Nasty disagreement over house purchase

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We are negotiating a house purchase and found a house we both like. We have been going back and forth with the seller over the past few weeks.

Our last offer was £555k which was rejected but the seller has said they will accept £558k. My husband wants to offer £556k and not a penny more. I think we should offer the full amount but my husband has refused and is adamant he won't offer more than £556k.

Am I being thick, it's £2k more and we get the house? My husband isn't moving and has called me a clown for saying "it's only £2k more."

prices have been amended to avoid outting

You offer 556 on the house and buy chattels worth 2k. Everyone's a winner

The negotiation going on for weeks tells you what you need to know

The buyer has made a reasonable offer and the seller is trying to leverage off of it as a 'fallback' to get a better one

The seller is the one being the unreasonable ass, not the buyer

how lovely this marriage sounds

please say no children involved?

"He called me a clown because I had told the EA how much we loved the property at the 2nd viewing."

Horrible language, he should never speak to you like this.

But, he's right that was a major tactical error. You need to be totally blank and give them nothing or you lose out to the tune of a few thousand at least. Unless you really don't care and are ready to walk away over it.

Let him do what he thinks.
If it falls through, buy him some clown shoes for Christmas.

Recently had similar on a renegotiation - again to the tune of 2k. The vendor had already been arsing us about and my husband felt he was taking the piss and would keep trying to hike the price.

So we offered the lower amount and said we wouldn't pay a penny more. Vendor then took a week to come back to us. Probably would have been longer but we went back to the EA and put an expiry on the offer as we were getting fed up.

Anyway we moved in on Thursday having purchased for the lower price. Our vendor needed a bit of a kick up the arse to get it over the line generally and the renegotiation was a particularly sticky point. But it's a dream now we are finally in 😊😊! Good luck!

100%

Depends on the vendor. You had a nice responsive one. We've just bought a house from a very tricky vendor who wouldn't answer his phone for weeks on end and had to think about renegotiation prices for days...

This is your 3rd offer - if I was your potential seller it would be the final offer. I'd feel you were messing me about and selling is difficult enough without that. So unless I was desperate to sell I'd say thanks but dont offer again.

In your place I might take some time before putting in that third offer, unless you are very keen on the property.

It is a lower offer than the asking though at about 3% I think OP stated
With 2% as the average.

3% lower is nothing in this market, the seller is risking tens of thousands over 2k. The buyer isn't.

However @DogInATent
If the onward purchase is relying on their sale price then the seller either
loses the house they want to buy
or
refuses the lower price.
or
equally has to try to buy their future property for a lower price

both could affect the chain and on and on it goes

I don’t understand, how is the seller risking tens of thousands

If calling you a clown was a bad as it got during a a stressful house purchase then you’re lucky. Things get heated. Learn to make a strategy together and stick to it.

I’m the negotiator in our family and if husband said to the EA we loved the house I’d have gone mad. He would have if we hadn’t made an agreement to play it cool.

He is right in looking at the fall in local house prices and adjusting to that level.

You have to take emotions out of house buying as it’s down to economics.

It’s probably the biggest and most important purchase you’ll ever make.

Imagine a couple of years from now looking back and seeing the value of your house has dropped and you’re in negative equity.

There are always other houses - always.

Because mortgage rates are going up again, so if they want to move they're risking the cost of borrowing being more coupled with the fact that they'll have to reduce their price, given that people obviously aren't queuing up for the property at the price they've marketed it at.

@TheTidyBear, if negotiations have been ongoing, the seller is more invested in getting the price he wants than securing a sale.

He must feel that it’s worth holding out for the extra money then. He’s risking losing the potential sale for a relatively small sum, so unless he has someone else who’s interested, he’s being foolish, especially as the market is very quiet in many areas.

Exactly, you have to wonder if they want to move at all. It's a big risk for a buyer. Maybe just a timewaster.

That’s fine as far as it goes. But letting the seller know you are invested in the house to the exclusion of looking for something else isn’t a good idea. It makes them think they can call the shots and ups the negotiations, especially if the EA communicates that the buyer is keen.

We haven't. We have increased the offer in £5k increments. It's not as if we are going back and forth every few days with £1k increases. I understand that £1k increases would be annoying.

Dh is paying? Seems like he's the sort who likes to win. If you were my dd I'd be concerned you've got bigger problems than haggling over a house tbh.

op this issue aside, what’s the marriage like?

Do you have children?

Our buyers have their mortgage set ( although paying cash and then reverting after sale ) .
Most mortgage agreements last 3months
If prices go up or down they go up or down for everyone so it’s all relative really, whether you are buying or selling.

Meanwhile OPs dh is holding out for a £2k reduction when, as you say, interest rates may go up if their mortgage offer runs out of time.

It swings both ways

And the sellers mortgage when they want to move? How much is that going to cost them if they dilly dally for the next 6 months?

It doesn't swing both ways, because the buyer has made a reasonable offer.

What a horrible attitude, even allowing for your "sarcasm" 🙄

And how "ultra special or unique" the house is, or isn't, is totally irrelevant, it's the seller's house, they don't have to part with it just because the buyer has reached their own limit for an offer.

Why bother to waste everyone's time by putting your house on the market if you won't accept a reasonable offer?