More than Gazumped in a Recent Property Buy

frostman on 02/09/2024 - 10:04
Last edited 02/09/2024 - 10:31 by 1 other user

I went to see a property for sale in NSW, it was listed in range $1.2M - $1.3M.

He said there's some offers for ~1,280,000 - I said give me 2 days and I'll get my unconditional approval. 2 days later, I called and said I got the approval from my broker, I'm happy to offer $1,287,000 ($7,000 over the highest), he said great I'll send you the contract just transfer the 0.25%. I transferred the holding deposit. He called me the next day and said if you can do $1,290,000 you've for the deal. I said fine, let's do it.

So, the following day he sent me the contract of sale via DocuSign with 10-days Cool-Off, I signed, and sent a photo of my licence. I messaged the agent and asked if the vendor signed, he said "Yes!". I sent the Contract to my conveyancer and asked him to start the process, he did

Weekend. radio silence.

Monday radio silence

Tuesday my conveyancer emails me and asked me to ask the agent to hurry up and send him the fully executed contract. I was like 'wtf?'. I emailed, the agent said yep, my office is working on it.

Wednesday night I get a call and the agent said, sorry someone else bought this property, it was already under contract and we thought they were going to pull out. Send me your details to refund - thank you come again.

This is the state of our Property Market fellas, it's run by thieves.

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Comments

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 02/09/2024 - 10:07
    +41

    REA - what a bunch of bastards.

    • RTX9090Ti on 02/09/2024 - 20:09

      Well if you're the vendor, you want the bastards to give you extra $3k on the sale price and p*ssed off the buyers.

  • Duckie2hh on 02/09/2024 - 10:18
    -4

    Caveat emptor.

    • Assburg on 02/09/2024 - 17:33

      Well, yes but that's not grounds for executing contracts in anything other than good faith.

  • Nugs on 02/09/2024 - 10:24
    +1

    " - thank you come again."
    sure
    .

  • Pecan on 02/09/2024 - 10:25
    +1

    A shitty experience for you for sure.. but this is not new and gazumping has been a thing in NSW for a while.

    If you’re certain you don’t need the cooling off period, you can choose to waive it and pay 10% deposit instead. You can’t be gazumped this way.

    *IANAL, speak to your conveyancer/solicitor

    • mandelbrot on 02/09/2024 - 21:33

      Yes, OP did get shafted up the IANAL

  • lgacb08 on 02/09/2024 - 10:27
    +23

    Yeah, you've been strung along, there was a better buyer out there for that property but they just need you to be there to pull the price up 1.3mil mark. It's unfortunate but there's not much you can do. Until the contract is signed and exchanged you don't hold much.

    • pegaxs on 02/09/2024 - 12:12
      +2

      100% this… the REA just used OP to bump the price on someone else. OP was never going to get this house and was just an unwitting pawn in a shifty REA game.

  • Tee Rex Arms on 02/09/2024 - 10:31
    -3

    Gazumped lol what scallywags

    • ricadam on 02/09/2024 - 13:56

      verb
      past tense: gazumped; past participle: gazumped
      1.
      INFORMAL•BRITISH
      make a higher offer for a house than (someone whose offer has already been accepted by the seller) and thus succeed in acquiring the property.
      "the trio are fuming after they were gazumped by a property speculator"
      2.
      DATED•INFORMAL
      swindle (someone).
      "I gazumped a friend of mine with complete success last night"

  • Porker on 02/09/2024 - 10:39
    +8

    Perhaps next time play 'their' game….

    I have a friend that wanted to buy and the agent was doing their agent shenanigans thing. The friend said that he wanted to buy at $X and told the agent to go make it happen. If the agent was able to get the vendor to agree, then the friend would have that agent sell his current house.

    I don't know all the details but only that my friend is very thrifty with money so his offer definitely wouldn't have been at or above asking price.

    In the end he got the house exactly at $X and never gave over the sale to that agent.

  • JIMB0 on 02/09/2024 - 10:40
    +2

    At least you pushed the price up for the next person.

  • hasher22 on 02/09/2024 - 10:53
    +2

    Effing disgusting behaviour and this is why most people hate REAs. There are some good ones and luckily I got a good one that didn't BS around, I was serious and I didn't eff around either with my conveyancer and broker.

