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?

Vixii makes a great point about the paperwork. Your solicitor and mortgage company will need to redo everything at the new price. That will take time and cost you money. Not £400k of course, but easily could cause it to fall through even if you get the price Raj wants.

It's been reported just the other day in the Evening Standard that houses in the prime market over 2 million mark are dropping in price. A house in Winchmore Hill on for £2.3 million 6 months ago has dropped to £1.2 million. Considering OP is potentially spending £5 million, a 400,000k drop isn't so preposterous. By all means don't instruct Raj but you'd be foolish not to take a punt at reducing the asking price on this property

Hmm, personally I think gazundering is really shitty behaviour.

If you had said a couple of months ago 'actually, prices locally have dropped recently, can we renegotiate', then your DH may have had a point. But 2 days before exchange would be really poor behaviour in my opinion.

On an aside I'm at London property prices! I hope it's got like 15 bedrooms for 5 million!

6 months ago and £5m price does change things a bit. My daughter buying in the summer didn't have that delay issue - no chain at all (as she kept her first flat) and the seller didn't really have one or one that didn't matter as they could use bridging finance so in that case only 3% off asking price seemed fine.

Here with the delay Raj might be right. I think it depends on the property. If there are no buyer out there (and £2m seems to be the key price at which there have been big changes due to the 12% (banded) stamp duty etc etc at that level - and foreign investors are choosing to buy say 10 flats in Manchester at £400k to avoid the annual tax on enveloped dwellings and the 15% or 12% stamp duty land tax and/ or the 3% extra SDLT on second homes.

However if it is a rarely available house you have waited years to find, will live in for ages and has loads of people after it I would not rush to ask for much of a price reduction. I would be seeing if you can exchange extremely quickly to remove uncertainty.

IGNORE DH. I made more money every time bc I knew what I was doing bc i researched. dh was flattered by realtor. The one time I let dh go ahead we were ripped off. Stand your ground.

OP the vendors kept their bargain to take their house off the market, the house suits your family and is in the school area so go ahead. Their was a programme on BBC Radio 4 last week about gazumping -- this is the only place in the world where it's permitted and moves are afoot to change the legislation. In most countries once the offer is accepted that's it unless other conditions are not fulfilled by a certain date eg planning permission, finance etc. NZ friend changed her mind a few hours after accepting an unconditional offer and ended up having to meet the buyer's out of pocket expenses caused by her reneging. Fairs fair. What other contracts are subject to this sort of behaviour?
Stick by your guns and get your family into the new place asap and enjoy the space. God luck

I have to agree with you and the majority - it's a highly dishonourable thing to do. The vendors upheld their end of the bargain and so should you.

Raj sounds like a crook and I wouldn't want to do anything via him at all. Hope you saw the message that you BOTH need to sign a contract with Raj for it to be valid.

Property markets are still quite hit and miss - years ago my brother anticipated a price crash, and sold his house, moving into rented accommodation until local prices came down. Except they didn't - he lost shit loads on rental and ended up moving out of area because he couldn't buy again in the same area as prices had gone up.
He's an arrogant prick though, so I didn't feel sorry for him.

This is business, nothing more, so it's a mistake for anyone to take it personally. Leaving turds in the toilet? Grow up.

Prices in prime central London are dropping. £400K might very well reflect reality.

Someone did this to me once. Not for that amount of money though. I told them to get stuffed. It was the price we’d agreed on or I wouldn’t sell to them. They chose not to buy but I didn’t care because I didn’t want them to have it after that.

I think that you have to know areas really well and if you did then the reductions that are happening in some cases is not because the price of a particular property had fallen. More that the property was over priced in the beginning.

As I have said before there is a ceiling price for 4 bed detached houses in our area. Before any particular drop in prices there were 3 houses that went up for sale £300k over that price.
Other houses have been put up for sale for between the ceiling price and up to £50k more as prices have edged up in the last 2 years (in this area).
If those 3 houses were now to reduce their asking price by £250,000 then it would appear to an untrained eye that prices had fallen when they actually hadn't.

I think your DH has been taking in by Raj presenting his opinions as fact.

My biggest reservation would be that if Raj is encouraging you as buyers to conduct business in this way, what is to stop him encouraging the people who buy your house in the same way?

If you don't renegotiate, then you're enabling them to buy a house at lower November '17 prices, whilst selling a house at higher May '17 prices. You'll be the ones losing out.

6 months is a long time to faff about selling a house, so I definitely don't think it's unreasonable to lower the price.

I’ve just sold my London property and moved out to the countryside and if my buyer had tried to reduce the offer just before completion, I would absolutely refuse and if they persisted I would probably have pulled out myself on principle. A last minute change of the agreed price is not the correct way to go about things and if this EA is a true professional he should know that.

Just had a quick look on zoopla regarding the Winchmore hill house mentioned above.

The road I think it is in only has estimates of about £1million anyway so if the owners was trying to get in excess of £2million I don't doubt they had to knock the amount down by £900,000

Just had a quick look on zoopla regarding the Winchmore hill house mentioned above

Oh, I missed that bit as the thread has moved on quite quickly whilst I've been at work etc. I know winchmore hill as I grew up there and parents are still there. Yes prices are high there but they don't, and haven't, suddenly dropped that much overnight!

I wish we would adopt the Scottish system in England/Wales. It just seems so much fairer.

Actually p eople are current free in England to adopt a similar system on any transaction =- you could require that to secure the prperty they pay £10k and get a 6 month exclusivity period, non refundable unless it is found the house is not owned by the seller etc etc. However such pre contract contracts are not very popular.

There is another of exactly the same type of house on the road still advertised for the price ours was.

Who are the agents for this - not Raj I hope? Could you call them and have a chat re: prices? I know that the house isnt identical in layout etc but they will have useful points of view to put forward regarding how the market has moved.

This Raj sounds like a right charlatan.

Hmm I don’t condone gazumping either. But given the time frame and the fact it’s not been you dragging things out, you’d be a fool IMO not to research prices now and offer a lower amount if appropriate.

This

Your DH seems to be more interested in the bargain than the house. You are more interested in the house as a home and you are philosophical to boot - what goes around comes around is an effective life strategy.

Not sure you are going to be able to persuade him - but maybe try calling him out for being superficial. It's not all about money.

I only was only re-iterating what was reported in the newspaper and I guess they can spin it however they want but I think Joey 7t8 sums it up neatly regarding London house prices in the prime market the OP is looking in

Nope, a buyer tried this with me once & I told them to stick it & decided to let out the place for a while instead. Nasty underhand tactics & I would be very angry if my DH did this. I would also be telling “Raj” to swivel sideways on an ice pick & not to call again

tbf the buying & selling of prime central london multi million pound properties the OP is operating in is a little different to selling your average 300k house.

Nope, a buyer tried this with me once & I told them to stick it & decided to let out the place for a while instead. Nasty underhand tactics & I would be very angry if my DH did this. I would also be telling “Raj” to swivel sideways on an ice pick & not to call again
Just had a look at the thread again and am still appalled by this vile man 'Raj'. REALLY hope you have told him to get stuffed. Forever. This kind of thing is just vile.

What was the outcome OP?