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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:
Whatthefoxgoingon · 15/05/2018 18:45

This is a good outcome for the seller. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if they end up getting more from another buyer. Back to renting for you Titanium —like it isn’t dead money yeah right—

user1499591037 · 15/05/2018 19:03

Roughly speaking, I think those going on about karma and decency are likely to be sitting on large potential piles of unearned wealth which they can only realise if they manage to sell to the suckers on the ladder pyramid below them.

WhatsGoingOnEh · 15/05/2018 19:24

I bet those poor people right in the middle of this shitstorm of fuckery are drunk right now.

The house-buying system here is so broken! Is it like this in other countries? I know Scotland is different, but what's the process like in America, or Germany, for instance?

It wouldn't be so bad if the surveys didn't cost so much. But people risk losing thousands every time they enter into this process. I'm sure it'd be hard to change things, but I wish someone would try.

Grandmaswagsbag · 15/05/2018 19:28

Sounds like it all worked out for the best then. No real need for 34 pages of abuse after all.

needingamiracle · 15/05/2018 19:39

Ill ignore the comment including caps.

I guess you had a lucky escape, but what if you find somewhere new & it takes so many months and prices fall again?

Please for the sanity of the people you buy off next, be 'in love' with the house, that no price is too high, that you'd give anything for it. There's no third time lucky, remember this should you think of selling in the future.

Toomanytealights · 15/05/2018 19:51

She'll be waiting forever then. Those of us living in the real world don't get to buy our in love with house as first time buyers.

And what User said. Those further up the chain have been shafting first time buyers with soaring prices for years. I'm glad things are cooling,bout time ftb can call the shots for a change.

I strongly suspect their mortgage offer wouldn't have been valid anyway. They'd have been mad buying a house they knew was worth less. In 5 years time when their mortgage was up for renewal they'd have been up shit creek. Who on earth would put themselves in that position because it's nice and proper? Bonkers.Confused

Oliversmumsarmy · 15/05/2018 20:10

Those further up the chain have been shafting first time buyers with soaring prices for years. I'm glad things are cooling,bout time ftb can call the shots for a change

For a lot of FTBs you could hand them their dream home on a plate with mortgage and deposit and they would still fanny about.

From my own experience although I have never said no to one I have only ever sold to BTLers and other cash purchasers.

FTBs calling the shots. PMSL .

Judging by the OP, calling the shots means running away at the 11th hour.

Cuppaoftea · 15/05/2018 20:21

I just feel sorry for your vendors, fucked over by both you and their vendors in one day.

Still they own a nice home with the security that brings and aren't throwing money away in rent. Hopefully they'll find honourable, committed buyers soon.

zsazsajuju · 15/05/2018 20:28

People are being a bit hysterical here. It’s not a good thing to do but you can’t spend 440k on a house you are not sure about cos you think it’s moral. It’s not great to pull out but you are not legally bound yet so free to do so. It’s not the most despicable thing ever to decide not to buy a house before you are tied in, people who think that have clearly led a sheltered life.

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 15/05/2018 21:28

Just saw your update ! Onwards OP

This thread has been Hmm

Anyway as a PP said your mortgage might have been pulled anyway

Don’t like Croydon Grin

RubyTrees · 15/05/2018 21:48

I'd be wanting to take out a fucking contract on you to put it bluntly.

Eliza9917, you sound unhinged.

AthenaAshton · 15/05/2018 21:54

Our vendors lost their buyers and onward purchase on the same day. I can only assume they must have done something TERRIBLE at some point previously and this is that bad karma so many have been mentioning...

OP, I realise you're not serious with that remark. But it does come across as being in very bad taste. Someone else has ended up having a hideous day. I think it might be nicer just to say you're sorry for having played a part in it.

PoorYorick · 15/05/2018 21:58

OP, I realise you're not serious with that remark. But it does come across as being in very bad taste. Someone else has ended up having a hideous day.

I didn't see the sellers as the butt of that joke, but the many posters who kept threatening OP with 'karma'. After all, if they're right, then everyone who has a terrible thing happen to them deserves it.

