Gazundered!! Give me tales of your success stories please!

[WonderWoman36]

A month before lockdown we accepted an offer on our house and within a week we had an offer accepted on the house we wanted. Thankfully, both parties involved managed to get quite a bit like valuations etc done before the lockdown and so the rest of the non physical things such as searches etc were able to slowly be done during the lockdown and as a result we were ready to exchange and complete as soon as Boris lifted the restrictions for homebuyers.

Our buyers have been wanting to exchange and complete as soon as possible and to minimise any risk would like to do it on the same day. We were OK with this but wanted a non refundable deposit from them as I didn't want to be all packed and ready to move on the day only for them to pull out last second. As soon as this was suggested, the buyers suddenly went missing for a week and we got really suspicious.

This week my suspicions were confirmed, the reason they did a disappearing act was because we'd ruined their plans of trying to gazunder us on the eve of exchange most likely. They've finally reappeared and want an almost 10% reduction in price (from 735k to 665k) 3 days before we were originally meant to exchange! We live in North West London where house prices are unlikely to fall that dramatically so immediately we've been told so I can't understand the reasoning behind this kind of reduction.

Whilst I know that realistically prices will fall slightly, it is unlikely to fall in the amount that people think. But also, if they wanted this then why wait until the last second to spring this on us?? Why not be honest, especially if this was their plan all along and we could have saved the heartache and made a decision regarding price at the beginning.

To top it all off I'm pregnant and due in under 4 months so needed this move to be done ASAP, but also had already started packing a bit here and there as I didn't want to leave it all to do at once.

Now it means that we will most likely lose the house we offered on as they are ready to exchange and it will take quite a while to now put the house back on the market, find a buyer and go through the whole process again!

Basically, AIBU to tell the buyers to fuck off with their offer for doing it so dishonestly??? If they had come at us with a realistic offer then maybe we would have considered it but that is far too low for us to accept as we would then not be able to afford the new house anyway!

Please give me some success stories if this has happened to you. I honestly do believe things work out for the best but just feeling a little deflated right now!

Thanks for reading this far!!

I don't have a success story, but I would be declining their offer and putting it back on the market.

Is there an amount between what was originally agreed and their new offer that you’d be happy with?

Yes be pissed off, but don’t let emotion decide your next step. Work out what works to your advantage. Counter offer, decline and stay until baby is here or decline and remarket.

It is perfectly normal to have a 10% deposit on exchange so I can’t see why you wanting a deposit has any relevance to your buyer reducing his offer.

I think you were a bit naive if you thought that your sale would go ahead without your buyer trying to renegotiate the price as even London prices are going to be effected by the coming economic downturn.
But it is your house and it is entity up to you if you tell him to fuck off or not.

That is very bad behaviour, though I've heard from estate agents that prices will fall more than slightly even in north London so it's not unsurprising that they're rethinking. Maybe the offer is so low because they want 5% off and this makes that seem less drastic? I wouldn't completely pull the plug. given your circumstances and the state of the world right now. If they are willing to negotiate so you can all still move, it might be worth a try. I've never heard of that non-refundable deposit clause, but if it's viable you could tie that in. Good luck!

I wouldn’t blame them for not wanting to pay the original price due to current circumstances but you are right they planned to do it last minute and put you under enormous pressure/leave you in a very difficult situation and for that they are cunts.

But you do have a decision to make regarding what you would accept in order to enable you to move and afford your new house.

We’ve just battled with a buyer (estate sale of my dad’s house) who - ten days before completion and seven weeks after exchange of contracts - wanted a 10% reduction. We told him to FOTTFSOF and held the line. We then discovered that he had not paid a deposit (apparently quite usual in Northern Ireland where the house is 🙄) and was refusing to complete on the date he had requested. He then came up with about five different excuses as to why he could not complete. We held the line, said we would serve notice to complete once the date passed unless he paid a deposit. Finally, after almost two weeks of solicitor costs rising due to the estate agent being furloughed and not able to reassure the buyer, he paid a deposit and agreed to our terms of completion next week. We have managed to hold the line throughout, we don’t really care as it’s an estate sale and we can just hang on to the house until we get the price we would like (utter bloody bargain as the identical house next door is on for £50k more). So luckily we weren’t in a chain or in a position to be vulnerable to pressure. We understand that people won’t want to move in lockdown so were happy to delay completion but not without the financial commitment. I’m not sure what I would do if it was a house I lived in - probably the same. I wondered what my dad would have said and thought he would advise us to just stick to our guns and walk away, change our plans, if it all went tits up.

This happened to me, day before simultaneous exchange and completion. I told them that either we stuck to the long agreed price or it was going back on the market and I would NEVER sell to them in the future. They exchanged and completed the next day. Hold firm

You’re being unrealistic. They’re in a strong position in the current climate and just because you chose not to renogiate with your seller doesn’t mean they have to. You’re got two choices - try to negotiate a smaller price cut with them or refuse to deal with them and put it back on the market. Suspect that you are just staving off the inevitable price cut but with a different buyer.

