AIBU to feel I have sold house too cheap?

[PampassGrass]

Put house on market just before lockdown. Valued by three estate agents who all gave exactly the same valuation.When market reopened, accepted a price £16500 less than asking price as thought there would be a crash due to pandemic. The reduction was 6% less than the asking price of £295000. The buyers are cash buyers with 25% deposit, so a good bet.
Now, it is a sellers' market and prices have gone up rather than down. I can't help feeling gutted we panicked into accepting too low a price. I know that there is nothing we can do now as we agreed to the price and will follow through with the sale out of respect for the buyers who have had the survey and all the legal searches done.

Has anyone else ever regretted selling too cheap?!

In your position, selling a rental property and making an overall profit, you’d be mad to relist it.

You can't really judge anything by your AIBU poll results because I think people have interpreted it differently. It wasn't really clear what you were asking.
Eg. I voted YABU because I don't think you have sold it too cheaply and I also thing you shouldn't pull out.
But others might be voting YABU meaning YABU to continue to sell to these buyers. It really is a bit unclear.

Anyway, IMHO, I think you should continue with the sale. You have buyers without a chain who have completed searches etc and still want to buy and haven't attempted to get more money knocked off the price (see a recent thread on here where FTB were being an absolute nightmare with a seller).
Did you have a load of offers on your property when you accepted this offer? Because it doesn't really sound like it - if there were a lot of people wanting it you could have got the asking price or more.
I really think you should just go through with the sale. If you pull out and relist now you might find that you don't get any asking price offers or you end up with a really unreliable buyer who gets nearly to the end of the process and insists on a price drop at a late stage.

You may be seeing high prices on rightmove etc, but lenders are extremely wary and less willing to lend higher amounts once the survey comes through. Therefore buyers needs to have large cash deposits to bridge the difference which a lot dont have.

FWIW - one of our neighbours put their house cup for sale a few years ago.

It was a beautiful house, very well maintained and decorated - they got and accepted an offer the first weekend.

Then she thought "I've accepted too quickly" and cancelled her acceptance and put it back on the market for £X,000 more. Same thing happened - quick offer - she accepted, then pulled out for the same reason. Did it a third time. Put it up at £Y,000 more and got a quick offer which she accepted.

As the sale was about close, it fell through. As it happened, I know the third set of buyers, so I found out what the craic was. She had decided (yet again) that she was "giving it away", and so shortly before completion told them she wanted another £Z,000. They were very upset - but more than upset, they were angry and told her to get stuffed!

The house had to go back on the market. Whether word of her shenanigans got round our what, I don't know, but she didn't get an offer for ages, and had to drop her price. And then drop it again.

We found out from the new buyers that she ended up selling it for around the original selling price, and in the meantime she had lost the house she had been interested in, and had had all of the stress of the faff and carry on (plus people coming for a look around for months longer than she need have done).

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

You have two choices, carry on, exchange, complete and sit down with a glass of fizz and breathe out OR pull out, start all over again, and find yourself holding your breath until you complete.

There would appear to be a second spike expected and I should think that if when that happens it will paralyse the market again.

I called into the Estate Agent's the other day, most properties were marked as sold.

Don’t forget they’re also listing your property as ‘Sold’ ... but it’s only Sold STC - you could pull out anytime, chains can collapse, people can be refused mortgages etc. All those ‘Sold’ properties aren’t done deals at a higher price...

There’s definitely a lockdown bubble, agents are seeing unprecedented demand particularly for houses with gardens.

You did make a poor call there. However a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. Chain free buyers are ideal.

You need to consider the costs of keeping it empty if you relist e.g. council tax, risk of damage to the property - empty homes are a magnet to vandels. Then you need to work out what the difference would be after capital gains tax, you may not see the full £16k profit.
I'm with others who have said that having a chain free buyer who has already done surveys etc is a good bet and you risk incurring lots of other costs and stress if you back out.

A couple of things to think about:

If your house has been rented out for such a long time you probably have a backlog of maintenance works waiting and there is a cost attached to these over and above the carrying costs of insurance, winter heating etc.

All the signs at present are of a looming jobs crisis in October at which point the property market is likely to contract sharply. At the moment you have timed it right and will have exchanged before that happens. If you start again you will be right in the middle of that and possibly will not even get a buyer at all or, more likely will get to the point of exchange with a new buyer who will look at what is happening around them and demand a reduction at the point of exchange.

Don't be fooled by the sold signs either. Two separate EAs have told me that they don't seem be translating into actual property transfers.

I'd count your blessings and go ahead to be honest.

