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.

Call his bluff don't reduce it even by a penny if he really wants it he'll buy. When we sold our first house the buyer tried a similar tactic halfway through the process we absolutely refused to reduce. Guess what they still bought it.

I think you mean a gazumper! You’re not being unreasonable. They’re definitely trying it on.£20k is a lot of money. It all depends on whether you’re okay with putting it back on the market. If you can, with no financial loss to yourself, tell them to go and do one.

No, she means a gazunderer. Gazumpers are sellers who try to up the price after accepting your offer, usually by keeping the house on the market and then telling you they have a better offer. Gazunderers try to reduce the offer at the last moment.

@Longleggedgiraffe why would you assume that?

Gazumping is a completely different thing.

Thanks again for feedback. It's definitely gazundering!I am being level headed about this. 2 months and a cash offer for these types of properties is much quicker than anyone expected. I know we have a premium property to sell in the development, hence holding firm on putting it on at a higher price than others like crap flat. As some other PP's have pointed out, they can sit there for months or even years with zero viewings and EA's talking them down to sellers and buyers (I found out yesterday the House Manager is doing this to try to secure the sale of the other flat, as they won't be getting a cut of our commission!!) because they want them off the books. But I get the ongoing costs burden too.

I would most definitely tell them that the property is back on the market. Do not take any reduced offer at this stage. They are trying it on. This happened with my parents 2 years ago when they sold their home, 2 weeks before completion they wanted to reduce their offer. They said no way, he came back with OK then, i'll buy anyway. Why someone would do that at such a late date is beyond me, but there are some as**les out there. Just stand firm.

Sell it 20k cheaper if you have to - but to some nice person who hasn’t dicked you about.

Sorry but 2 months on the market with 1 offer is not that bad. We had ours on much longer and past the 2 months had a few offers and finally it went for the asking price.
Obvs each property us different and OP will have to make a judgement based on their situation and preferences.

I’d withdraw your offer and go back to the original asking price. I know how they do this, so play him at his own game.

You are right to be level headed about it. The thing to remember about the other flat is that it is an asking price, there is every possibility they won't get that price. I could put my house on at £1,000,000 but I wouldn't get it.

@Dustyourselfoff No, OP never accepted £20k less? That's what the buyer is now offering AFTER originally offering more. OP said no....then did offer to take £10k off but buyer refused this.

Personally I wouldn’t even drop 10k. He’s trying to get a bigger, better aspect apartment for the same price as a lesser one. Along with all furniture. I’d tell him to do one!
This. I wouldn’t even drop 10k. I’d remove that offer if he refused it. Tell him it’s the price or nothing. Put it back on the market. If it’s attractive it will sell.

The fact that you aren’t pressured to sell should work in your favour.

Tell your solicitor to tell him he’s welcome to buy any property he wants, but the one he is alluding to is not as desirable and priced accordingly.

This, they are trying it on.

For me, personally I wouldn't have dropped the 10 in the first place.
You're being very generous already

When we bought our house, our solicitor refused to exchange and complete on the same day and said we needed a month in between. I believe this is to prevent this sort of thing happening. It also means the buyer loses their deposit which you then get if they fail to produce the monies for completion. So pulling this stunt would see them losing their deposit.

I'm glad you've stood firm. You had already dropped the price by 20K. This happened to the probate property in my family recently and we got another buyer for more money very quickly indeed. Don't let them mess you around. Your flat included furniture, is bigger and is in better condition. Those things have always been worth 10K each when buying.

We were gazumped. Seller accepted our offer and along came another buyer and offered over the asking price, which we couldn’t afford, so we lost it. I feel for the OP - so many unscrupulous practices these days.

If the EA is talking down your property, as you suggest, they are not doing their job.
I would tell them you are going to another estate agent.

See what they say.

No. The OP accepted his offer of 20k less and agreed at that price. The buyer then waited until exchange and completion day and asked for another 20k off the price, based on a smaller, cheaper flat for sale in the complex. The OP refused and he ‘upped’ the offer by 2k. So instead of another 20k off, he ‘only’ wanted 18k. So the OP would have ended up £38k short of the asking price.

Not exactly in a weak one either. On the market for 2 months before an offer is good going for these types of properties.

The fault lies with the EA and the conveyancing solicitor in these cases. They’re supposed to thoroughly check out availability and source of funds to comply with money laundering legislation. Buyers are supposed to supply proof of deposited funds and mortgage when they offer.

For me this is nothing to do with the asking price and what it’s worth. The buyer agreed to pay a price based on what he saw. That is a contract. Nothing has changed to warrant a price drop. He may now regret his offer but that doesn’t give him priority on a lower offer. I would put it back on the market and let him make a new offer. If that is your highest offer next time then all’s fair.

Take your time! And know if you compromise you show your hand and they may mess around further. This happened to me, and it was our turn delayed to buy some time. It was hilarious the agent desperately calling to ask for our answer while we said all the things they'd previously said to us as they had tried to run down the clock-' I wasn't able to discuss with husband, so sorry, I will try tomorrow' etc. The other agent was doing viewings in this time and we had another offer close to the original from 2 lovely brothers within 2 days. Once you send paperwork to the second people you have to, legally, also notify the first that you have done so. What a joyful day that was for us - after the nonsense they had put us though (we'd accepted their first price drop - BE WARNED!). The brothers sold a few years later for almost double - good for them! - they knew we were over a barrel but acted completely honourably. If there's really no difference between the flats in his eyes, then he'll be happy with the less good one. I was pregnant with twins at the time which they all knew but smile every time I think of selling my lovely flat to the boys who were incredibly kind because they understood my position, rather than the guy who abused it. The agent, I'm fairly sure, was in on it, and was unaware that we were in danger of losing our onward. My husband loved the jaw drop caused when he let him know this on collecting the keys a few weeks later.

There is no contract until written signed contracts are formally exchanged.

There is no contract until written signed contracts are formally exchanged.

I am always stunned by how the system operates in England. I'm in the US and there is a lot of variation by state, but property laws are essentially derived from English common law. In my state, there is offer, acceptance, a deposit and that is a binding contract. Buyers and sellers can't alter the terms at the last minute. How did the English system develop in this truly confounding way?

It's the same here - the point is that this buyer is trying to renegotiate at the pre deposit stage. When the deposit is handed over there are no more negotiations.

However - it is possible for the deposit and completion stages to happen on the same day. (I had 3 days between mine during COVID, a month is the standard time frame). This is what was supposed to happen here.