Higher Bid if deposit paid?

Independance

Quick question, if a deposit has been paid on house but house is not sale agreeded yet and buyer is awaiting bank approval, can I still put another bid of say €2k on it?

kkelliher

Yes in theory.

There is no agreement until the contract is signed. It is solely down to the agent/seller if they decide to accept this offer as alot of people would stated that ethically it is not correct to accept additional offers in this period.

sailing

kkelliher wrote: »

Yes in theory.

There is no agreement until the contract is signed. It is solely down to the agent/seller if they decide to accept this offer as alot of people would stated that ethically it is not correct to accept additional offers in this period.

Yes they can unfortunately. To give you an example, I was buying a house during the peak of the boom and had sale agreed and deposit paid on a house we liked. Fast forward a couple of weeks and the day before the contracts were due to be signed the agent rang to say the seller wanted a further 30k. Naturally I told them where to go. The house is still on the market to this day at 150k less than what I was originally willing to pay. So you could say it was a lucky escape.

magicbastarder

the house is sale agreed subject to contract/contract denied; no-one is going to tie themselves into the sale until the survey, valuation and discovery process has completed, in case there are issues which mean the house could not be sold.
so nothing is set in concrete till the contracts are signed.

folan

this is different depending on the legal system of the country. For example, "gazumping" is less common in Scotland because the surveying etc that is done here after the offer is accepted is done before offers are made, at which stage it is harder to back out, as a form of contract is signed.

it depends on location to location. in the US, it depends on state to state.

In ireland, gazumping is fine, legally. you dont own a house until your name is signed and they keys are in your hand.

P. Breathnach

Independance wrote: »

Quick question, if a deposit has been paid on house but house is not sale agreeded yet and buyer is awaiting bank approval, can I still put another bid of say €2k on it?

If a deposit has been paid, then the property is sale agreed, whether that is overtly declared or not.

I sold two properties in the past year, using two different EAs. With each of them there was a clear understanding that once I had agreed a sale, the EA would not communicate any other expressions of interest to me, let alone competing offers. That was their position, and one I was happy to go along with.

It is legal, but in my view highly unethical, to make an offer on a property on which a sale has been agreed. I would rejoice if anybody who tried it got his or her comeuppance.

StillWaters

If as you say the buyer is still awaiting bank approval for finance, the purchaser was mad to go sale agreed.
It doesn't sound like a typical gazumping scenario.

L1011

StillWaters wrote: »

If as you say the buyer is still awaiting bank approval for finance, the purchaser was mad to go sale agreed.
It doesn't sound like a typical gazumping scenario.

Bank approval could mean valuation on an approved mortgage or actually not yet having a mortgage - big difference in those.

2k more isn't likely enough to swing someone back if they've gone sale agreed unless we're talking about a fairly low price on the house though.

Victor

folan wrote: »

you dont own a house until your name is signed and they keys are in your hand.

Strictly speaking, the important bit is that the other party has signed.