House back on the market

[WhenWillISleepThroughTheNight]

Hi everyone

I have so much that's happened just lately - I've just lost a baby so I can't think straight. Hence I thought I would ask mumsnet.

We offered on a house back in May. We had a mortgage in principle when we offered.

Offer accepted, then we were waiting for the mortgage to go through fully, however 90 days later the bank changed their lending criteria and dropped us (we are self employed and had SEISS grants).

Now we have another lender but of course there have been additional delays. We've updated the estate agent as much as we can but there have been quiet moments when nothing has happened.

Agent called me to tell me they are going to put the house back on the market with another agent.

I have spoken to our bank and it seems we are about a week away from going to offer and the solicitor has already done all the searches etc and is just waiting for the offer to put forward a completion date.

This morning we saw the new advert for the house.

It is at a lower price.

We have been the unwilling cause of the delay.

What would you do? I mean, should we ask to reduce the price to match the new asking price? Would you?

The delay is on our side but we have done everything we can to minimise it and update the agent.

I am under so much stress. I don't know what to do. I envisage we can realistically complete within four weeks now.

If you still want the house , stick with your original offer. You have to come back from being a buyer who could not proceed so you do not want to cause any more negative feelings

The original agent has their eye on completing the sale and collecting their fee. They will say whatever to try to gee you along. Until you get to a point where you can exchange you won't be taken seriously as a proceedable buyer, at any price. Sorry you are in such a stressful position.

Ensure that your solicitor has notified their solicitor that the searches are in and you're a week away from offer.

If you want them to stick with you then don't lower your offer. It's an incentive to hang on to yours.

Realistically they're unlikely to find a cash buyer this side of Christmas so you may be lucky.

5000 is a very small amount to haggle over for a house you want.

That said I live in Ireland and house prices are so high. they are selling for 20K+ more than the asking prices.

sorry but they have probably gone with someone else because they are annoyed... at you, your the buyers.. they want a quicker sale, you can contact them but i wouldnt haggle when your the ones keeping the process from going on

I took it to mean happy to sell to them at the old price. Why on earth would the vendor reduce price for the OP?

Yes so did I. For now it is still a seller's market in most places. My DH is selling his DM's bungalow and has received 2 offers so far, 1 £10, 000 over asking price, the other £15, 000 over the asking price. He's accepted the £10, 000 one because the people are already in the process of selling their place, the other people are still deciding which estate agent to go with.....

Unless you need absolutely all the money you can get for your property, most sellers are willing to sell for a little less if it makes the whole process quicker and easier which is why cash buyers are like a golden egg. And the OP definitely doesn't sound like they fall into this camp (even if it isn't entirely their fault).

I would swallow the £5k. You sadly arent in a position to start bargaining the price down and May is an awfully long time ago. I am not surprised they have lost faith.

The positives are that you have already paid for the searches which is a good sign that you arent just stringing them along and perhaps a letter from the mortgage lender would help show how serious you are but I honestly would forget about the £5k.

Sweet is right. You get some right messing around with house buying and people tell woppers to try and get a house. Maybe they are ever hopeful or maybe they are time wasters.

I never want to deal with them. People who try and bully their way into looking at your house even though they are nowhere ready to sell theirs (or they say they are by stating of course it will go in a flash!) .We sold our last house 5 years ago and whilst the buyer was OK in the end he kept drip feeding what he wanted to do next and we were at a stage where we were just to say enough but it turned out Ok in the end.

@DaisyNGO

Tractor, sorry, I'm confused

I thought the house was listed for less and that the agent saying they were happy to sell to OP meant at the new price.

Maybe I'm just in a muddle, ignore me.

No worries it is a bit confusing. Basically OP had agreed to buy house from vendor at a certain price.

The vendor has now gone with a different agent and listed the house as 5K under price agreed with OP.

It is the original agent who has told the OP that house can still be sold. However why would vendor give OP a discount after going to all the trouble of getting a different agent and lowering the price?

Presumably the lowered price is to get a quick sale after the delay by the OP...

Talking about cash buyers. My agent did say they can blow with the wind because they think they are at a complete advantage having cash (which they are of course) but not if they end up messing around.