This reminds me of the thread recently where the OP had pulled out of a sale and lots of posters thought she was absolutely wicked for doing it. She didn’t want the house anymore yet some posters thought she should have bought it anyway!! People are oddly respectful of strangers when it comes to the house buying business.

We all know what pampass grass is

I don't actually know answer to your question, so many different factors to consider. Depends on how desperate you are to move, whether you can take the loss, where you want to move to etc.

Think it might be worth doing some SWOT analysis and that's never something I thought I'd say on a public forum.

You need to make the best decision for you so don't feel guilt if you need to pull out.

Houses where we are sell at asking price or over on the first day they are listed.

If I were you I would refund the search fees and legal costs and relist the house. It’s too much money to walk away from.

I do understand your feelings of regret, I've only just come to terms with mine. My freedom from the worry and expense of maintaining my crumbling listed house is priceless, and I can move on now.

My house needed complete refurbishment, and I'd had my own survey done to see if I could stay there - was estimated at £200K worth of works. As it was listed I could be held criminally responsible if I allowed it to deteriorate further. Eighteen months of marketing, two withdrawn offers and loads of timewasters later, I had a horrible experience with a gameplaying buyer who was looking for anything to reduce the price further. I pulled out of the sale with him in early February as he was taking the proverbial, and left the estate agents too. I went to auction in March just as lockdown happened and after 33 viewings, only one person commissioned a survey, and she didn't bid. In the end the gameplaying buyer bid the most and I sold to him - for £10K less than he'd offered me through the estate agent. Auction fees were £6,600, solicitor was £1300 - I lost out big time.

If you've got a proceedable buyer, I'd bite their hand off, and drive off into the sunset :)

You could possibly get another £16k although you can’t be sure. You’d have (slightly) higher agent fees and more capital gains tax to pay. And more hassle, maybe. I’d carry on with these buyers OP.

We had 2 buyers bidding against each other as soon as market opened after lockdown.

So to anyone tracking this on Rightmove it would look like any of the other quick sales that are happening.

You don’t know that the other houses being sold are going for asking price.

Personally I’d stick with an uncomplicated buyer, far less stress!

@TheNewLook On MNs I tend to find if you're a buyer who pulls out, interested person who offers lower than listed price etc you're a terrible person.

If your a seller who wants to pull out or increase the price it's ok. It's odd as most people are both at some stage of the process.

You aren't losing 16k, that's money that never existed, simply put into your minds by the estate agent's valuation. All this "giving a stranger 16k" is ridiculous.

I hate the housing market, I hate the fact that people think it is their god given right to make money on it. Not you OP, you sound like a breath of fresh air in a sea of selfish money grabbers.

You are making money, not losing.

You made the decision to sell based on the situation at the time; you don't know what would happen if you re-listed. I applaud you for sticking with your buyers!

I've no idea what you mean by "cash buyer with 25% deposit"

There was a thread a while ago discussing the property market where I said a drop would actually help some people (like me) move up the ladder. One poster thought I was talking out of my arse & couldn't see the rationale. No matter how many times I explained it she didn't understand why I would consider selling my house for under the perceived market value & could only see it as me giving money away. 🤷‍♀️

@Patch23042

You could possibly get another £16k although you can’t be sure. You’d have (slightly) higher agent fees and more capital gains tax to pay. And more hassle, maybe. I’d carry on with these buyers OP.

You don’t pay capital gains tax on your primary residence.

I’m glad I live in Scotland. Up here there are hardly any sellers who pull out after offer has been accepted, so a much less stressful occasion. If any do pull out to try and get higher price, none of the reputable Solicitors / Estate Agents will touch them with a barge pole. Also no worry about Freehold and Leasehold.

My son wanted to buy a house, but couldn’t do so by himself, so I agreed to buy one 50:50 with him. We looked at the houses for sale in area he wanted and arranged to see 2 houses the following morning. He loved the first one, it was perfect, but we went to see other house anyway, which he hated. Decided he wanted first one, so I phoned bank to arrange a mortgage and we were given an appointment the same afternoon. Mortgage was approved in principal, straight away. Saw solicitor same afternoon and put in an offer. Offer was accepted the following morning. Son was in his house within 4 weeks. Easy and no problems. Daughter was much the same, offered and in house within 5 weeks! I think the English system is awful, with all the pulling out and demanding increases or decreases in price, right up to the final day.

Op, do the right thing, and go with your original buyer and price agreed on. You know it is the correct and moral thing to do.

@VinylDetective it's the not OPs home

You would have been unlikely to get a cash/chain free buyer to offer full asking price so I wouldn’t see it as losing £16.5k if you’re wanting a fairly hassle free sale.