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 think it was more because he thought everyone would need a mortgage so even if we had a new buyer straightaway that their mortgage would take time to arrange so he could swoop in as someone who had their mortgage in place and could sign immediately.

EA said he was shocked to learn that we had put the price up and that there were people who had enough in the bank to buy a property without a mortgage.

Should add the flat had hit the market 9 months before and I had in total 3 buyers who had got to the day before or day off exchange and pull out.
Nothing wrong with the flat. Just FTBs getting cold feet.

It's a game of chicken and it's been going on for decades. CF buyers wait until (they think) the seller can't afford to refuse, then drop their offer price at the very last minute.

You have to go into a sale with a strong disposition and be prepared for this shit.

I have to admit I would feel zero guilt for pulling out and buying an identical spec house for a much cheaper price. Maybe I'm a cheeky fucker and evil but I don't think anyone is entitled to my money. They won't be paying the bills. It's like if I found a car on autotrader said I was interested then found an identical one for cheaper.

But it’s not identical, it’s much smaller. I agree with the ‘cunty fucker waiting till last minute to reduce offer, hoping you are in a chain etc’ scenario. Just say no.

Feefooo. But it isn’t an identical place. It is smaller. U.K. property listings don’t seem to have price per square metre on the listings. I always work it out if I am looking at similar places.

If price per Sqm was listed it would probably show the difference between the 2 places and it would be plain to see why op’s flat is more expensive

Yeah I agree ops buyer is a snake but yeah not all requests for a reduction are cheeky fuckery.

Cash buyer and quick sale is the way to go. It can take so long with mortgages and chains. I hate selling houses and I also hate buying them. So much stress.

This is so true and made me laugh, having been royally messed around by a so-called cash buyer who was actually buying with cash from a BTL mortgage they were getting on their current home (aka just being a normal buyer except a bit more greedy).

In any case, selling to a genuine cash buyer, while superficially attractive in some respects, does lay you open to the kind of 11th-hour shite OP is dealing with today. Someone with a mortgage offer that had the purchase price on it in black and white wouldn't be able to get away with it.

Can work the other way as well, sellers market and sellers can try to get more. It's all business isn't it.

Put it back on the market (without withdrawing from this sale). If the buyer's going to play silly buggers than (a) you're entitled to do the same, (b) it's a perfectly rational response to what appears to be an imminent collapse of the deal anyway.

Then walk! CF

Happened to my mother, 40 k low ball on the Friday from buyer but back to full price on the following Monday. People should Pay what they bid originally..... save for any adjustments post survey.

Tell them to fuck off, and when they get there, fuck off some more. I wouldn't even have reduced it so you're already nicer than me

Yes, that's gazumping.

It's really shitty behaviour but our crap system encourages it. We need an overhaul.

I have to admit I would feel zero guilt for pulling out and buying an identical spec house for a much cheaper price. Maybe I'm a cheeky fucker and evil but I don't think anyone is entitled to my money. They won't be paying the bills. It's like if I found a car on autotrader said I was interested then found an identical one for cheaper.

Others might well disagree, but I personally don't think it's quite as bad to completely pull out as it is to want to proceed but fully intend the vendor to take a sudden big hit, just because you reckon that they will be too desperate to refuse.

It's all about intentions: if you've found a better offer that somebody else has willingly made, that's nowhere near as bad as trying to heavily pressure your seller into changing the offer that they have agreed to.

Put it back on the market and drop this buyer immediately, if they are serious they will carry on and pay the original price. We had this and it was not the end of it. Once they sense softness, these pshyco's push it all the way. We wasted 2 months longer than we should have with this behaviour.

There is a difference between ending the deal and playing mindgames/blackmail

No don't drop.

As it's a probabte property, you're presumably not in a chain, so I wouldn't even knock £10k off. Tell them to jog on.

I agree.

One is protecting your interests and getting the best available deal. The other is exploitative, manipulative, dishonest and calculated.

Surely they'll lose their deposit if they pull out now?
In any event I discussed this with my husband imwhen selling our house in case it happened. In the event it didn't but we had already decided anyone mucks us around we blow them off. No 2nd chances.

No exchange of contacts = no deposit paid

No. If contracts haven't been exchanged then no deposit has yet been paid. It's after exchange of contracts that they stand to lose out.

They are when they’re produced the day before exchange.