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.

He’s a cash buyer

This is a property for his mother

There is another one available in the block that’s for sale

I doubt this situation is keeping him up at night

Greed is the biggest problem afflicting our world at the moment. I'm reminded of a Terry Pratchett novel, where the protagonist was being really 'clever' ripping people off, but only later dud the human cost of his actions become evident.
So maybe in a purely B2B scenario, this kind of behaviour is considered acceptable. What we have here is a buyer who clearer has the price agreed available but is taking advantage of the system whereby a contract for sake of property, unlike other contracts, is not completed at the stage of offer and acceptance, leaving either party to change the rules right up to the last minute.
Here we have private individuals, presumably grieving, whose vulnerability is being taken advantage of.
I fully appreciate all the points of view about saleability, obligations to beneficiaries, costs involved in remarketing the property (which clearly the OP has considered), but IMHO, the only way to begin to make a change in the greed mentality which is killing our world is for each individual to make a stand against it. Especially those who have the knowledge and resources to do so.
I agree, this does not sound like a purchase for the buyer's mother (unless the type of development prohibits renting to third parties) but someone looking to make themselves rich due to the misfortune of others.

There’s no honour, it’s all about the money
What a shiitty Thatchers children attitude that is - fuck morality just look at all my money. Cunty way to go on.

This is an unusual post for Mumsnet, and it is wonderful to read 🙏

Point out the differences and remain firm.

Accepting a price drop is worth it for a genuine cash buyer. But this one has shown that he's not genuine. We once sold to a genuine cash buyer and were happy to drop the price to one which we still thought fair, and had a quick sale which went through in a matter of weeks. The next house we tried to sell, some chancers tried on this cash buyer lark - they weren't. They cost us money in legal fees - not a lot, but it rankled because we could have sold easily, to none 'cash' buyers. Nor do I see why we should have to subsidise other people.

🤷‍♂️ If it wasn’t all about the money why does OP care.

it works both ways.

Decency.

oh right. Like your language is decent and courteous 😂

The saying, "there is no sentiment in business" is a realistic fact.
If you were the purchaser and looking to pay the least for what meets your requirements then you would feel great if you clinched the deal on your terms.
As the seller and a human with feelings, you are entitled to feel hard done by.
It sounds to me like you want to be rid of the property asap but also want the best return. Nothing unreasonable about that. However, there is a level of value you won't drop below, even if you are stuck with the property and only you can decide that. Fix that value in your mind and it becomes a simple matter to accept or reject an offer.
Forget the bargaining or chipping away at the price.
I had the same situation about 5 years ago and there were pressures to get rid of the house. However, there was a value that I wasn't prepared to go below. I was confident the competing property was less attractive to the purchasers wife and it needed a lot spending on it to raise it to the standard of my house. They bought the other place...
Time went by and a property came up for sale that was perfect for my future needs. I bought it and then a buyer came along for my house. The man had agreed a fair price and then, just before signing the contract, tried a lower offer of £15 grand less or would walk.
I had already squeezed £25grand off the other property on an instant exchange, so I agreed, even though it was lower than the lowest figure I set myself.
The point being, situations are always changing and if it is meant to be, it will happen.
I hope that helps.

In a decent world, hardworking families wouldn't have to mortgage themselves to the hilt in order to afford a dump to live in.

Sellers want it all. Massive house price inflation, then when they want to sell they want buyers to pony up, without leveraging their advantage.

They don't like it when the boot is on the other foot and it's the buyers holding the best cards.

But when I last moved, I was both a buyer and a seller! Aren’t most people?

It was very much a seller’s market at the time, which made it easy for me to call my gazundering buyers’ bluff, but it also meant that I had to offer full asking price on the property I was buying. Understanding the current market is key.

This is a cash buyer and a probate seller. No one is mortgaging anything!

What an utterly daft analogy

What kind of analogy do you think might work to communicate to timewasters that their selfish actions have consequences that impact on other people's lives - the kind of people who come out with rubbish like "But why would you give away your money?" - because they are too dishonourable to respect when it's the time to negotiate and then it becomes the time to honour the deal you agreed on?

How about the difference between getting a builder around for a quote for a big project, telling him all the work you're planning; as opposed to then accepting it, allowing him to set aside the time in his schedule, source all the materials, contract all the labourers and then, when they all turn up with their vans and lorries, suddenly tell him that the quote you agreed on is unacceptable?

Maybe no analogy would work and I'm probably wasting my energy as people with no honour or integrity tend to find it highly amusing and ridiculous when those who do have a sense of integrity put the moral perspective.

Sellers want it all. Massive house price inflation, then when they want to sell they want buyers to pony up, without leveraging their advantage.

They don't like it when the boot is on the other foot and it's the buyers holding the best cards.

So do you find gazumping honourable, then? Are the sellers fully morally justified in leveraging their advantage?

I feel like I'm shouting into the wind here; there's nothing at all wrong with good business, negotiating hard and using whatever advantages you have to the full - but once the deal is done, only a thoroughly dishonourable person will renege on it.

This is a cash buyer and a probate seller. No one is mortgaging anything!

The probate seller part is true, but it would appear that our 'cash buyer' is like so many 'cash buyers' in that they are NOT cash buyers in any way, but merely liars who believe that lying that they are cash buyers until the very last minute will give them an advantage, at the expense of any personal integrity or self-respect.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll (love your user name)

true! But was just countering the “mortgaged up to the hilt” point.

This is fucking MN, are you new here?

No one likes being cheated, lied to and ripped off the satisfy the opportunistic greed of others. I wonder if advocates for the gazunderer have ever continued with an agreement they made if it turns out to be detrimental or if they just think giving their word on things should always be regarded as subject to a subsequent opportunity for them to enrich themselves at the expense of others?

Yes. Both sides are possible. The market pivots between sellers and buyers and one group has the upper hand.

It isn't about what is morally right. Morals went out the window years ago in the housing market when it became a vehicle for rampant speculation.

Yet some people seem to always want the upside. When prices go up insanely that's great. When the market falls and buyers can leverage their power not so great.

You are shouting in the wind. Because what you say has no legal backing. And that's what counts.

Everybody who has been disenfranchised by the way the property market is run in this country, with the government constantly propping up prices and working against buyers should be angry. People stuck in rentals because they can't afford a home and security for their children. Now buyers have the upper hand I have every sympathy for them.

But at the end of the day, my sympathy and your morality count for nothing.

Only the rules and what people are allowed to do legally is what counts. Screw people over enough and they will take whatever steps they are legally allowed to to provide for themselves and their families. Screw them over some more and they will go beyond that.

Perfectly put. Have to ask though. Was the novel Going Postal?

Rubbish, I have told a supposed buyer what they can do with it. I found an honest buyer

Yep. This is what the OP should do. ^

Yep. This is what the OP should do. ^

Whoops I don't know how/why that posted twice!