Should I sell my house to a banker?

The Guardian asks readers to give advice on a dilemma each week. This week's dilemma is: "should I sell my house to the nice people or the banker?"  I'm fascinated by the reader's views.  Here's a selection, as well as the question in full:

After several lean financial years we are selling our £330,000 family home. A very nice young family has offered the asking price, but a banker has outbid them by £20,000. We need the money desperately, but are loath to hand the keys to a fat cat we don't like. Do we take the cash or help the couple?

Simian
18 Dec 2009, 11:50AM
Wont sell to a banker?! purely because they're a banker.....seriously!? is that not discrimination?
why would you even raise a question like this, have you met the banker and dont like him or are you purely basing your response on the fact that he's a banker and therefore must be a tw@t.
bankers need homes as well, i work as a banker if you hadn't guessed, and i feel that the amount of hate thrown around towards my chosen profession is hugely unfair. if i meet new people it has reached the point where i say i'm a statistician not a banker because i cant stand the comments that i'm a money grabbing barsteward who has stolen from all the honest tax payers in this country. all of which aren't true!

antonyob
18 Dec 2009, 11:59AM
yeh sell to them but put fishfingers behind every radiator.

garethsgate
18 Dec 2009, 12:10PM
Jesus no. It's all his fault personally. This man is entirely responsible for the global meltdown. I would get some local anti capitalist protestors around to drown him in his own tears, I mean, how dare he, HOW DARE HE have the nerve to work in the financial industry. I bet he strangles puppies at the weekend. I bet he personally structured sub prime deals. I bet all the money the government paid out to banks went straight to him, directly, and if he doesn't work for a British bank that has been bailed out, like say Deutsche Bank or Barcap that hasn't been bailed out by anybody then he's still guilty somehow. It's just greed. Unlike the rest of us that work purely for the love of our jobs and aren't in any way materialistic or interested in profit. He makes me sick. SICK. Do your hear me?

xThadd
18 Dec 2009, 12:32PM
This is a business deal. You need the money. I just don't get the dilemma. You can have no idea of the content of the banker's character, and it's silly even to speculate.

Scarlett6
18 Dec 2009, 12:35PM
Sell to the highest bidder - whatever their profession - it's a no brainer
Oh and hang on a bloody minute - the bankers who get those huge bonuses are a TINY proportion of bankers in general. Most people who work in banks earn a very average salary and MAY get "profit sharing" which will be less than 5% of their very average salary. You do the math - the majority of people who work in banks e.g. bankers are the same as the rest of us - sloggin their guts out for very little reward.  And for the record, I am NOT a banker

yonsok
18 Dec 2009, 1:05PM
Not unless you've primed it with six pounds of semtex.

giahosinn
18 Dec 2009, 6:47PM
perhaps the banker is not a genuine buyer and the family are, you are reacting with an unconscious feeling about this and it's not really a moral dilemma about what he does for a living..or actually it's your own guilt about wanting to accept more money and gazumping the family.. but what's the problem about accepting sale from a banker. What if he's a good banker a revolutionary, radical banker, or maybe just a neutral banker.

IvanaTinkle
18 Dec 2009, 7:38PM
It's probably a fair assumption that bankers getting million-pound bonuses don't live in £330,000 houses.

18 Dec 2009, 7:48PM
@antonyob: fishfingers? Nothing fat cats like more than fish and plenty of it.

JayZed
18 Dec 2009, 11:38PM
Is this a genuine question or is it some kind of Guardian Yuletide self-parody? If this "fat cat" banker is buying a £330,000 house he can't be that tubby a feline. You owe it to yourselves to get the best price you can for your home. Taking a dislike to someone because they're a banker is just infantile. For the record, I'm not a banker.