Price agreed before lockdown

[Chellors123]

Hi

I am just after a bit of advice.

We sold our house in the week before lockdown and agreed a price of £459. Obviously lockdown put the brakes on everything, then stamp duty was lifted and we are seeing a mini boom now in our area.

2 identical properties have since come on the market in the last 2 weeks at £485k Exact same house similar condition.

We are upsizing in the same area and what we are looking at has also increased in price meaning we will need to pay more than expected (albeit with stamp duty taken off)

I want to be fair to our buyers as they have waited patiently however I can't help thinking it doesn't put us in the best position as due to the increase in prices we 'could' potentially achieve more for our house to put toward the increase to upsize.

Any advice on how to approach this? should I just honour what was agreed and just accept timing was against us. I don't want to appear as opportunistic/greedy but equally want to make the right decision that doesn't leave us short.

I guess there's nothing to say the 2 houses don't sell at those prices so perhaps it's a case of holding fire as we haven't found anything yet and depending on the price of the house we find it could still work out.

I also realise it could have gone the other way and prices fell so the coin would have been flipped to our buyers.

[Bemorechicken]

If your buyers hasn't messed you about -don't mess them around.

[Chellors123]

They haven't messed us about and are in a good position which I think will help us when we do find somewhere

[JoJoSM2]

Being fair is one thing but being 25k out of pocket to benefit complete strangers is another.

I’d probably go have a chat with the neighbours in the other houses on the market to see how much interest they’ve had to determine if you’re really likely to get that much more for the Property and take it from there.

[Bells3032]

Just because they're listed that price doesn't mean it'll sell for that price. You have a serious and committed buyer. You also now have more competition. Personally I wouldn't risk it but depends on how much you value money over simplicity

[Alexalee]

485 is an asking price... you have a buyer who has started the process.
This mini boom won't last, I would sell to the buyer as long as they still have their mortgage offer and complete chain below
On the other hand they will be saving almost 15k in stamp duty so might be happy to pay a bit more

[JammyHands]

I've just sold for a price agreed before lockdown and the buyers were obviously worried I was going to pull out and increase the price. I wouldn't have dreamt of it, partly because I would think less of myself for doing so, but mainly because I wouldn't have wanted to risk losing the buyer.

[notheragain4]

Listing at a price is a whole other kettle of fish for getting that price. We sold right out of lockdown for about 4% less than asking, similar have since come on for more but aren't selling, I'd be surprised if they passed the mortgage valuation if they sold at the list price.
I'm happy with the stamp duty saving tbh and just want to get sold.

[tentative3]

I would stick with the buyers, a bird in the hand and all that. If you walk away, as someone else has pointed out, you're now competing with 2 other houses, you may not get anyone else interested or they may offer under your new asking price anyway. If you do get an offer their mortgage company may come back with a lower valuation etc. You won't be able to make an offer on any of the houses you want until your new chain is complete and if you don't get an offer because no one can afford the revised price or they prefer the other houses at the same level you may well find things start to dry up anyway as the year carries on, both in terms of viewings on yours and potential properties for you coming on to the market.

[HathorX]

Stick with your buyer,and negotiate hard when you offer on a property.

[Muppetry76]

Wait, you agreed to sell at £459k FOUR OR FIVE months ago and STILL haven't found anywhere to move to yet?

I think your buyers must be incredibly frustrated with your inactivity - viewings were still taking place:at the very least you could have spent months researching the areas you want to look in?

For sale prices are an invitation to offer - I don't know any houses that have sold for full asking price (mortgage industry) unless they're OIEO or in Scotland.

Get your finger out OP and stop pissing your buyers about

[BYGIDAFY]

Why on earth haven't you moved yet??

[Chellors123]

My preference is to keep it simple, we have a buyer in place and if a house came up for example next week we would be able to proceed if we liked it and would be gutted if we couldn't as we have waited so long. I don't really want to go back on the market again unless our buyer pulls out - I just didn't want to be being naive about things financially.

For those asking why I haven't moved yet - not one single house in our category came up during lockdown and since opening up we have been pipped to the post on a house. We have though widened our 'what we would consider' list somewhat recently as we know we have to do this if we want to move - which we do especially with the stamp duty revisions.

I don't feel like I have messed our buyers about as we were upfront from the beginning and of course if they find something else then we will live with that and re-market. We did think about the 'find first then go to market' approach but things go quickly where we are and we'd be likely to miss out.

It's just so frustrating that we can't find anywhere as we really want to move!

[jelly79]

Have your buyers not requested that you move out by a certain point rather than holding out endlessly until you find a property? Would you rent whilst you looked?

[notheragain4]

@Chellors123 of course it's messing them about. We are selling and our house isn't ready until November, we are going into rented because we don't expect our buyer to wait because of us! How frustrating for them. It's a risky position to take, their patience won't last forever and they may start looking elsewhere, especially if the market starts to rock.

[Tuemay]

I think you risk them pulling out if you do that and it is unfair to them too.

They have been so patient.

[Moomin12345]

If you 'you don't want to appear opportunistic and greedy', the best solution is to stop being opportunistic and greedy. I feel for your buyers.

[Chellors123]

They haven't asked me to move to rented and it's not something we would do - various reason. They are of course free to pull out (no money has been spent) however until recently no other houses have become available to them either and the ones that have and are a similar size to ours are £25k more than what they offered on mine. I do realise they won't wait for much longer though.

To be honest I would find changing the goalposts for them now to be uncomfortable as they have been patient but just wanted to sense check that I wasn't letting my heart rule my head.

[Alexalee]

Both head and heart should be giving the same answer... there aren't an abundance of buyers out there no matter what the media claims

[Chellors123]

Yes it probably wasn't the best analogy to use. It feels like the right thing to do to continue as is I just wanted an external perspective too. Thanks everyone

[Wrighty57]

You need to do what’s best for you in this situation. I wouldn’t let anyone here telling you that you are immoral impact on a financial decision as big as buying/selling property.

You are only 25k off your neighbours listing price. It’s hard to say having no idea about the location or condition of your property but I am assuming those list prices are at their very upper limit.
Also, the majority of sellers have to wait months for a reasonable offer to come through. They either stay high and wait or slowly lower the price to attract more prospective buyers.

An offer isn’t legally binding in England and Wales until contracts are exchanged. If your buyer made an offer ‘subject to contract’, the price can still be negotiated.

[ivfdreaming]

I highly doubt they will sell for the asking price - I'd stick with your buyers. The market could just as easily have gone the other way and prices gone down - property is always a gamble