When a house is sale agreed - is that it?

[witchymand]

A friend of mine has been house hunting for the past six months, anyway she came across a house she had her heart set on, she is mad about this house, and although the sign said 'For Sale' when she rang the estate agents they said that they had a sale agreed and that someone had put a deposit on it.
It was a second hand house, and my friend is still going on about this particular house.
I know this may sound terrible but is that it, meaning is there any way that the people who put a deposit down on it might back out, is there any chance for my friend, or should she just forget it now?
thanks

 

[Repaymentator]

Your friend can still come in with an offer. The estate agent is obliged to pass on the offer to the vendor. The vendor will probably stick with the original purchaser unless your friend's offer is good enough to make them back out of the agreement with the original purchaser.

The existing purchaser might back out of their own accord so your friend might as well let the vendor's agent know she's interested.

 

[BA]

I spoke with an estate agent before on this matter and this was her view.
"If the house is sale agreed the estate agent will be reluctant to take any more offers on a house. Unless its a fairly substantial increase.

It's just not worth their time for the sake of an extra €15 or €30 commission to play telephone ping pong with other bidders.

Once the price hits the figure that the vendor wants - it time to wrap up the deal and bank the commission. And its better from an estate agent perspective to try and sell two houses to two potential buyers instead of having them fight over the one. They'll make more in commission that way."