Watch Out For Gazumpers and Gazangers When Buying Your Next Home

Buying a home can feel like a minefield of paperwork, contracts, fees and more. When you instruct a conveyancer, a lot of this stress is removed. The confusion and worry can be taken away too. For example, when you are buying or selling your home you need to watch out for gazumpers and gazangers.

The seller of a home and the buyer of a home are not legally bound to complete the purchase on the property under the exchange of contracts has been reached. Until that point is reached in the house purchasing process, there is a very real risk of being gazumped and gazangered. But what do these terms means and how can you avoid the risk of being gazumped or gazangered?

• Gazumping

Gazumping is the term used when another buyer offers more money to buy a home that the original buyer did. This means that the house seller could take the new offer instead or ask for the original buyer to offer more to meet this new offer. One way to avoid being gazumped as a buyer is to ask the seller to take the property off the market. This could be done as a condition of your offer. It would therefore reduce the chances of another potential buyer being attracted to the property. However, this is not a foolproof plan.

• Gazanging

Gazanging is a term used when the seller decides to cancel the sale and stay in their property. This will often happen if they think property prices are going up. Therefore, they can make more money on their property if they sit tight for a few more months. As a buyer, this can be extremely infuriating and there is little that can be done to avoid it.

While it is important to be aware of gazumpers and gazangers, there is little that can be done to avoid them. Both of these things are dependent on the actions of the seller. They can also result in you losing a lot of money. This is especially the case if it happens just before the exchange of contacts and surveyor work has already been completed.

The best way to avoid gazumpers and gazangers is to have as little time as possible between having your offer accepted and exchanging contracts. This means that you need to select a conveyancer, mortgage lender and broker than you can trust.

Here at Burgh Thorpe Solicitors in Peterborough, we have many years of conveyancing experience. We an also recommend mortgage lenders and brokers that we work with to ensure the house sale process runs as smoothly and quickly as possible.