    But also, not saying you're these people OP, you didn't mess about but there are alot of time wasters buying property and REAs unfortunately will do unethical things like OP stated to lock in someone.

  • Cho0028 on 02/09/2024 - 10:58

    Add things like underquoting to that list of shady behaviour.

    There's a reason why REA are the least trusted profession in Australia.

  • Darayus on 02/09/2024 - 11:16

    Ah, i paid 10% deposit by cheque with the contract, ( in those days cheque was acceptable), after few days I got message that owner don't want to exchange with you and went with someone.

  • foursaken on 02/09/2024 - 11:26
    +6

    Huh? I don't understand. "Just transfer the 0.25%"?? Holding deposit? WTF? No. And then changing the price after you've paid a deposit?

    If this actually happened the way you describe, I'd be reporting the agent. Learn how these things are supposed to work and you wont get burned, eh?

    • freefall101 on 02/09/2024 - 12:10
      +2

      Holding deposits are useless, they're usually just a guide to the agent that someone is actually seriously about buying. Signing the contract and paying the 10% is the only thing that actually secures the property, unless the holding deposit comes with an agreement that it secures their right to buy. Holding deposits are just an "expression of interest".

  • tabz on 02/09/2024 - 11:38
    +6

    Sorry that happened to you OP.

    Maybe leave a review of your experience in some of the REA websites:

    • muzzamo on 02/09/2024 - 13:11
      +8

      I'd add google maps to that list too.

    • Pricebeat on 02/09/2024 - 23:27

      Yeah definitely leave a Google review.

    • Miss B on 02/09/2024 - 21:20

      Do you though? There's no issue with getting them to outbid each other, they didn't need to take OP's money to do it. That vendor will have done stuff like this to other people who won't deal with them any more. That means less people willing to look at or buy your property. When I was looking to buy, any agents who were clearly POS I just crossed them off my list and wouldn't look at their properties. Guaranteed there are a bunch of people wanting to throw money at agents for houses that won't be throwing it at that agent. Probably could have gotten at least another couple hundred thousand if they weren't so untrustworthy.

  • netjock on 02/09/2024 - 12:05

    If you think this is bad. In the UK you can have a deal but they won't exchange contracts until 1 month before settlement and during that time you can get outbid. If you sold your place and need to move in then you are stuffed.

    Real estate people have no ethics.

    • jjjaar on 02/09/2024 - 12:31

      Actually there’s usually clauses in these contracts that say if your sale delayed, you can then delay the transfer of your purchase, which means there’s a massive domino effect of people being delayed because of someone 10 properties earlier in the transaction. Friend of mine was delayed 6 months because of something like this.

      Edit: TIL it’s called a “property chain” https://www.nationalpropertybuyers.co.uk/blog/house-selling/…

      • netjock on 02/09/2024 - 12:38

        That is chains. I always ask. Buying with chains is usually a problem especially given how in the UK you variable rates are like 2% more than fixed rates that can get pulled at any time.

    • foursaken on 02/09/2024 - 13:33

      …also the same here - you can be outbid until exchange.

  • jv on 02/09/2024 - 12:08
    +4

    You don't have a contract until both parties sign.

  • freefall101 on 02/09/2024 - 12:21
    +2

    TIL that "gazumped" is actually a word and means this specific situation.

  • Aldonis on 02/09/2024 - 12:28
    +1

    Unfortunately gazumping is completely legal in NSW. Unethical sure, but legal

  • Gunnar on 02/09/2024 - 14:27
    +2

    I had a very similar situation happen to me 5 years ago. They wanted $5k higher after the contract was signed by me, but not the vendor, and the vendor received a higher offer.

    It was only $5k but I told them to f.ck off. I ended up getting a nicer place, in a better location, for cheaper. Hope you have the same!

    In the selling REA’s defence he was also Duped because the vendor was a REA that was double dealing with colleagues on the sale of the house (with no contract in place so it was legal)

  • pharkurnell on 02/09/2024 - 14:53
    +2

    Its a sad world… but you took the word of a real estate agent….

