AIBU to decrease house price offer?

[Onefortheroad1]

Our offer on a house was accepted in late summer. Since then obviously there has been a lot of upheaval, lots of mortgage offers pulled, rocketing interest rates and house price drops widely expected.

If you were buying would you seek to renegotiate and lower the price because we are not committed to buying yet and the economy has got significantly worse since our offer was accepted? Or do you just think this is part of home ownership and we should proceed as agreed.

If it makes a difference the sellers have lived there for a while and the value of the house has increased significantly so I think they are mortgage free so a lower offer won’t push them towards negative equity or a financial loss.

I want to be fair and reasonable to the seller but can’t afford to overpay as prices come crashing down.

Your presuming that reducing the offer won't affect them but what if they have purchased their next home based on what they expect to recieve from their sale. You run the risk of collapsing the whole chain and then you'll be looking at a new purchase which will cost you more in the long run.

I would really just think it is a home you want to spend a long time in ? Many crappy houses were having bidding wars the market thankfully is calming down in a lot of places. I wouldn't want to have paid top prices for a crappy house. I would rather pay a lower price but a higher interest rate on a better property. It purely depends how much you love the house.

Don't think about the sellers feelings , you are the one that's going to have to pay the bill.

Unless I was desperate to sell I'd tell you to shove it. Everyone knows the process takes months, you make an offer based on the circumstances at the time you make it. Unless something comes up that means the property was not what you thought (like a survey telling you there's a massive subsidence problem) you shouldn't change it.

Think of it the other way, how would you feel if prices were rising and every time you were close to exchanging contracts the vendor said "things have changed since I accepted your offer, so you have to pay me £10K more now"? You'd tell them to get stuffed.

The longest recession in 100 years just ponder what that means for a moment and the effect on house prices. It will take some time for that to translate into much lower sold prices but it most surely will. Thousands of buyers will be having the same thoughts and many will act on that. Prices must and will fall don't overpay.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/03/bank-england-warn-uk-economy-longest-recession-100-year-raise-rate-three-percent

It depends on whether you like the house/if it’s in a good area etc. You don’t say that there are any problems with the house itself so if you want to still want it you should go ahead. House prices will take a while to fall but then you will be under a higher rate mortgage so it’s all the same.

People coming on here saying it’s fair to haggle- it would have been fair to do this when you our the offer in but not 2 months done the line presumably just before you at about to exchange! YABU

Do you understand ‘the market’ has changed since the summer (mortgages, energy costs, people having to go in the office a bit more etc.) and this impacts value - so actually house characteristics are very important.

ha! Me too! Oh the words I’ve shouted at that man in my head that I never got to
say!

I’d put the house back in the market if you pulled this shit with me

We dropped our offer before exchange. I was prepared to walk away (in fact I wanted to) but they accepted and we proceeded.

Our buyers dropped their offer before exchange when we sold that house 7 years later. We accepted it and moved on.

It's a transaction, business. If you're totally fine with losing the house if they say no, fuck off, then go for it.

For me personally, it meant I felt I hadn't overpaid and that meant more to me then not annoying someone I didn't know, or care about.

OP needs to realise they if age loses this house, she loses her mortgage offer and the rate that's on.

Weigh that up against what she's saving.

Prices are still rising where we are. You can offer what you like but if I were your vendor I’d be going back on the market.

You don’t go into a shop and offer a reduced price because you think it may be cheaper in a few months.

We sold earlier this year and while I know it was a different market a few months ago it still stands (with me at least) that I wouldn't want to done to me and I wouldn't do it to someone else.

When we were going through the B&F's we told the EA that we would not entertain any last minute reductions and would pull from the sale if they tried it (we were not in a chain so while a delay may have been annoying it wasn't the end of the world).

Sorry to pick on you Wibbly but your comment was one of the shorter “to the point” ones that expressed this sentiment. I just don’t understand this at all - it’s a business deal. Why do you approach it emotionally? Surely it’s a purely financial decision.

1)Buyer makes an offer
2)Seller accepts
3)Circumstances change (in this case, the buyer reasonably believes that the house is about to significantly depreciate in value, making it a much less attractive and stable investment)
4)Buyer revises their offer in light of the changed circumstances
5) Seller considers the current market - not what the market was a few months ago - and calculates the likely price that would be achieved if the property went back on the market/likely time frame to sell/additional costs in interest rates if their mortgage offer for next property expires/sunk costs in terms of any surveys and solicitors fees/likelihood of finding another onward property etc and weighs all of this against the buyer’s revised offer.
6) If the buyer’s revised offer, when all of the above is considered, still makes the seller’s onward purchase an attractive investment, they accept
7) If the buyer’s revised offer renders the seller’s onward purchase, with all of the above considered, no longer viable or an attractive investment then the seller rejects the offer and either counter-offers or goes back to market.

Why would you make a large financial decision on a point of pride? Genuine question. I simply can’t understand approaching a business deal this way.

Am I correct that OP posted once and hasn't been back since ?

I can't see any other posts from
@Onefortheroad1

It's very telling her or she hasn't been back

House offers being accepted and house sales and the long chains that ensue are done on good faith. Ultimately house prices always go up long term (unless it's a plan to flip within a year and market wobbles) (which is why a Cash buyer might not always be the best bet)

Anyway
I would be really upset and withdraw from sale if a buyer whos has their offer accepted devises to lower offer later as they were being greedy to take advantage of temporary dip in market, fair enough is they hit genuine problems but not if it was cos they delayed and then wanted to shake me down. I would not see them as serious buyers nor trustworthy and it would sour my relationship with them and the EAs relationship with them

A few years ago I had a buyer try to shake me down after we'd accepted their offer and had stopped other viewings and before they did a survey which they still hadn't arranged. So there was no legitimate reason

I put house back in market and also told EA we were not accepting any further offers from them even if back to or above original asking price they had agreed

2 months of waiting and they tried to do a shake down 😡

The EA never took another offer from them after that not for me nor others as EA through they were not serious buyers after then either

The Black Belt Barrister who I have followed for a while and who is always sensible, balanced and informed as a barrister should be has just posted a video explaining why we are on the brink of an imminent housing crash and market collapse. A sobering watch and why you should stay out of the market now if you have any choice in the matter.

YABVU - it's a really shitty thing to do.

If I were your buyer I would tell you to fuck off and cancel the sale.

Around where I live there are people desperately looking to buy houses and there are so few on the market. My neighbour sold her house back in January and moved in with her Father temporarily. She's still there, looking for a house to buy, so if their area is similar it won't take them long to find new, better buyers.

I'm guessing if house prices were forecast to rise, you wouldn't be rushing to pay more. {hmm]

Why would you be such a CFer?

Try it and hopefully the sellers will tell you to sling your hook.

my pet hate too when OPs post, get 100s of replies and don’t come back!

EAs definitely blacklist where we are (London) and talk to one another. I hope you are not set on moving to whatever area your sellers are in, otherwise your shake down will mean you never move there. At least one thing EAs get right.

That’s illegal. Estate agents are obliged to present all offers to the vendor. This is either completely untrue or the agent is very unprofessional.