be mortgage free but around 15% of the funds will come from the sale of his house. The rest is in the bank. I've suggested asking whether the vendors have a cash price that they'd accept if it's all about speed, so that the chain below isn't involved. Any ideas why the vendors are doing this? Is offering what they can in cash a good idea? Thanks!

Flugelhorn

"they are very grateful for the offer but have had other offers and would like to see who completes first."

I hope they aren't going to be accepting both offers and having a contract race going on - literally making more than one buyer go through the process to see who can get there first ????

loubel

What do they mean by "see who completes first"? 

I presume their issue with your brother's offer is that he is not ready to proceed, not even having his property on the market yet. Why would they turn down another offer in favour of his.

eddddy

SmellyCat6782 said:

My brother's house is about to go on the market.

Most sellers won't even consider offers from people whose own house isn't on the market yet.

Typically, the seller might leave the offer 'on the table' until your brother's house is under offer. And continue to invite other offers in the meantime, and potentially accept another offer in the meantime.

It sounds like that maybe what this seller is doing.


And accepting a lower price for cash isn't really something that happens with property sales. Having a cash buyer isn't really much of a benefit for many people.

TBG01

Flugelhorn said:

"they are very grateful for the offer but have had other offers and would like to see who completes first."

I hope they aren't going to be accepting both offers and having a contract race going on - literally making more than one buyer go through the process to see who can get there first ????

They probably do, but thankfully their Solicitors won't entertain the idea.

They'd no doubt still turn to this forum playing victim without stopping to think about the unsuccessful party who would lose hundreds of pounds 

Bigphil1474

I'm with the vendors on this. I assume they mean they'll wait and see which offer is proceedable first. To be honest, I wouldn't even waste my time with an offer from someone who isn't proceedable. We finally moved house last month and got the lower end of our valuations. We got a full asking price offer way back in October but the guy wasn't proceedable, so we waited for someone else. 6 months later he still wasn't proceedable but we'd sold ours twice by then (one pulled out).