The pandemic property frenzy has seen buyers stop at nothing to get the keys to their dream home.
And with demand and prices rocketing, as well as huge stamp duty savings up for grabs, competition has been fierce.
But the buying boom has brought out an ugly side of the market: gazumping. And estate agents have told Money Mail that the problem has never been worse than over the past few months.
Estate agents say the problem of gazumping - where a seller accepts a higher offer despite already having a verbal agreement with another buyer - has never been worse
I was hunting for a new home and had my heart set on a new build. Having been on several viewings, I found a two-bedroom house on a new development being built by a big household name firm which I wanted to make an offer on.
The price of this home was advertised as £320,000, and I confirmed this with the developer s representative at the viewing and in a subsequent conversation.
Shortly afterwards, when the day came to pay a reservation fee to secure the home, the person I then spoke to informed me the price had risen £5,000.
When I queried this, they said that I could afford the increase based on a financial qualification check that I had done. Later in the conversation, they told me that another buyer was about to reserve the home anyway.
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