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?!

Depends. how much did you pay for the house originally?

The only price that matters is the price you complete at. Everything else is just negotiation. I'd expect (at least outside the insanity that is London) that most for sale prices include a premium to reflect that most buyers will make an offer below the asking price.

The stamp duty holiday had probably forced the hand of a lot of potential buyers but if a second lockdown happens, things may well get messy in a hurry.

You've got buyers ready to go. Feel free to pull out and see what happens. You may well get the asking price now but who's to say that they wouldn't, if their circumstances changed wouldn't be asking for a price cut.

Vinyl
It hasn’t been her PPR since 2012. I imagine the CGT will be minimal though.

You don’t have to pull out of the sale and relist - you can contact the buyers and say that due to the market moving you now want more money and see what they say. The people we bought our house off tried this - we refused to offer more and the sale went through as originally planned, but your buyers might increase their offer (especially if you bring in the SDLT saving etc).

The risk is that by doing this you piss them off and they withdraw their offer (as a PP mentioned up thread). But if you want to try to make more money then this is what I’d do rather than relist (but obviously saying that you’d withdraw from the sale and relist to the buyers!).

Market timing is always a mugs game. I've made plenty of mistakes with shares over the years, trying to guess market movements. You could always wonder "what if", but it might not always swing in your favour.

@Duggeeismysaviour

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.

Actually that is true, most money is artificial!

It's just what someone is prepared to pay for something.

Agree OP sounds ethical, hope it works out. I had a devil of a time few years back with selling a house and the estate agents dropped the price by £10k without our permission.

It got sorted out but it alarmed us at the time.

I would stick with it unless buyers become difficult.

Houses are going quickly at the moment that’s true, but I’m buying and selling right now so paying close attention to my local market. Lots of houses that sold a few weeks ago are back on the market due to chains collapsing and/or values downvaluing. I can’t see the market is going to stay this buoyant after furlough ends and with Brexit looming. To be honest I would have pulled out a few weeks ago rather than leaving it to just before exchange; yes you are perfectly entitled to but it’s just awful!

can you pay their survey/legal fees and pull out? Probably a lot less than losing the market race increase on your house.

Talk to your agent. They represent you. They will be honest with you about the condition of your house vs the other sales locally which may we’ll be far better maintained / updated family homes - realistically yours is not going to be in the best possible co diction after 8 years of tenants

Why would you miss out on 16.5k just to be nice ? That makes you a mug!! Not nice.

@Playmysong

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.

I agree!

At one point a few years ago it looked as though England was going to adopt the Scottish system - but all they finally did was insist on a Buyers Pack with house details of survey etc i.As this has to be updated frequently, it didn't save anyone - buyer or seller - any stress at all.

The Scottish system, where unless there turns out to be a cellar full of rats which have eaten through the electrics (or whatever) then a verbal contract is binding, is by far the better.

There are some absolute rogues out there who often have no intention of paying (or accepting) the agreed on price, and it is so unfair on people who enter the contract in good faith, often having spent a fortune on surveys etc.

*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.*

Completely agree with this.
You've made money with this house already - it has risen in value, you've rented it out for years, and you aren't needing to buy a new property.

I would think it crazy, and unethical, to pull out from committed buyers for a mythical possible 16k, on top of the profit you have already made from this house.

You have a history of being unable to sell this house in the past (presumably because it was priced too high). So you put it back on the market, maybe you get an offer for 16k more, maybe not, maybe you have a local lockdown and everything stalls, maybe your new buyer loses their job, can't get a mortgage, their chain collapses, or house prices reduce. And your current buyer has lost the money they spent on the survey and been sorely disappointed.

And if you do manage to sell it for 16k more - is that a life changing sum of money for you? Worth the extra risk, uncertainty, stress?

Personally once I'd agreed a sale I'd take my eye off the 'market' and count the bird in the hand. A bit different if someone NEEDS the money e.g. to purchase next house which has gone up, but this isn't the case for you.

Omg, take the bird in hand @PampassGrass. It's a sellers' market but not in every circumstance and not for long.

