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.

We tried this tactic once. The seller just said no way! Maybe a risky strategy but will still bought the house anyway. So maybe hold out and be firm 🤷‍♀️

@Sodamncold funny but when we bought our first house we went to place an offer - solicitor advised we go in lower which we did. She pretty much advised us on every offer we went back to the vendors with so in our case the solicitor was involved.

bite their hand off and take it. In 6 months you will be very relieved you did. I am reducing my pre lockdown offers by 20-30%. In the two previous recessions of 2008 and 1987 prices fell by as much as a third. We are going into a depression not a recession. Huge unemployment etc etc. Take it take it take it.

Honestly, if you really want to move I’d just accept it.

I really wouldn’t have changed my offer with my seller if Covid hadn’t come along and changed everything. I don’t think and, I suppose by accepting my reduction, my sellers also don’t seem to think that this is unreasonable. So I do think it’s reasonable that my buyers want to lower their offer, I’m just wondering if they are really going to hold out for 12.5% (which I think is quite high).

I spoke to a friend about it and she said I also shouldn’t be relating my offer reduction to my buyers offer reduction but as I said I do feel conflicted.

I also really don’t want my buyers to pull out!

@f0stercarer
Do you really think it will be that bad?

Do you think they might pull out? As first time buyers they may be thinking that if that wait a while prices will drop further.

The thing is, as yet there is NO evidence that houses have devalued.

There is a fear which is driving people to drop prices as they don’t want to be in negative equity in a few months but at this exact point in time there is nothing substantial to base a reduction on.

If you want to keep the sale I would go back with a counter offer that you are comfortable with.

@Laaalaaaa

Why did you have a solicitor before even putting In an offer?
It really is unusual to have a solicitor during the house hunting process
Usually you put the offer in and only when it is accepted do you secure a sol to work in your behalf.
If you had a sol before even putting an offer in and was using her fee charging services at this stage, you were being billed for her service for doing what?

I hate game playing in the property market. It really brings out the worst in people.

^^this.

When I was selling my first house the buyers dropped their offer just before exchange. I was very pussed off but my dad advised me to tell them that each time they did it, I would increase the price by exactly the amount they dropped. They bought it with no more issues.

Op, the problem with what you and they have done is that both of you will always think you could have had a better deal.

If your house is more situated to attract first time buys (2 bed etc..) I’d reduce by 8% because I can guarantee all there family will be telling them to pull out now and wait a couple months for the market to drop and you won’t get another buyer easily.

*pissed

A Cheeky Fucker gets cross at a fellow Cheeky Fucker. Heard it all now.

@Sodamncold In Scotland the offer has to be submitted via a solicitor. Happy now?

Over the moon!

@LemonadeFromLemons it really depends on where you are.

Where I am there is a real shortage of properties with 4+ beds in a particular area, and once you go above 4 beds there are literally no houses on the market. We managed to get our house before it went to open market having been looking for a year. Prices may well drop here, but no-one expects it to be by anything more than a small amount because there just aren’t the properties around. Even if people lose their jobs and need to sell up there won’t be a wealth of properties coming up because it’s a fairly well off area with a lot of retired or semi-retired people. It’s also an area which holds its value because of the history and location. So in this area - no, I don’t see a reduction of anything close to 20-30%.

Where I used to live however I can see prices dropping a lot more. It’s an area which will see a lot of job losses due to the prevailing industry in the area. It already went through a big drop in the last 5 years due to that particular industry and the property market had only really just started to recover. The sad reality is that it will hit prices again and they may well go below 2016/2017 prices.

There won’t be a blanket drop - each area will have its own climate

OP, it’s all very well posters telling you that it’s ‘karma’ and bullshite like that, but have you thought about what happens if your sellers pull out and you have to buy a similar house without discount? If you’re going down that silly route of thinking that because you got discount, you should pass it on, then you might as well ask them what they’re earning and hand over the difference.

Look at the house prices in your area, see if there have been drops in prices and let that be your guild. Pay no heed to the strange posts from people who seem to resent the fact that you own a house in the first place.

values havent dropped and agents have seen a lot of interest in this last 2 weeks, but lenders are tightening on first time buyer products. do you know their % deposit they had? if they were originally planning on a 90 - 95% mortgage that might be the reason for their reduction as they might no longer be able to get this right now.

It sounds like they called the estate agent to pull out. The estate agent advised them that you had negotiated a discount on the new house and advised them to ask for the same amount so as not to lose the sale.

If it makes you feel better, our broker/ financial advisor suggested we offer 10-20 % less at this time

Just refuse it and put it bk on market

Completely agree with @f0stercarer. It’s going to get very ugly. Bite their hands off. I’m quite surprised they haven’t pulled out, to be honest.

Would agree with myownsummer: how important is it that you move now to the new place? Decide, then act accordingly.

It's also really difficult for people to advise further than that without seeing the property. Some of them are likely to hold value much better than others.

My mum had their buyers try to lower the cost of the house 3 times each time she said no they still bought the house for 5k over asking price. they tried lower it because of things that came up in the survey, still a no