I was in this position a while ago. They did almost exactly the same thing. I told them to get fucked, put the house back on the market, it sold again within 3 days for more than it did the first time and we moved 6 weeks later.

I’d decline on grounds of cheeky fuckery!!

I was expecting him to maybe try to negotiate a discount, but not the amount that he wants. I think it's his dishonesty that has clouded my judgement and just pissed me off.

You’re in the same position as buying too. So you could ask the same or thereabouts before walking away.

Thanks for the replies, I think we will hold firm! If he wants it then great, if not then it's fine, he can do one! We'll wait for another buyer.

I think with a new buyer we would probably end up accepting a lower offer anyway in this market, but definitely not as low as he's trying to get away with!!

This is most definitely CF behaviour!

Doing things on principle is all very well and I’m sure many posters will encourage you to do that as it’s always easy to be principled with someone else’s money. However you need to remove emotion from it and treat it like a business deal.

Can you afford to take a price cut and still move to the house you want? If no, try to negotiate with your vendor explaining the situation. Perhaps you could both take a smaller cut to spread the load and keep the chain. They may not be keen but realise they don’t want to lose the sale.

Could you stay where you are, lose the house you want and end up having to accept a similar offer in 12 months time? This is the very real possibility which you should be prepared for if you throw your toys out the pram now.

That's what I felt @wonderwoman36 with mine... it was such CF behaviour that it gripped me! Earlier in the selling process had an offer which I accepted. Then they said the survey had come back 20k less... save for the fact they hadn't asked for the keys for the surveyor to go in! So I said nope, put it back on the market, second CF came in with a higher offer and then first CF came back with the original offer! Felt good to say "Nope! You had your chance..."

It might be worth considering the type of market other posters had success in. Rising or falling because this might alter what you do.

And I’m not normally a doom and gloomer house price crash forecaster but with a massive regression on the way, unemployment in double figures and then the joy of brexit, I think we’ll be lucky to escape with only a 10% dip in prices. Even in your sheltered immune pocket of north London.

Oh good lord - what a nightmare. I really feel for anyone who needs to move during this. If they were really trying to play the waiting game to put maximum pressure on you, that's shitty. But it might also be that they are genuinely nervous and unsure about what to do. Particularly if they're first time buyers? They might well be surrounded by people telling them that they'd be insane to go ahead with a price agreed pre-Clovid.

As I'm sure you're acutely aware, putting it back on the market means opening yourself up to buyers who will all be looking for a discount in these uncertain times. So it might just be a matter of who you give the discount to.

I guess it depends whether or not you can make the move work financially at the lower offer, how much you love the house you want to move to and what price you place on being settled before the baby arrives. It might be possible to find a middle ground?

Icky though it is - you could consider negotiating a little with your vendor if you explain the situation. This is where estate agents can actually earn their commission - if you have one you think is decent, perhaps ask them to put their heads together and see what might be possible? If everyone can adjust their expectations by a few percent, there might still be a way through that doesn't feel too painful for anyone involved. Good luck!

Could you share the difference in vale with your seller and pass it up the chain?

@harriethoyle - but when was this? We are on the brink of the biggest downturn in living memory. It's equally possible that the OP might look back at this and think "thank god we got away with only losing 10%"!

OP - if you have a baby on the way and cannot make living in your current property work for you for a good few years more, you might want to prioritise making this move happen.

@gentleparent 6 months ago having been on the market for 9... and in the same position as OP in that I couldn't afford the onward move with the new CF offer 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'd say bye and walk away. If they came back begging I'd add 5k on for the hassle.

@harriethoyle - It is a different market now. Coronavirus and the recession that will inevitably follow means that buyers will demand discounts. I understand the urge to smack this buyer down - I would feel exactly the same way - but it could be a mistake to let emotions rule in these circumstances. The 10% discount is presumably an opening offer - if they can meet in the middle enough to make the onward move possible, that might turn out to be a good plan. Depends how much OP wants to move before having the baby, I guess.

OP - Another thing to bear in mind is how much more difficult it will be to keep your current property presentable for viewings with an explosion of newborn paraphenalia! If you are moving because you feel your place is too small to accommodate the new family member, it's going to look too small to prospective buyers...

Did you have much interest from others? If not I would suggest a compromise offer, and then go ahead but give them absolutely nothing on goodwill that isn't agreed in writing (I'm talking remove all the light bulbs etc) in revenge.

If you're more confident about it going back on the market then do that. It is unpleasant behaviour though and I would rather sell to someone who didn't do this at the last minute.

Bartlet is right OP. Take emotion out of it.

Do your sums, negotiate, maybe ask your seller for a small drop.

Give it some thought overnight, anyway.

Good luck with everything and congrats on the pregnancy.