  • gromit on 02/09/2024 - 15:48

    not gazumped. basically they had a buyer already that they thought was going to pull out so they strung you along as a safety net. pretty poor and unethical not to tell you the situation.

  • stickingly on 02/09/2024 - 16:00

    One thing I have learnt in my many dealings in real estate is to never trust anything that an agent says, and always be prepared for the worst until everything is completely finalised.

  • Thrawn on 02/09/2024 - 16:24
    +2

    On that Monday you should've contacted the agent that unless you received the countersigned contract by the end the of the day, your offer is withdrawn (and follow up with a written email). No excuse for the agent as he's already confirmed the contract is signed.

    Puts pressure on the vendor with no 'backup offer' on hand, its risky to chase the other buyer hoping for a better offer

  • Seraphin7 on 02/09/2024 - 16:33

    Wednesday night I get a call and the agent said, sorry someone else bought this property, it was already under contract and we thought they were going to pull out. Send me your details to refund - thank you come again.

    I've got a pretty "all's fair in negotiations" mindset, but that is disgraceful behaviour. It's one thing to string potential purchasers along, but accepting any form of deposit only to renege is not cool.

  • Ghost47 on 02/09/2024 - 17:16

    This is the state of our Property Market fellas, it's run by thieves.

    I'm surprised you're just realising that now… are you willing to share the address of the property? The buyer probably overpaid for it anyway.

  • wombok2 on 02/09/2024 - 17:23

    Sorry you had to go through this, its quite common for them to push their luck to see if someone is willing to pay more (in which you did from 1287k to 1290k) then they can take this offer to other buyers and see whats the last offer.

    Had a REA told me to offer 2k more as it would be 'better' and I said why, who else is offering that and he said no one and i said nope. He called me few days later and said original amount is fine and i said no thanks already submitted offer for another place (which was more expensive than the one i looked at but also way nicer). Was soo tempted to tell him to flip off, why tf would I submit an offer higher than myself.

    Moral of the story, stand your ground, don't overpay and just wait if you can.

  • Poor Ass on 02/09/2024 - 17:44

    Queenslanderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

    Is gazumping legal? Unfortunately, yes – in most parts of Australia, gazumping is legal, or at least not subject to regulation. Queensland is generally seen as the only jurisdiction that has taken steps to actually eliminate the process.

  • Wiadro on 02/09/2024 - 18:09

    LOL standard

  • souljah on 02/09/2024 - 19:57
    +1

    Had a bad experience recently. Tried to get in and view a property we liked for 2 weeks but tenants had a couple of medical issues. Finally had something solid setup and another buyer swooped in the night before and made an offer without even inspecting.

    Bit of back and forth with agent that I was keen and would make an offer after viewing but I wasn't prepared to make an offer without an inspection. Agent ended up calling back to say that had upped their offer by another 5% but needed an answer that night and the seller accepted.

    Couldn't imagine buying sight unseen. Just standing from the street I had a few things I would want to check once I had access.

  • Tiredman on 02/09/2024 - 20:32
    +3

    Never trust those bastards. 101/100 things out of their mouths are lies.

    • Poor Ass on 02/09/2024 - 22:17

      And same with many people working for commission

  • joka on 02/09/2024 - 20:56
    -1

    If that was you selling the property, I am pretty sure you would do the same.

  • od810 on 02/09/2024 - 22:04

    As much as i hate auction, it's much more transparent process. I hate this silent auction.

    Sorry to hear your experience OP.

  • DoctorCalculon on 02/09/2024 - 23:06

    Wednesday night I get a call and the agent said, sorry someone else bought this property, it was already under contract and we thought they were going to pull out.

    After all that sh$tf##ckery, I hope you took at least a few minutes out of your day to report this dodgy dealer to the NSW Fair Trading.

  • CalmLemons on 02/09/2024 - 23:09

    Shit happens.

    Seller had two selling agents on the one property, non exclusive obviously. We signed late by 2 hours and the other agent got there first.

    Place is now worth triple the price 10 years on.

    Sometimes it's just the agent being dcked around by the seller wanting more. Agent only gets 2%, an extra 2% of $5000 doesn't mean squat for the agent.

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