Q. I placed my property on the market for sales and before it had even hit the open market the agent called me to say he had received a cash offer for more than the asking price, which of course I accepted without hesitation as I know from my own research that the marketing price was in line with recent sales. However I had a call today to say that another buyer that was booked in to see the property that lost out has also come forward with an even higher offer than I have accepted. To be honest as much as some more money would be nice I am concerned that it is all going to go wrong if I play ball between the two. What would you advise; I am sure you have seen this happen many times?
A. First of all congratulation’s, it’s certainly been a while since we have had this type of scenario arising within the property market. As exciting as it is to have this happening my biggest advice is proceed with caution. Obviously you have a very desirable property hence the frenzy to secure it. First of all I would ask you to look at your current buyers position, you say he is cash? Is this real cash or is there some refinancing going on in the background? If so this could be subject to a mortgage valuation which could throw a spanner in the works if it happens not to value up? A real cash buyer will not be reliant upon a survey and even if it didn’t value up he would still be able to proceed regardless. If your current buyer is ‘real’ cash then that would put him in the strongest position, however if the counter offer is also ‘real’ cash then you could open this up to a bidding war between the two parties where the highest bidder, following a sealed bids deadline secures the property. However given you already have more than the asking price I would ask that you consider going to sealed bids carefully as this can sometimes blow up in your face and cause the original buyer to take offence and walk away altogether, which then leaves you hoping the new buyer doesn’t do the same and you lose them both, I personally have seen this happen many times before and usually advise that greed does not take over common sense. However if you are willing to run the risk then proceed to sealed bids and see how high you can fly! Good Luck!