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.

Grim behaviour by the buyer. I can assure you the EA won’t be thrilled with them either. I agree with the pp who said take the emotion out of it and consider what’s in your best interests. Not your job to worry about the buyers, not is it the EA’s for that matter, as it’s you who will be paying them if it goes through.

I'd have told him to go buy the cheaper crappier property, and I would NOT be offering any reduction at all.

Here's another way to look at it; every single serious buyer who sees that ad for the other property (or comes to view it), is going to take a look at yours to compare. If they can manage the extra 20 K, they'll go for the best buy. So late in the day, the other property has given yours a big new sales boost by introducing new buyers.

Your agent should present that to the gazunderer and use it to your advantage. If G thinks he's about to lose the better property to competition, he'll come back with full price PDQ.

Agree with everyone else.

Tell him to fuck off.

And put it back on the market today.

You need to put a leash on your EA, you instruct them not the other way around

Except if I'm right about him being a BTL landlord the EA could easily be implicated in this and could even be managing properties for him

There's nothing new about EAs trying to force discounts for an associate, and where it happens the only answer is to get a different one

Don’t even give £10k off

Sure he's buying for his mum. Agree with others he's a BTL landlord looking to save himself money and have a smug weekend on your expense.

Don't take any nonsense from the EA as well. They just want to close the deal and get their commission, but it's a lot of money for you so don't back down.

Agree with all the pp's. Stick to your guns op. 10k reduction off the table. Exchange is today or not at all and no offers will be entertained from them. The more accommodating you are the more they take the piss. Don't be friendly or nice anymore. Tell the agent if they want to pay the price of the cheaper property they can go buy the cheaper property.

Had to do something similar with my sale, when the threats of pulling out if I didn't acquiesce to their latest demands came on exchange day it was the last straw and I told the solicitor and agent we exchanged today as agreed or it went back on the market. No more discussion. Funnily enough there were no more problems and my only regret was not asserting myself earlier as they had been a PITA from first viewing.

We had already accepted a lower offer from them than we would have liked and pretty much identical properties to ours had gone for significantly more. We had also received a higher offer if we were able to wait a few months more but didn't want to lose our now home so took the lower offer.

Would you give away £10,000 if somebody simply asked you for it?

Absolutely don't even offer £10k off. If he's that close to exchange he's already financially invested anyway. You've offered £10k as goodwill, he's rejected that, so he can pay the original price or bugger off.

@Mustnotbeleftblank

Oh my God, I can't believe what I've just read. 😂 This is so farcical. And top tier cheeky fuckery! It's so farcical it's almost funny. Except it's not funny because it's affecting your life.

As previous posters said (and you suggested,) YES! Tell him to do one - and say 'you're quite free to drop out. Somebody else will want it soon. Go and buy the crappy one for £20,000 less. You are not getting mine for £20,000 less!' Be really, really fucking stroppy with him, because that's what he deserves.

I agree with what you’ve done - taking the 10k off the table, as it was offered to allow a smooth process which now hasn’t happened.

He’s massively trying it on.

Absolutely this.

Put it in writing to the EA that you are most concerned about the representation you are receiving from the firm.

State that it does NOT appear YOUR best interests are their priority and that you will be making a complaint to their regulatory body if this doesn't change.

The number of times that I have heard of EA's looking after friends/business contacts is legion.

A phone call can be denied.

Email and insist on a written response.

You have done the right thing in your position. I despise gazunderers. All depends on circumstances - can you negotiate off your next property (not applicable for you) and how quick you need to move (you don't in your case). So you are in the perfect position. I am sure it will resell, and if you are in no hurry I'd say he can do one.

However, just as an alternative POV - I read an article in the paper the other week which was basically saying gazundering is common practice, take the emotion out of it, it happens all the time, estate agents are used to it. Plus some reports are saying its a falling market so you might find you have to sell for a bit less anyway.

All this too.

The drop isn’t much to the EA but it’s a lot to you.

Exactly.

How long does it take to earn £10K after tax?

That's what you're giving away, and for no good reason.

I would look at the overall market: have prices dropped since you accepted the offer or have prices started to recover?

The point being is that you have to assess how easy it would be to get another offer in your current local market.

That should tell you whether it is realistic or not to just dump the buyer/refuse to compromise.

If prices are stable/have gone up and there is a lot of demand and you are in no hurry to sell, you might want to withdraw.

