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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To pull out of house purchase so close to exchange or gazunder?

940 replies

TitaniumBev · 13/05/2018 17:24

Totally miserable - any advice/views/abuse welcome!

We're FTB's, both 30, scrimped for years to get deposit together. We both grew up dirt poor & wanted to have a bit of security before children so are keen to get going now and sick of private renting.

Offer accepted on house end of Jan, the asking price was kite flying given location (Croydon). They wanted 460k we settled on 440k, only now due to exchange next week after delays (both sides, minor errors).

Since then though all the news around the economy & housing especially around London has been terrible. Monthly drops of around 1 - 3.6%. Terrible rics reports & rightmove data etc. Similar properties in the area are coming on for less but there is not a lot coming on so hard to judge. Properties hanging around for a long time.

I now feel the agreed price is too high, a lot has changed in 4 months and I think it's best to walk away. I know this will screw over the vendors & the chain but don't like DH's suggestion of asking for a reduction so close to exchange. He thinks we should at least give them the chance. (How lucky!!!) Prices seem to be down around 6% he reckons split and ask for 3% off. (£13,000 ish)

Its such a big transaction, the market looks soooo bad and its not dream house or anything. Should I walk or offer lower? I'm not going to over pay for a house just to be nice/honorable unfortunately.

URGH!

OP posts:
Ellyess · 15/05/2018 10:50

TitaniumBev Firstly, if you have not exchanged contracts, you have no legal obligation to keep to the price they set when you agreed to buy. You could go back and say you think the price changes in the market mean you have to drop your offer, but I would do this with great care, thinking about how much it would worry you if you lost this house.

I had a purchaser say on the day of completion that he needed to drop by £5,000.00 but I said no. He went ahead and paid the agreed price.
You need to weigh up how much you want this house and whether it is worth the risk of losing it and not getting one as good or having to pay more.

I am wondering, as this is your first house purchase, if you are getting nervous and over-thinking things. It's perfectly normal, it happens to everyone.

I would go ahead at the agreed price. A bird in the hand etc. Once you have your house, the price you paid will not matter and in time it will appreciate in value anyway.

Wishing you all the best. There's nothing like the pleasure of having your own home!Flowers

Ssarah39 · 15/05/2018 10:59

There are some people on here that have slagged Croydon off. There has and is a lot of investment going on in the area. The Mayor of London in January 2018 gave the go ahead for a Westfield in Croydon. The area also has good transportation links, shops, places to eat etc. I know this after having bought my first flat there and lived in the area for 8 years.

In addition to comments about local agents sharing information between themselves, they would in fact be in breach of data protection legislation by divulging people's personal information. If the OP does decide to not proceed with the purchase, she shouldn't be scaremongered by other posters that she would be black listed throughout the area.

Ellyess · 15/05/2018 11:01

TitaniumBev I have had another thought - you could also ask to delay the exchange of contracts. Then go and look at the other houses on the market to see if lower-priced ones are just as good.

However, if I were the seller and someone asked to delay the exchange - especially if I got wind that they were looking at other houses (and Agents do pass on info like this) - I would tell my Agent to put my house back on the market and accept offers on it! In other words, I would warn you you might lose the house. Your seller may not be so canny however.

I still think it is worth asking for a price drop, explaining that the market has gone down and illustrating similar houses at lower prices.

Devora13 · 15/05/2018 11:02

Good point my OH just made. OP is FTB. She has been ready to complete since January, so presumably the hold up has been seller/further up chain. It stands to reason that the financial climate may have changed in four months, and if this means a significant financial risk to her then she would be quite justified in pulling out. In terms of making a lower offer, I'd say this would be harder to quantify. And if this caused a further delay up the chain (seller needing to seek additional finance etc) what then? Two months down the line review her offer again depending on economic climate?

Ellyess · 15/05/2018 11:05

Ssarah39 Well said! Croydon, like everywhere, has it's good and bad. It's good parts are very good indeed. I would not hesitate to live there. I live in Nottingham. People used to - some still do - slag it off like crazy, yet Nottingham is absolutely beautiful! It has so much to offer! The people are wonderful too. It's just stupid to think you can slag off a place, it means you don't know it.

pretendingtobechilled · 15/05/2018 11:14

Can't believe people suggesting estate agents all share blacklists of 'bad' buyers!

Don't be ridiculous.

a) estate agents don't all know each other and socualise together
b) they're in competition with each other - why would they want to help out a competitor? - if they genuinely thought a buyer was flaky, they'd be very happy for a competitor to get lumbered with them
c) it would be illegal due to data protection for them to share lists of buyers' details with other estate agents unless the buyer had specifically OKed this

Plus it's a massive buyers' market in and around London at the moment. No estate agent is going to complain or blacklist a potential buyer just because they refused to overpay on a property!

The estate agent is much more likely to be fed up with the greedy sellers who massively overprice their properties which then fail to sell.

Estate agents get paid on sales. Greedy buyers who won't take less in a falling market are every estate agent's worst nightmare.

