To tell gazunderer to do one?

[Mustnotbeleftblank]

Selling a probate property, due to exchange and complete today. Agreed price was £20k less than asking/previous purchase price and included all furniture. Ours was the show home apartment, and another was put on the market which is empty, much smaller and in a less favourable, dark and dingy aspect at £20k lower than our agreed price 🙄 this flat is with an EA who persistently undervalues these properties which is why I did not use them.

Received a call from our Estate Agents yesterday. Buyer still wants our apartment but now wants to pay the same as the cheaper, crappier one or he'll withdraw and buy the other apartment. I am properly pissed, but offer £10k off to get it past the line.

Buyer is firm, £20k less or he'll walk.

I think the buyer is trying their luck, the other property was marketed in March. I've seen the buyer at the building whilst clearing out the property, I know they've been to look at the other flat long before this week and I suspected that he would try something like this at the last minute. I am also confident it's our flat he wants, just at the crap flat's price.

I've made them wait for my response, and having slept on it I am of the mind to hold firm on the £10k drop, requiring immediate exchange to stop him dicking about, or deal's off. If he walks, I will still have the property to remarket as well as all the furniture the buyer wanted included in the sale which will cover fees to date, and he'll have taken the competing property off the market.

AIBU to not reduce further and wish them luck with the other property if they withdraw, or do I suck up losing £20k?

Selling a property in England sucks.

I'd tell the buyer to get lost too.

However, are you sure the flat is still worth that price? Prices have dropped. Houses have been on the market for months around where I am.

We also have a probate property to sell - MIL died about a year ago and her house is up for sale. We do have a buyer but contracts haven't been exchanged yet. The whole process takes ridiculously long. Who knows if we'll still be here in a year :(

I think you should be bound from when you say you'll have a property and pay a deposit - say 5% of the sale price. Unless you have a good and legally specified reason to pull our (buyer can't get a mortgage, something dreadful on the survey or either party contracts terminal/serious illness or dies) you should lose the deposit if you do.

Call their bluff and sell it super easily to someone else.

Yes this is true but completely unrealistic in my view. Nothing would ever get done! SIL was told this too by the lawyers. We told her to simply accept what she can get within reason and just tell us what she is doing.

There might be 20 beneficiaries - how can you possibly consult with them all and get agreement? It is a good reason not to leave money to charity, though. Or at least, you make sure you leave a fixed sum, not a % of the estate. Otherwise they get greedy.

It's not about emotions or ego. It's a deal. There is a right way and a wrong way to behave when you're doing a deal, but even that isn't about personal values or insults. It's about doing the best deal. Ultimately, it's bricks and mortar, and money. Homes are homes because of our experiences in them, and we take those experiences with us when we leave. The buildings themselves aren't imbued with magical properties.

This is an estate sale. The buyer is 100% thinking about money and the OP should be, too.

I am not sure the market is up for selling super-easily to someone else. Especially a retirement flat. They can be very hard to sell although it depends on the location and how many others there are.

@Lcb123 I hope you lose not just the property, but everything you've spent on the purchase so far. You've just shown what kind of people you are...
Fingers crossed the vendors will refuse to sell their hard-earned home to you at all.

Being an executor in an estate which contains property is rarely a nice problem to have. Very very often the money pales into insignificance next to the work, stress and hassle.

Also, a totally heartless comment. Probate = someone has died. Very likely that that wasn't a nice problem.

Desperate to flog it? Flog = sell for whatever you can get, which is the opposite of what the OP is allowed to do (irrelevant what she wants to do). Desperate? Her state of mind is irrelevant in an estate sale, and in any event there's nothing suggesting desperation in OP's posts.

Spend all the cash? Are you reading a different thread?

Spend all the cash so she can take a 10k drop? What does this mean?

I see no poor me attitude, I see frustration with being dicked about.

It's shitty being a lifelong renter and closed out of property ownership. If this is you, you should direct your anger at the people who brought this state of affairs about (the Tories), not post illogical, irrelevant and erroneous non sequiturs on MN.

@lieselotte - I didnt say she needs to consult all the beneficiaries- but she does have to act in conjunction with the other exeutor(s) so they aren’t collectively held responsible by beneficiaries who believe they’ve been short changed. She may be sole of both though.

Yep, I was being sarcastic.

Or just leave it empty. Not like we have a housing crisis.

most posters on this thread:
”OMG call their bluff, what cheek, just leave it empty until you get every dime you can”
the same posters on other threads:
”we need to build more houses”
”there aren’t enough properties in this country”

Often the executor isn't the person who is benefitting, either.

The OP's situation and some of the comments endorsing such an unpleasant behaviour really makes me realise just how nasty some people are.

I'm glad to hear you are withdrawing your offer @Mustnotbeleftblank .

If some did that to me, I would absolutely refuse to sell to them as a point of principle even if it meant cutting off my nose to spite my face.

He's refused your £10k offer, I'd now withdraw the offer and remarket the flat if he doesn't exchange within 7 days.

That’s ridiculous though. The “buyer” had the EA remove it from the market after making what everyone thought was a good faith deal. He obviously has time and money to fool around, obviously not in a hurry to get his mother moved. His attitude is the one causing additional stress on the market, not the OP.

Ditto with whomever upthread has already mapped out a plan to make an offer then fail to honor it. It’s a shitty way to make a few pounds.

Hello, 2020 called and wants their insults back.

I concur with other posters. Withdraw the £10k offer and instruct it to go back on the market. They can take it or leave it.

The OP's situation and some of the comments endorsing such an unpleasant behaviour really makes me realise just how nasty some people are.

Sums up Mummysalwaysright really well.

Hold firm. You are more than generous with the £10k reduction. He clearly knows your flat is the more desirable one otherwise he would have put an offer in for the other one and not bother trying to negotiate with you. Hold firm, you have the upper hand and don't let him make you think otherwise!

Good luck x

I would be very clear to the EA that the 10k is off the table, and if the CF doesn’t exchange today you will withdraw the sale and rent it out. So he will loose any commission. He is supposed to be working for you, so make him sweat a bit!

Is it all to do with the ground rents and service charges? We recently went through all this with my MIL buying a retirement flat, and there is a huge spectrum with similar flats in similar areas having wildly different values which mainly go inversely to whatever the monthly charges are. Some spectacularly cheap places but with service charges that are almost as high as if you were just renting, and some with minimal service charges that might be double the cost to buy!

I'd say no but when was the sale agreed? Does the other really EA undervalue. I'd be asking your EA about your chances of getting the same offer if you pull out. Rates are rising again.

Where is it? 😆 We’ve just had an investment purchase fall through due to being unmortgagable due to suspected asbestos 🤦🏼‍♀️….fuming as it was perfect to do up and sell on.

Sorry op but these flats are low value and take ages to sell. You won't be having bidding wars over it. The reason is the management and service charges can excessively go up, the charges might be lowish now they might not be in a few years. Retirement flats are a ponzi scheme hence the horrendous resale values.

Oh the irony. When did people first start using that one?

Unless you are prepared to hold the property, I’d be more agreeable I’m afraid. Interest rate increases have spooked the market here. Reductions are in 6 figures!