Offer accepted on house, open to counter offers during this time?

FuzzyFrog

Hi,

I'm new to the whole house buying process. If you put a bid in on a house and it is accepted, you then get a Quantity Surveyor or Structural Engineer to make sure the house is in reasonable nick, employ a solicitor to check the paperwork is all good. During this preparation phase with Structural Engineer/Solicitor are you open to counter bids from others?

Thanks,
Paul

D3PO

its called gazumping and unfortunately can happen although is much less regular an occurrence these days. Really depends on the scruples of the seller and their EA TBH. It shouldn't happen but can.

Baybay

I'm not buying or selling currently but would not the seller need to keep their house open to offers in case the original offer falls though, until contracts are signed & a deposit handed over?
Wouldn't have thought scruples came into it at this point but open to correction.

D3PO

Baybay wrote: »

I'm not buying or selling currently but would not the seller need to keep their house open to offers in case the original offer falls though, until contracts are signed & a deposit handed over?
Wouldn't have thought scruples came into it at this point but open to correction.

If no deposit was handed over then it wouldn't be sale agreed. If its sale agreed then I would suggest scruples do come into it.

Theres a reason gazumping is frowned upon.

Baybay

Agreed. But it seems the OP is not yet sale agreed so gazumping is not an issue at this stage.

seamus

You are effectively open to counter bids until both parties have signed.

In practice, the EA is supposed to stop advertising the property for sale and stop showing it, once the sale has been agreed between the seller and the buyer.

In reality, the EA is contractually obliged to notify the seller of all bids on the property, even after going sale agreed. Remember the EA works for the seller, not the buyer. Gazumping still does happen, just not at the same level it used to. Happened to my brother a few months past when they went sale agreed but someone else turned up on the seller's doorstep with a sob story and an offer.

jmayo

What with all the mention of gazumping I thought we were back in 2006/2007.

BTW what the buyer should check out is gazundering.

Edit: Not everywhere is South County Dublin where some think we have gone back to the past.

D3PO

Baybay wrote: »

Agreed. But it seems the OP is not yet sale agreed so gazumping is not an issue at this stage.

if and we don't know the OP has hired a surveyor and engaged a solicitor after their offer was "accepted" its probably fair to say they have put down a deposit and gone sale agreed or perhaps they are just asking a hypothetical question.

either way I was answering it on the assumption the OP was asking if another offer could be tabled and accepted after sale agreed.

Marcusm

I've had this twice with agents refusing to take it off myhome/daft/their own website despite taking a deposit and a survey done. I've simply demanded the return of the deposit and it has disappeared within the hour.

Duckjob

D3PO wrote: »

its called gazumping and unfortunately can happen although is much less regular an occurrence these days. Really depends on the scruples of the seller and their EA TBH. It shouldn't happen but can.

If areas of the market like SCD continue to pick up, I think we could soon see gazumping making a comeback in certain areas. Where selling a house is concerned, IMO most peoples scruples go out the window in favour of making as much out of it as possible.

jester77

Gazumping should be made illegal, the whole way property transactions are handled in Ireland is like something from a medieval bazaar. There wouldn't be a fraction of the problems if sales were handled in a mature way.

pwurple

jmayo wrote: »

What with all the mention of gazumping I thought we were back in 2006/2007.

BTW what the buyer should check out is gazundering.

Edit: Not everywhere is South County Dublin where some think we have gone back to the past.

We were gazumped twice last year... Not in dublin either, it was cork. No rules against it I'm afraid. One was for a miserable 500 euro bid increase, after the auctioneer had told us minimum increases were only in 2k increments. We had paid for engineer at this point as well. Still annoyed at it to be honest. Feckers.

The other one was a lucky escape to be honest. Engineers report shredded the place, we would have been overpaying if it had gone ahead.

I'm not sure if what we did was gazundering at the other end, but after getting the official site map on the place we eventually bought, we took money off our offer (it was a smaller site than what had been advertised).

Duckjob

pwurple wrote: »

One was for a miserable 500 euro bid increase, after the auctioneer had told us minimum increases were only in 2k increments.

Seriously ? Were you wearing a saddle ? I know what my reply would be to an EA saying that.

pwurple

Duckjob wrote: »

Seriously ? Were you wearing a saddle ? I know what my reply would be to an EA saying that.

Yup, and it's not the first time I've heard that, although the amounts vary from 1k to 5k. We had only one bid in (which was accepted), so it didn't matter to us anyway. Just remembered it from his speil. It actually doesn't bother me as much as the "engineer's report required before bid accepted". 5 or 6 people off getting engineers reports on the same property. It's bull.

seamus

pwurple wrote: »

It actually doesn't bother me as much as the "engineer's report required before bid accepted". 5 or 6 people off getting engineers reports on the same property. It's bull.

Ha, interesting.

I guess EAs are getting pissed off being inundated with tyre kickers throwing in ridiculous lowball figures and fishing for bites, so they're trying to ensure that people making a bid are actually serious.