Help, my buyers have reduced their offer!

[LemonadeFromLemons]

This week I negotiated a new asking price on my next house (I’d agreed the original price before lockdown and the market has changed quite a bit with the economic outlook).

The buyers of my house have today lowered their offer. I was kind of expecting this and would have thought they would be a bit silly not to! My issue is the amount they are asking for! They’re asking for a 12.5% reduction 😐). Obviously I’ll be negotiating them down from that! My question is by how much? I got a 8% reduction on my next house, I was hoping to keep some of that!

So
YABU - you should give them the same reduction as you’re getting

YANBU - this is a business transaction you should counter with a lower reduction, say 5%?

For context, they are first time buyers living with parents. I’m concerned they might pull out altogether.

It’s all relative isn’t it, did you get 8% off a higher value property?

It sounds like you want to win both ways.

How far along the process are you? If they pull out would it be a great disappointment to lose the house you are buying?

I was very sympathetic until I saw you'd had 8% reduced off your purchase.

It's karma

🤣 brilliant! Double standards?

I would treat it as a negotiation process, so yes counter with 5% then they might come back with 10% and you might both agree at 8% in the end? I would work also out what is your cut-off point to enable you to make the move, factoring in how much you need to move/want the new house and go from there. It's not an exact science and they may indeed have decided on 12.5% reduction or walk. Get the estate agents to earn their money and see how the land lies with the buyers.

I would have thought you have two options. Either reduce the price of your place by 8% so it is equitable through the chain or reduce it by the same amount as you are saving (which may be equal to or more than 12.5% depending on the difference between your current house and the place you are trading up to).

You negotiated money off and they’ve done the same, so it’s kind of tough shit, isn’t it? If you want to brazen it out, do so, after all, they’ll have to go back and re-organise their mortgage, you might get a better offer if you stick it back on the market. Or offer them less of a reduction, as a pp says.

@Mascaramademehappy
Yes my next is a more expensive house. I think that’s why I’m asking if it’s reasonable because morally I feel like I should pass more discount on to them but I also wonder whether they’d do the same for me? I don’t want to have to go through the process of finding another buyer right now. I kind of thought this would happen and just need to know what to counter with.

Forget percentages at the moment. How different is it in £££. You can negotiate with same. Say most you can reduce by is x.

At moment it will be a case of holding the chain together.

The buyers of your house have also maybe had to accept a lower offer on their current property so are doing the same as you - going back offering less.

I do totally understand what people are saying about double standards and I did kind of expect this to happen although maybe not for them to ask for quite so much! I don’t want to lose them as buyers but I also don’t want to give away more than I need to. It’s so difficult right now.

@Laaalaaaa
They are first time buyers so this isn’t the case for them.

Keep emotions out, its best treated like a business decision. You've got to work backwards from the different possible outcomes. How important is it that you move, now, to this new house?

If money is more important, play hardball and negotiate strongly. If you are not willing to accept a real risk of the sale falling through then you need to take a softer line.

Even if you are extremely keen for this chain to work out, I'd advise countering their offer - immediate capitulation could be read as desperate and there's nothing to stop them trying to ask for a further discount if they smell blood!

I'd offer a small amount and go from there, personally.

Op forget about %, how many £ did you get off versus how much are the buyers asking for a reduction?

Or go back and offer 5% and work from there.

If the sale had gone through per lockdown, what would have been the price difference? I'd keep that the same. Otherwise you're just being greedy.
So if you've offered £300k and was offered £200k that's a £100k difference. After renegotiating you've now offered £275k so accept an offer of £175k on your house.

@JADS
What I’ve saved is how much they are asking for! Which does make me slightly suspicious but I think I’m just being paranoid or maybe it is karma 😕

Perhaps your buyers are having to look at a different mortgage product now.

I would never accept a first offer but it’s clear that they are expecting a reduction so I would ask for the rationale of the figure they presented you and take some time to think about it. If it’s a figure plucked from the air then you have a stronger case to play hard ball. If there is a good reason such as mortgage product LTV changing etc you can then evaluate if you want to proceed with them or not and how far along you are with the entire chain.

In some cases the entire chain might split the difference to keep it all on track but I doubt that anyone above you would help you out on this if you have already had an 8% reduction.

You are either willing to accept it or you are not and it's that simple.

Choose a lowest price you are willing to accept and be prepared to not sell if they don't match it.

@Mascaramademehappy

It’s only me, my buyers and my sellers.
My buyers have said it’s because of the economy and they feel uncomfortable with their original offer, which I do understand as I feel the same way.

They’ll be guided by their solicitor - first time buyer or not. If you don’t want to accept the offer then reject it. Good luck selling your property for the value you believe it to be worth.
When we sold our last house we accepted an offer less than we would have wanted but then the house we bought dropped by an even bigger figure so we never actually lost out.

Don’t get emotional or het up. It’s business. Negotiate for whatever you can get and then sell it. That’s all you can do, isn’t it? Not sure what help you need tbh.

That's so hypocritical. So they want to save the same amount of money you do? You cant really complain.

Well now you know how the people you want to buy from feel!

Go back and say you received 8% sand that’s you’re best and final
You have to mean it though

* They’ll be guided by their solicitor*

Highly unlikely. Solicitors don’t tend to get involved with the bidding process.

Fair enough to not immediately acquiesce to their first offer, but your attitude of wanting to keep the saving to yourself kind of stinks. I hate game playing in the property market. It really brings out the worst in people. FWIW, we have an offer accepted on a property and unless the survey comes back with any significant issues we won’t be lowering our offer - we’ll be proceeding as agreed.