If it is a falling market you will want to negotiate rather than start all over again and ending up with a lower offer anyway...

I would look at this purely as a business transaction and take emotions out of it.

The advice about telling them to ''fuck off'' and so on is rather immature.

It might make you feel better for 5 minutes, but then what?

You need to work out what makes more sense financially for you (negotiate a lower offer or putting it back on the market) and will cause the less disruption and stress long term rather than trying to score points.

Personally I would point out that the property the buyer is comparing too has completely different specs and that explains the different in price. I would state that are you are willing to offer X amount less (8K or 10K) as a compromise to get the transaction going but that you will withdraw if this is not accepted.

Everyone will tell you to dig your heels in and call his bluff, because it's what we'd all like to do ourselves in your situation and MN is all about living vicariously.

Whereas a year ago it would almost certainly also be good advice, the property market has changed considerably and you need to be smarter about decisionmaking than just going with your emotions. It will be satisfying to tell the the buyer to shove it but it'll be a brief satisfaction if you fail to sell again promptly, which is a real possibility right now.

The pp is right that retirement properties are hard to shift, and you also need to consider how long it took to get an offer in the first place and how long ago that was. Maybe the other flat is cheaper because the local market has downturned between then and now. I'm househunting atm and I see properties being reduced left. right and centre, which is pretty unheard of for this time of year normally. EAs are worms and not to be trusted as a rule, but that doesn't mean the advice yours is giving you is bad, unfortunately.

If you can afford to hold the line and really want to then go for it ofc, but don't do it because the thread is egging you on, because imo it's not very informed advice.

(I agree there's no elderly mother though! Why would she want all your furniture?!)

Agree to the change and then put the price up by £30k prior to completion.

Then go round and smash his windows.

Ahaha, great minds think alike @Greenfairydust !

I fail to understand why it is OK to drop a pricce by 20K because the survey shows damage but not OK to drop 20K because the market has dropped. Some missing logic here. At the ened of the day the place is worth xk less in both instances. No one throws away 20k unless they absolutely have to so why should a buyer. Up to the point of exchange your house has not sold, and people are free to change their mind at any time.

What I would do : treat this for what it is, a business transaction. Questions I would ask :

i) Is the property reasonably priced ? Did I get a lot of interest during the sale period, is it priced consistently with other properties in the area of the same type ? Is it likely to sell quickly if remarketed ?

ii) Do I need the cash now or can I wait for later ?How much is it going to cost to remarket and maintain during the likely new sale period ?

iii) Are there a lot of similar properties on the market in the area ?

iv) Is the market likely to drop while it is being remarketed as interest rates are going up ? Am I likely to chase the market down ?

Depending on your contract terms, I would consider hinting to the agent that if it is going to be remarketed then it will probably be with a new agent. That might get them back on side.

Ultimately only you can decide whether or not it is worth it to you to proceed under the changed conditions.

Your potential buyer sounds like they feel they are in a commanding position (otherwise they would have met your 10k halfway offer).

Call his bluff and definitely don't budge on the price (retract the reduced offer). We had a buyer do very similar to us at the last minute. We held fast, told the estate agent we weren't willing to negotiate at this late stage and if the buyer wanted to withdraw then he could. Funnily enough, the buyer didn't and the sale went through at the agreed price (although he'd been a pain in the ass the whole way through and I wish we'd gone with the other slightly lower offer - hindsight is a wonderful thing).
Best of luck (it's such a stressful process!).

Agree entirely!

''@DogInATent
This is why I always advice not to stop marketing a property your selling until the point of exchange, and that includes taking viewings''

Which is absolute nonsense..

As a buyer any offer I make is and will always be subject to the property coming off the market immediately and no more viewings being conducted.

If the seller is reluctant to do that the offer would be immediately withdrawn.

I have absolutely no interest in spending money on survey and solicitor and arranging a mortgage while the sellers are trying to still get a better offer behind my back...

it is a complete no-no for most buyers.

Yes, glad to see you've taken the £10k offer off the table and told them to take the other flat if that's all they want to pay. Gazumpers and gazunderers are the worst, but with a system as shit as ours, I can see how it happens.

I would also remind the EA that they are meant to be working as your agent. I honestly found that none of our estate agent actually prioritised us, their clients, the ones paying the bloody fee!! I can clearly remember saying to DP that it doesn’t matter where we were in the process it always seemed like our EA was working for the other party. Completely bizarre.