To tell gazunderer to do one?

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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 agree!

Demanding a reduction in the day of exchange and completion isn't "negotiating" it's "Pay this or I'll pull out" and basically extortion.

Accepting £20K less than the asking price is better than having to accept £25K

Actually, I would prefer to get a lower price from an honest buyer than a good price from that type of twister, who deliberately waits until the last minute, thinking that that way they would have the vendor over a barrel
.

If yesterdays interest rate rise and all the dire market reports hadn’t been published - I would be less understanding

But he had fresh info

Any update OP?

Negotiation is part of my job. I know exactly how markets work.

The negotiation happens when you agree the price. It may be re-opened if due diligence (for a house, the survey and searches) reveals issues the buyer wasn't aware of when making their offer. But agreeing a price then trying to force the seller to accept a lower price when you think you've got them over a barrel is not negotiation.

I wouldn't even drop it by £10k. Tell him no.

I had a side job as an estate agent

id tell my sellers to stay firm…if you were my client. If you could afford for him to walk then do it. If you can’t then I’d drop it. But the estate agent will have a feel for what the buyer will do….that’s their job!

"Oh the irony"? Some things are timeless.

Yes, I agree with this. This buyer has proved himself unreliable- what's to stop him pulling the same stunt again?

I think this thread is really interesting, though, because while the sale of a home is obviously an emotional process, and also a transaction that's not entirely governed by the harsh realities of what's possible in a given market (e.g. the necessity to sell for a certain amount in order to afford the onward property) - and all of that's clearly reflected in the leap to intransigence in 85% of the posts - this property is different because it's a probate sale, no one is living there, there's no chain, it may or may not have been the home of a party to the transaction, it's potentially a problem property to unload and is only going to cost the estate money with every month it remains unsold. OP is well placed to make a pragmatic decison and yet moral outrage is still largely governing people's responses.

Having come through a bruising transaction myself only recently, I really do relate to the sense of outrage (even by proxy) when a buyer (or seller for that matter) behaves badly, but is it a good basis for decisionmaking? Yes, the buyer is trying it on, may well have planned this from the start, may or may not be a person you'd want to be friends with, etc etc. But they also hold the purse strings in what is increasingly a buyers' market, as @GasPanic says. People may feel they're empathisisng when they bandy around terms like blackmail and extortion, but the reality of OP's situation isn't helped by being encouraged to see it in such emotional terms imo.

This

What an absolute CF. You've totally done the right thing calling his bluff.

@DepartureLounge

I think this thread is really interesting, though, because while the sale of a home is obviously an emotional process, and also a transaction that's not entirely governed by the harsh realities of what's possible in a given market (e.g. the necessity to sell for a certain amount in order to afford the onward property) - and all of that's clearly reflected in the leap to intransigence in 85% of the posts - this property is different because it's a probate sale, no one is living there, there's no chain, it may or may not have been the home of a party to the transaction, it's potentially a problem property to unload and is only going to cost the estate money with every month it remains unsold. OP is well placed to make a pragmatic decison and yet moral outrage is still largely governing people's responses.

I think if you can afford to do so - in this case if none of the beneficiaries are desperate for their share of the estate - it's nice to have the luxury of saying NO to a CF. They probably don't hear it very often and don't believe it when they do. If OP and others are happy to relist, it may give them a good feeling to imagine his face when he realises she means it.

It’s not ideal or particularly fair but it is legal so I’m not really surprised so many people try their luck. I think it is particularly common with probate properties as the buyers often think the sellers are desperate to be rid of the property and they see it as ‘free’ money so think a few thousand here or there won’t make a difference.

You need to be stern with you EA. We are currently selling a probate property and have told the EA in no uncertain terms that we are in no rush to sell and are not interested in anyone messing around. In a situation like this I would demand that the property was remarketed immediately. Not because of my personal feelings or not wanting to negotiate, but to mark a clear line in the sand. You don’t want to be messed around and you are more than happy to hold off for the right price.

The EA works for you not the cf but when a sale is in grasp they will generally take the path of least resistance. Make sure he realises that you won’t be giving in under any circumstances so so if they want the sale they need to do what you say asap.

Keen on an update from the OP, I'm nervous for them!

Tell them to fuck right off.

It's full of non professsional negotiators who don't understand how markets work and will hold out for the price they want, even if they are faced with an obvious market signals such as an affordability crisis (rising interest rates)

So are you saying that it would be better if, instead of one family owning one home, they were all owned by a few professional negotiators with all the rest of them dependent on them for life for our homes?

There's no issue with negotiating at all - and seeking professional advice if required - at the negotiating stage.

If yesterdays interest rate rise and all the dire market reports hadn’t been published - I would be less understanding

But he had fresh info

Everybody has known for some time that this is going to be happening - the exact dates when it does happen are the only small surprise.

Surely people aren't in the process of buying houses - second houses at that - that they suddenly can't afford when (not if) the next interest rate rise comes? Mortgage lenders will have been very hot on affordability and allowing plenty of leeway for the inevitable rate rises; and for people who are genuine cash buyers, it's not going to directly affect them anyway.

I’d give your EA a deadline, it not all sorted by certain date and this price, deal is off and flat goes back on the market.

Cf either pays up or buys the smaller flat. Good luck

I’m not particularly offended by someone trying their luck in this way although I may be mildly annoyed.

That being said I would actually say that overall a probate sale may well be even more emotionally charged than the sale of your own home. It certainly is for us. It is a problem property in the sense that none of us want to be in this position, but it’s an in demand home and we are in no rush to dispose of it. None of us would be rushing to reduce the property price for the benefit of a cf trying their luck just because we have no chain. And I wouldn’t give a flying fuck if it’s costing the EA - that is what we are paying them (handsomely) for.

A friend has moved into one and her service charges are almost £6k a year. That's nearly half my pension income, I'll never be able to afford to live in one, It'll have to be a bungalow in a cheap area for me when I can no longer manage the stairs. She still has all the usual utility bills and council tax on top of that £6k, too.

I suspect that most people looking to buy flats are FTBs, so way below the lower age limit for retirement developments, so the market is pretty limited. The limited demand means they're cheaper, I guess.

My Mum lives in one. It's lovely too. and less than half the cost to buy than a bungalow in our area. Her fees come to about £350 a month and that includes water, window washing weekly, communal areas all cleaned weekly. If I was every alone and Dh was dead I'd buy one. It'd leave me with a massive chunk of money to use in retirement.

I would tell them where to go

This, but flat will go back in the market with another agent. EA is much more likely to help if they think it will cost them a commission

I would take great pleasure in not selling to them at all (if you can afford it).