ChainVaper · 15/05/2018 11:15

Ssarah39- well said. I’m a croydon fan!!

pretendingtobechilled · 15/05/2018 11:15

Can't wait to hear - be honest - how many of those telling the OP she absolutely MUST NOT gazunder have themselves gazumped others in the past.

Go on.

Fess up!

Bluelady · 15/05/2018 12:10

People network, my agent mentioned that he'd worked for a number of competitors in the past and knew people at them. Agents are huge gossips, mine told me all the ins and outs of my neighbours' transaction. Word about the unreliable buyer in a late aborted transaction would spread like wildfire - some of those agents may well be handling the sale of the other properties further up the chain. Given that OP is delaying every agent in the chain getting their commission, of course they'll slag her off.

Huskylover1 · 15/05/2018 12:12

Indeed. I would be well pissed off!

SoupDragon · 15/05/2018 12:36

how many of those telling the OP she absolutely MUST NOT gazunder have themselves gazumped others in the past.

Not me.

MarshaBradyo · 15/05/2018 12:39

The chain will definitely know whose fault it was. I heard daily who was holding up the precarious chain and which EA was getting shouted at

Not me either

PoorYorick · 15/05/2018 13:09

I've never gazumped or gazundered.

LouiseCheese123 · 15/05/2018 13:17

Genuinely do not understand all the people saying pulling out is better than reducing price. Someone pulled ouf a sale with me a few years back and I wish I’d had the opportunity to consider both options. They can always say no!

yorkrose · 15/05/2018 13:20

I haven't read all the messages so sorry if I'm repeating someone else.

Inform the estate agent of your fears and apologise, you have cold feet and let the vendors make the decision (reduction/no sale). I don't think it's right at this late stage but at least they'll know why.

pretendingtobechilled · 15/05/2018 13:30

Bluelady - do you live in a tiny village? - "Word about the unreliable buyer in a late aborted transaction would spread like wildfire".

No it wouldn't. The OP is talking about Croydon not Tiddly-on-the-Marsh.

There must be dozens and dozens of estate agents. Do you seriously think they all know each other?? Or remember names of everyone who has pulled out of a property anywhere in a location?! Or break data protection laws with gusto? Hmm

The market in Croydon must truly be dead if that's what the estate agents spend their time doing.

I've never gazundered personally, but if buying an overpriced property would have no compunction in doing so.

I've certainly been gazumped enough in a rising market. And London prices are insane. Prices in places like Croydon have well-nigh doubled in about 3 years. They can easily afford to make a little less unearned profit. Unless the seller is themselves a very recent buyer, in which case they can just say no. (And end up in negative equity. Their call.)

SheilaTurnip · 15/05/2018 13:34

As another person who has bought and sold, the OP disgusts me.

2018Anon · 15/05/2018 13:58

I've been on the other end of this. My buyer pulled out after I had already paid out about £500. They simply 'changed their mind'. My house is still on the market a year later and I'm totally screwed.
People like you make me mad. You should only ever offer on a house if you are 100%. And the fact you haven't paid out a penny makes it even more sickening.

Bluelady · 15/05/2018 14:02

Did you actiually read my post, pretending? Everyone and their agent in the chain would know. All the other agents would pile in to give OP's agent grief. If you really think this wouldn't be the case you're hopelessly naive.

howabout · 15/05/2018 14:13

There are over 3,000 properties on the market in Croydon atm, with the vast majority around about the Op's price point. Most of them have been there for months and months. Most London boroughs are the same. Estate agents don't have the luxury of blacklisting buyers, especially green FTBs atm. (at least the changes to BTL may have cut down on estate agents keeping properties for themselves and their mates though)

MarshaBradyo · 15/05/2018 14:16

The whole chain will know but there’ll still be enough other EAs to sell to them. The EA will be shouted at though - he / she might spin a line

Kamma89 · 15/05/2018 15:06

@Bluelady OP is ftb so has no agent. Exchange was delayed by issues with whole chain & completion is set very late due to vendors vendor against wishes of OP & her vendor...

Kamma89 · 15/05/2018 15:09

I don't imagine EA's do blacklist in a market like this. Especially not in London. Also This is not OP's preferred area so doubt she gives 2 shits? I really hope you pulled out or asked for a shit load off OP. There's a post in property about being gazumped. Hardly any interest. No moral outrage. Screw them all OP Grin

Oliversmumsarmy · 15/05/2018 15:33

I'd also say ignore people scare mongering that EA won't deal with you - estate agents work on commission and will deal with anyone with funds in place

EA only get their commission if they sell. If OP is known as a flakey buyer and there is another buyer in the wings an EA would be recommending the other buyer.

Whilst EA might not circulate lists of flakey buyers they do talk and warn others to not waste their time
The town they got banned from was actually a large city. Definitely bigger than Croydon.

Apparently they bid £25k on a country estate.

LetChildrenBeChildren · 15/05/2018 15:36

OP, I think that you should ask for a reduction in price under these circumstances (if I've read things properly). Close friends of mine had their purchase delayed due to the seller and the market became more unstable and dropped in the meantime. They therefore negotiated a price reduction and rightly so. That just shows that you understand what's going on in the market. Go for it!

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