To refuse DH's instructions and the property agent as well?

[3catsontheironingboard]

Excuse me, I would like to ask what people genuinely think about this situation. Basically, we had an offer accepted on a house on May and are due to exchange on Friday this week. We could have exchanged months ago, but the vendors seem slightly peculiar and have faffed about quite a lot.

DH said he was fine to move if that was what I wanted, but he didn't have time to deal with the solicitors or any of it because he's too busy at work. I said that was fine. The plan was that we would rent our current house out, but now DH has suddenly instructed a property agent acquaintance of his (lets call him Raj for anonymity) to put our house in the on the market. This was the other day. Now they have decided between them that, on the grounds of various doom and gloom forecasts about the London property market, that I should ring the vendors agent and say we are taking £400,000 off our offer! This Raj has been in the phone today telling me I would be crazy not to do this, as "everyone does it". I told him, I don't feel comfortable holding a gun to someone's head at the last minute, so he said he will re-negotiate for me! DH is supporting this from overseas. Is this actually how agents work these days?

I feel annoyed that a) DH is suddenly chipping in at the last minute and b) I feel the agent has a vested interest in scuppering this sale so he can sell me a different property. This could be his agenda.

The last text I had from DH was this, "The market is what it is. This is a transaction darling, you're not out to make new friends." I am going to reply that I don't deal like that and what goes around comes around. AIBU or are they?

Its not black and white, the sale was agreed back in May and so I'm wondering why its taken the vendors this long, they haven't exactly been straightforward with you either have they? Things have changed a lot in the last few months- economy wise, your husband has a point and I think offering less is justified but definitely not that much less, 400k is harsh.

This was done to me a day before we were due to exchange. I had to swallow a 40K loss as if we had pulled out we would have lost our new build that we were due to exchange on, as the developers have a very strict and tight turnaround. It made us sick with worry and furious. I can only help what goes around comes around......

Our buyers did this on day of exchange (although much smaller figures 20k which was 3%). We still told them to take a long walk off a short cliff. They came back next day with asking price, but it delayed exchange. It was awful and stressful.

Raj can say what he wants - he just wants the business from you to sell your property and is telling your rather naive husband what he wants to hear about the house you are trying to purchase. I bet I know the chain of agents. They also promise a stupid amount of money for ‘your’ Property as that’s ‘different’ and of course they can get that price. It’s all bollocks - and your husband is being taken in

Raj is a shyster as others have said. Though I take the point about market fluctuations. If DH & Raj had suggested an 8% reduction months ago it’d be reasonable, but to do it right now is shitty.

You’re in a tough situation OP! I agree about a PP’s suggestion of reminding Raj where his commission comes from!

Your DH sounds difficult and unsupportive

If £400k is an 8% reduction, then you are paying c£5m for the new house. With those figures, it is not such a huge reduction and the market has definitely fallen since May. We've just had the first interest rate rise in years (albeit by a tiny amount) but it's the start of a trend and there will be further rises. People are jittery and the market is definitely moving downwards.

I absolutely appreciate your point of view and indeed negotiating like this should have happened before now but if it's the vendors faffing around which has caused the delay then they are mostly responsible. Who knows what will happen if you reduce your offer - as it's a family home and they have lived there so long, they may well take offence and withdraw from the sale. Sadly, if they put the house back on in Spring, it may be at the reduced price which you are now suggesting. Their agent may advise them to accept.

Yes, it's shitty behaviour but I wouldn't be in the least surprised if your DH and sharky Raj don't come out on top here.

to me you act with moral integrity in life. If I’d committed to a price I’d be paying that other than due to a bad survey or the like.
The market goes up and down. It’s life. I don’t see why people lose all manners and scruples when buying and selling houses
Absolutely. I know estate agents get a bad rap, but this Raj guy really takes things to another (very very LOW) level entirely.
And there is a thing called Karma...
I feel for you. Have a very FIRM word with your husband.

I am so glad I live in Scotland where offers are legally binding and there is no such thing as gazumping!

I think usually you do the negotiating when you put the offer in. It would be a bit unfair to knock them down in price now. But as they have messed about and taken longer maybe it's different. It makes sense to buy one and sell at the same time as if the property price does dip or rise you've bought at the same time so it doesn't matter.

I agree that renegotiating might be reasonable, but definitely not at the very last minute!

Re the financial impact, it might be worth holding fire until you sell your first property- otherwise your stamp duty bill in new £5m house I think goes from just over half a million quid to £673,000! The difference of £150k extra tax could be put towards an even lovelier new home in a few months. Plus if market prices are declining you could get even more house for your £5m!

When we sold earlier this year someone offered us £150.000 below the asking price, the response Fuck and Off was given and we were in London.

Our view was we would treat other people as we wanted to be treated ourselves and that meant no fuck stupid offers or blackmailing to go on. We sold at a reasonable price that allowed us to buy a dream house out of London which I could have kissed the owners for letting us have.

I would def sack him as your estate agent and ignore all advice. He sounds like an utter shit!

People who do this are the worst kind of people. Raj and your husband deserve eachother given they both think this is fair and right, they should shack up together instead.

This is a horrible situation. IME I'm sorry to say that people behave very badly indeed when it comes to property buying or selling. These buyers who've been faffing about sound unreliable - how do you know they won't decide to pull out at the last minute, leaving you high and dry?

I'd advise behaving with morality and integrity - I wish others would. Go with your instincts. If your DH hasn't bothered to get involved thus far I'd say make your own decisions but be prepared for fall-out.

For what it’s worth, this will presumably delay exchange anyway?
Mortgage providers will need to know if the price changes and all the docs will need to be amended.
I bought in London in September, having offered in July (not as long time period of course) and would have refused to sell my old place if they tried this.

Sadly apparently this isn't all that uncommon. People do it just before exchanging as it puts the seller in a difficult situation and often pressures them into accepting less. An estate agent was telling us about it because we went to view a house where a previous buyer did just that, the seller couldn't afford to accept the lower rate and in the end it fell through. We were horrified

Is this guy from m&p Kensington? If so I know exactly who he is and he is a massive dick and you should not use him for any property related transactions - we ran into him several times when we were buying

When we sell this house if anyone's tries to lower the offer near the exchange I would refuse to sell to them.

My money is on Raj having the "perfect" property waiting for you when they refuse the 400K reduction!

There is no way I could let Raj be the one to deal with my house sale. He sounds utterly unprofessional.

I agree that this is not great behaviour but on the other hand it has taken 6 months for the sale of the house your buying to go through in which time house prices have possibly changed quite dramatically if the sale had gone through in a more timely manner then this issue would never have arisen?

Do not deal with Raj.

We were about to sell a flat down south, the day before exchange it was flooded from above. It took ten months to eventually repair and sell. We were told by the time it sold it was worth another £40000 but because the buyer had held on we just couldn’t not sell to him.

Property prices arw unlikely to habe changed by £200k, jess and 6 months is pretty normal anyway.

Wrong wrong wrong. I don’t want to criticise your DH too much as I may be offensive. As for Raj, he’s an arse like so many of them and out for himself.

On another note, absolute bullshit this country has such archaic real estate laws which are basically a handshake. It may have worked 50 years ago when people had more scruples and there was less population and turnaround but in this day and age it’s a joke. Come on England, move with the times. Follow your northern neighbours.

I agree that London prices will have gone down over 6 months and you could offer a bit less, but tbh if someone said £400K less (yes I know it's 8%) I would say screw you on principle. Raj is a shark and in it for himself. Don't give him a penny.