I haven't agreed with the OP on much, but I do agree with her that karma, at least in the sense most people understand it to be, doesn't exist.

AthenaAshton · 15/05/2018 22:02

PoorYorick - sorry, I did realise that (perhaps didn't make it clear, though). Also agree that karma doesn't exist. It just seemed a bit to me that the OP was using the vendors' misfortune to have a bit of a dig at all the posters who'd wished bad karma on her. Which, given that she's acted in a way that many people (myself included) find morally dubious, somehow leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I think a bit of grace wouldn't go amiss.

PintOfMineralWater · 15/05/2018 22:17

I thought karma came back in your next life? OP when you're reborn maybe you'll be an estate agent!

Some truly mad responses here, really disproportionate to something that sucks, but is really just part of life.

pretendingtobechilled · 15/05/2018 22:34

And what a nice end to the story. All worked out well, or as well as it could have done in the circumstances, in that the OP was saved from having to overpay on a house she didn't really want and the sellers are now in no hurry to sell either as they have nowhere to go.

Can't believe the seriously bitter, weird posters suggesting it is in some way immoral to save yourself 13 grand. Do you all feel a moral duty to overpay by 13 grand on purchases?

Also, most amused by Oliversmumsarmy, who boasts "I have only ever sold to BTLers and other cash purchasers." Given her incredibly low opinion of all FTBs 'fannying about' and 'running away at the 11th hour', one can only assume that she has never been a FTB herself, but was born owning property. What an utter twat.

boomboom12 · 15/05/2018 22:38

Yeah I was a little perplexed by the idea that it’s bad to get FTBs on the ladder & the one thing that the housing market needs is more BTLs 🤔

Lellikelly26 · 15/05/2018 22:41

Buying a house is nerve wracking and it’s likely you would have worries at any time. I agree that Croydon is undergoing huge development. There are 2 bed flats near east Croydon station going for £600k plus.
You would lose all your search fees and have to pay your solicitor too.

boomboom12 · 15/05/2018 22:45

There are 2 bed flats near east Croydon station going for £600k plus.

See I get that connections are good but that budget would get you a 2 bed in Balham, Tooting, Herne Hill etc

pretendingtobechilled · 15/05/2018 22:47

There are 2 bed flats near east Croydon station going for £600k plus.

Bloody Nora. If that's not a very good reason not to buy in Croydon I don't know what is.

That is insane.

What kind of nutter would spend 600K on a 2 bed flat in Croydon??!!!

You could get a house in Zone 3 in a pleasant area for that. Why on earth would you go for a flat in Croydon??! Confused

Oliversmumsarmy · 15/05/2018 22:48

one can only assume that she has never been a FTB herself, but was born owning property. What an utter twat

When I was a ftb I knew what I wanted and didnt mess people around.
If that makes me a twat God knows what makes the op

pretendingtobechilled · 15/05/2018 22:49

I just refuse to believe that there is a long waiting list of real people with household income of approx. 150K all desperate to buy a 2 bed flat in Croydon.

I just do.

Who are these people? I have very small bridge to sell them. Made of toilet rolls and cheese.

pretendingtobechilled · 15/05/2018 22:51

Ah, it's Oliversmumsarmy.

The lovely lady who hates and despises FTBs.

You sound like an absolute bloody nightmare to buy off.

Oliversmumsarmy · 15/05/2018 23:18

I am quite happy to sell to FTBs but usually after several months they always disappear

Reasons range from, if we save some more we can afford better after spending a fortune on mortgage arrangement fees, surveyors and solicitor fees to the one who rang the estate agent informing them that they were dead.

So yes it is with trepidation when an EA tells me they have a buyer and they are FTBs. I always give them the opportunity and have never said no but eventually they get cold feet and run.

RubyTrees · 16/05/2018 00:03

This is FTB nerves and normal but really you are talking about loose change when it comes to a London home.

Fruitcorner123 nicely encapsulates the complete madness that is the London housing market where £13,000 can be referred to as loose change.

Such a comment can only be made by someone sitting on a pile of unearned income, and unable to imagine how long it would take to save such a sum from earned income.

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