We had a cash buyer for my DF's house in London where we were overwhelmed with offers (unmodernised house). They moved so quickly because they knew if they didnt we would pick someone else

In fact my solicitor said we all needed to calm down!

If I were vendor I would be frustrated and disappointed with sale taking so long. Putting it back on market would be me realising I need another option. I would rather not sell to you after wasting my time I would only sell to you if I didn't have another offer by the time you were organised.

And if you dropped the offer I would only sell to you if I was struggling to put food on the table due to the additional cost of two homes.

I’d be astounded if they accepted a lower offer from you. The entire point of going back on the market is, presumably, that they think you’ve pissed them around so long. It might not be your fault but rightly or wrongly I don’t think I’d want to sell to you after all this time.

What's the loan to value ration on the mortgage? If the £5k change in offer moves you out of one LTV bracket to the next you'll need to start the whole mortgage process again!

Sorry you are having such an awful time at the moment.

The house may be marketed at a lower price but it doesn't mean they are expecting to accept a lower price.
This. Lots of houses go for more than the guide price at the moment. Oh, and what Flowers said. What is the house on for? £5k may not be a lot percentage wise, and trying to haggle now might cause more ill feeling.

No way decrease your offer. @Flowers500 is pretty spot on I would say. Can you do anything to push things ahead?

Go round explain to them in person about the delays and stick to your original offer. I wouldn't accept a lower price from you, I'd be frustrated at being messed around for so long. Although it's not your fault, they must be fed up.

Not sure why some people are being nasty.

Here’s what I’d do OP.

Chase your bank as much as possible. Get that mortgage offer. Get your solicitor to do everything they can (have searches etc been done?)
Then show mortgage offer to EA and say you are now totally proceedable and can exchange within [x days].
Don’t lower your offer. £5k reduction is very little and probably they just did it to attract new buyers (maybe searching in brackets just below their old price). Say you will pay original price.
Emphasise that the reason for the prior delays has now gone.

If the house has gone to someone else before you have your mortgage lined up… sorry I don’t think there is much you can do

Really sorry for your loss, and good luck with the house

@WhenWillISleepThroughTheNight

They have already moved as they're not in a chain. They want a quick procedable offer yes as they're still paying council tax there.

You owe yourself and your family's finances everything. YOu owe the vendor nothing. Do what you have to do!

They have dropped you already why on earth would they want to take you back but for less money, it makes no sense!

I imagine they've reduced in the hope of getting more people interested and selling quickly.

But surely if they've changed agent they'll have to pay the new agent because they are under contract with them and the old agent because they introduced you? Why would they want to do that?

I don't think I would negotiate but if you wanted to try, you are only in a position to do it when you have had the mortgage confirmed and you can fix a swift exchange/completion date.

Until that point you can't proceed and thus you have no negotiating power.

Only you can weigh up how much you want the house and risk the owners saying no or even worse refusing to sell to you.

Wait until you get your offer, get a realistic exchange and completion date, then go back in with the lower offer and a completion date. You can get your mortgage offer amended to match the new price in roughly 48 hours. Until you have your offer there is no point in trying to bargain with them.

I just put my parents house on the market
It had several offers and one at 20k over the asking price and it sold within a week
It’s a sellers market atm so I don’t think you stand much chance

I’ve already told the estate agent I that unless the survey the buyers are doing comes back and says the roof is falling down and the house is about to fall into a hole in the ground or the electrics are shot to pieces I won’t budge on the offer
it’s a probate sell and none of us urgently need the money so we are in a good position to hold tight

Idk if @WhenWillISleepThroughTheNight if you are intending on coming back. But you need to be aware that if you offer via the new agent, the old agent will also charge sellers fees. So best to stay with the old agent if you are able. Sounds as if you’re going through a tough time.

Why appoint a new agent? Why drop the price? I'm not sure that these vendors are in a strong position.
It's in the old agents interest for the vendors to sell to you - get them to advocate for you.
The negotiation isn't only down to money. The fact that you can (now) proceed quicker than anybody else should count for something.
How much extra Stamp Duty is it costing you to buy now instead of back in May?
What is the rest of the market doing? Are other properties coming down in price, too?