Gazumped - thoughts on this situation

On Monday we viewed a house which happened to be owned by a manager at my work - we didnt know till he opened the door, but he showed us round and chatted too us for a while and we were very keen. Yesterday we put in an offer, which they declined, so we raised by two grand and they accepted. During the tour he mentioned how his parents had died, his wifes parents had died and they were upgrading with the cash etc. Also since his daughters had moved out, he didnt need 3 beds or something, anyway - like I say they accepted our offer, even though it was 4 grand less than the asking price.

Today he pulled me to one side and said how he was happy to go ahead, providing obviously I didnt keep going back to him once we had bought it should the roof blow off, or the mains explode or whatever. I assured him Im not the kind of person who would do that, and that was that - we shook hands on it, and he said how since his & her parents had died, he had 200 grand in the bank, and was having a friendly chat - not in a boastful way, that they were buying in cash.

Anyway this afternoon the estate agent rung up and said they had accepted a higher offer (with pestering it was 2 grand more than ours, but we couldnt match).

Am I right in thinking most people who accept offers have the common decency to stick to their word? Does a hand shake mean nothing to people these days? I know that sounds pathetic but it is considered usually a gentlemans agreement - at least it used to be. He caught me right at the end of the day and gave some half assed excuse about how his wife had accepted the offer without consulting him - which in hindsight I really dont buy. He apologised and I was very lenient with him. My girlfriend is furious however and cannot believe a work colleague would do that - considering how up till that point it had all been so friendly.

I know two grand is a lot of money in anyones book, well, most peoples, but having the proceeds of his house sale + his bank balance, he wouldnt even notice 2 grand imho ... im over it personally now, but i would like to know your opinions.

Not nice

If it wasn't someone you knew i'd say it wasn't nice but these things happen but for someone you know to do this .. I'd say that's really low

That's a bit low, especially given that he works with you! Surely if he was so sorry about his wife accepting the increased offer, he'd call them up to decline and offer it back to you.

/naive mode off

Give him serious grief at work from now on. Don't shun him or anything, just look really downcast whenever you see him. If he asks what's wrong, tell him that you've had to move into a caravan while you look for a house you can afford. Don't forget to mention that Little Timmy is quite sick too; the damp has given him a bad case of gout. Oh, and the dog's got mange.

To complete his guilt trip, mysteriously take a week off work. When you come back, keep grabbing your lower back like you're in serious pain. Make a point of telling him that you had to sell your kidney for a deposit on a 2-bedroom mid-terrace house.

When he talked to you at work, did he say he was going to take the house off the market?

A handshake is as good as a contract written out of clouds.

The property ladder is vicious :s

Hire a hitman for £2K!

MossyUK said:

Am I right in thinking most people who accept offers have the common decency to stick to their word? Does a hand shake mean nothing to people these days? I know that sounds pathetic but it is considered usually a gentlemans agreement - at least it used to be.

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Not these days, not when thousands of pounds are at stake - gazumping and gazundering are both par for the course depending on the situation. Nothing is final until the contracts are exchanged.

cheers all, xyphic you gave me a good chuckle

starscream - no he didnt, im new to all this - this was our first house and our first offer so its been a bit of a rough ride this far. All experience I guess, its something to make sure happens next time. Its been a strange day, but for some reason im not as depressed as i thought i would be.

Thanks

MossyUK said:

cheers all, xyphic you gave me a good chuckle

starscream - no he didnt, im new to all this - this was our first house and our first offer so its been a bit of a rough ride this far. All experience I guess, its something to make sure happens next time. Its been a strange day, but for some reason im not as depressed as i thought i would be.

Thanks

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To be honest, even if he had of given you his word, its still meaningless until the contracts are exchanged - Either party can pull out at any point until then with virtually no penatlies. I suppose in a way it might have been a good idea to ask him to take his house off the market when you shook hands, but like I say, legally it would have made no difference.

Look on the bright side anyway, you might end up something nicer that you can afford more easily

In a situation like this where your first offer was decilned, your second offer should have come with the terms that the took the property of the market and ceased all viewings.

See Kirsty and Phil know a thing or two!

Location Location Location!

If I was selling my house, I'd sell it to the highest bidder, and Im sure you would too.
Its just unfortunate that you know each other... but £2k is still £2k.

but having the proceeds of his house sale + his bank balance, he wouldnt even notice 2 grand imho ... im over it personally now, but i would like to know your opinions.

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Bank balances become that size precisely because the owner does notice two grand.

Bad luck but it's not personal, just business.

MossyUK said:

...this was our first house and our first offer so its been a bit of a rough ride this far.

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Think of it as a lucky escape... you wouldn't want to go and buy a house at the top of the largest housing bubble the country's ever seen whilst unemployment is rising, interest rates all around the world are rising and renting is typically cheaper than the interest on a similar purchase. You should go and thank the guy tomorrow for saving you from a serious financial mistake.

Well i think he was silly and may live to regret not selling it to you, 2k is nothing in the housing market, he could waste 2k on fees and surveys and stuff if his new buyer pulls out and you move on, a reliable contactable buyer is worth 2k. Now if he was talking 5k upwards maybe, but 2k not worth it.
Plus i wouldnt trust the estate agent.

Johnny Girth said:

A handshake is as good as a contract written out of clouds.

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Only in Scotland it's regarded as law.

clv101 said:

Think of it as a lucky escape... you wouldn't want to go and buy a house at the top of the largest housing bubble the country's ever seen whilst unemployment is rising, interest rates all around the world are rising and renting is typically cheaper than the interest on a similar purchase. You should go and thank the guy tomorrow for saving you from a serious financial mistake.

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I agree in some respects, and dont really want this topic to become a house price crash debate, but my argument is more about his actions than the market climate. Ultimately we need to buy a house, and I think its just like the stock market - few people have the fortune of buying low and selling high, we just need to get our first step on the ladder.

Whilst I hold out hope that we may find something cheaper that will be as nice, if not nicer, I cant currently see that happening. The markets dire, but needs must!

MossyUK said:

Ultimately we need to buy a house...

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Why?

MossyUK said:

.....

Am I right in thinking most people who accept offers have the common decency to stick to their word?

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In my experience .... no. And as a property developer, I've had quite a lot of experience.

You'll get people that will stick to their word, and I've even had people that get shafted from above in a chain that still refuse to do it to somebody else. Those people have a sense of integrity and honour I approve of, and admire. But quite a large percentage will hike the price if they can, and some even use it as a negotiating tactic - they hike the price by saying they've had a better offer .... but if you decline to match or beat it, they'll drop back down. I have a nasty little surprise in store when people do that to me - they've blown their chance.

Frankly, Mossy, you're lucky they did this before you'd spent large sums of surveys, lawyers, etc, and were weeks into the process. At least it happened up front and quickly. I've had people pull that stunt after you've got contracts drawn up, etc. But if someone does that to me, I pull out of the deal permanently. After all, if they do it to you once, they'll likely do it again if they think it'll work.

Maybe your colleague genuinely does have a better offer, or maybe not. Maybe they'll come back to you in a week or two, when their "better offer" falls through. If so, my advice is walk away. Don't give someone you know is capable of doing it and willing to do it the chance to do it to you twice. If you do, more fool you. And, after all, it would be poetic justice if, having shafted you, the person making that better offer pulled out and shafted your colleague, wouldn't it now?

In fact, if you really wanted to be nasty, you could always arrange through friends for a further better offer .... which, of course, subsequently gets withdrawn.

Sequoia said:

Snip

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Once bitten, twice shy.

KaHn

KaHn said:

Once bitten, twice shy.

KaHn

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Yup. Or alternatively, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me".