Its a shame but I'd go with it; little else you can do. These things happen. Chalk it up to experience and move on.

Why would you miss out on 16.5k just to be nice ? That makes you a mug!! Not nice.

🤦🏼‍♀️ and this is one reason why selling & buying is so stressful.

OP, I too would sell at the price you have agreed and not worry about what might have been. A pleasant, chain free buyer is a massive plus. Anything else and you just never know what will happen.

I do understand your thoughts though as we were once in a very similar position. We were in a semi, and next door was being marketed at the same time for a LOT more than ours. However, we had struggled and failed to sell ours only 2 years before in a pretty much unchanged market, so when a buyer offered us only just short of our asking price, we said yes. There was real temptation to increase our price due to next door, but we knew in reality that ours was fairly priced and it was only beacuse of next door that we wavered for a moment. We stuck to our agreement and the feeling of relief when the sale went through was immense.

We've also seen problems from the opposite end. As potential (chain free) buyers, we offered £490k on a house on sale for £495k. The sellers kept pushing for more as they had 'lots of interest', so we walked away. Last I saw the price was reduced to £475k. Another property for sale at £450k, they turned down an offer of £435k, over 2 years ago. This house is still for sale.

If you have a pleasant chain free buyer, hang on to them. So many property purchases fail, IMO it's not worth the risk.

I would honour the agreement .
Around here houses are selling and there are a lot on the market but the sales are all for ones that appear to be at. The 'right ' price. There is an expectation around here that this surge will be short lived and curtailed by redundancies. There are lots of houses that are dropping prices because they were marketed at too high a price in the first place. Despite a very active market I am not convinced that prices have changed. Apart from the fact that you have an agreement in place you could be stuck in a chain for ages to and end up losing out so reneging is far from a given financially.

How long was the house on the market for before you accepted. Are houses actually selling for the prices they are listed for in your area and is your house ‘different?’ I.e difficult to sell?

You could pull out and put it back on the market but risk it not selling or another lockdown or anything in between. If the buyers have paid for surveys etc I think it’s a shitty thing to do to pull out now.

@TryAnotherNickname

Talk to your agent. They represent you. They will be honest with you about the condition of your house vs the other sales locally which may we’ll be far better maintained / updated family homes - realistically yours is not going to be in the best possible co diction after 8 years of tenants

Sorry for delay in responding. Been out! Thank you to all who have posted.

Despite being rented or 8 years, the house is in reasonable nick as we repainted all rooms to sell and carpeted throughout. Boiler 4 years old and all gas appliances serviced yearly. Flat roof only just replaced.

@Flynn999

How long was the house on the market for before you accepted. Are houses actually selling for the prices they are listed for in your area and is your house ‘different?’ I.e difficult to sell?

You could pull out and put it back on the market but risk it not selling or another lockdown or anything in between. If the buyers have paid for surveys etc I think it’s a shitty thing to do to pull out now.

Only about 5 seconds! We had some viewings just before lockdown which didn't lead to any offers (put it on market mid march). When came out of lockdown, had two sets of people interested the same day market reopened. Accepted higher of the two offers and house then immediately took the house off the market. I have just arrived at house to find next door's up for sale, no doubt encouraged by our success!

How do you know you’d definitely get the asking price? You don’t. That’s why you accepted this offer.
All the other houses selling quickly (like yours did) might be over priced (as well) and selling for less. I think this is quite likely so that the sellers can get offers accepted on a house they want to buy.

@SeaToSki

What are your holding costs on the house? Council tax, water rates etc etc. Then dont forget the capital cost of the money, so what return on the money you would get from the house sale you could expect if it was invested in the stock market (maybe a conservative 3%). Add all that up and see when the break even on 16,500 is. That is how quickly you would have to relist, get an offer, exchange and complete to just break even on the idea.

Costs of house standing empty is £500 per month

Houses may be being 'snapped up' around you, but do you know for what price? They may not be reaching the asking price

@damnthatanxiety

Houses may be being 'snapped up' around you, but do you know for what price? They may not be reaching the asking price

I won't know what other houses actually sold for until sales go through and they can be looked up online. Could be about 6 months down the line.