Overpaying for a house

[Niceeyes]

We just had our offer accepted on a house, our mortgage is just being approved so the current owners says they will keep their property on the market until we get once approval… that’s fair.
however they have kept the property on the market but dropped it by £50K, now we feel like we may be offering too much, we thought we were making a much bigger savings. The place needs a good amount of updating but is fine to live in. We are considering lowering our offer, AIBU or YANBU?

That's not at all the picture you painted in your OP.

I suspect they don't think your mortgage offer will come through or perhaps are accepting your 70k less offer while they try and get a better price, albeit 50k less than their original price.

I dont imagine you'll have much luck knocking another 50k off when you are still 20k below the price they want

Your opening post is so misleading

You made it sounds like they had now put it back on the market at £50k LESS than you have offered, not £50k less than originally asking which you massively undercut

I would have made it a condition of the offer that it was taken off the market

Apologies if misleading post, yes pretty much this… If the agent thinks the house is worth £50k than their original price just a few days after w me had our offer accepted then I feel like we are paying too close to asking (given the amount of updating needed) .. it’s not going to be out forever home so we need to make this a good investment too

I’ve bought and sold 5 houses, it’s not normal at all once an offer is accepted. Sold STC takes it off the active listings on Rightmove or other selling sites and agents should not be showing the property to any new parties afterwards.

They're tracking your offer down hoping for something closer to the original asking price whilst you pull your finger out and get a mortgage sorted. What progress have you made on the mortgage since making the offer?

I'm surprised that they accepted your offer when you weren't ready to proceed, did they really accept or was it closer to, "Yes, if you can come back in a position to proceed before the kettle boils?".

Has the property been sitting on the market a while and you're not proceedable and very under-asking offer is the only one they've had so far? - if so, they're likely dropping a value bracket on Rightmove to see if they can get a matching or better offer from someone in a better position than you.

Thanks all, mortgage will be sorted tomorrow, decision needs to be made then

The mortgage company will do a valuation once you enter into the sale process properly, OP.

That's when the 'real' current value will be determined (or at least, that the mortgage company will take as value and base their calculations on).

You need to adjust your thinking. You've offered £70k under the previous asking price, which brought the price down to probably nearish its true current value.

If you want the house, that's likely the amount you're going to have to proceed with.

I'm not sure what the vendors are waiting for - haven't you got your mortgage agreed in principle?

Surely this is them trying to get a better offer? They seem to need to move quickly, so they've accepted your offer when they don't really want to so rather than the normal taking off the market once they have accepted they are keeping on the market.

Due to you sorting things out they need to find that better offer quickly - £20K more than your offer is £20K more in their pocket so they've reduced it to generate more interest quickly.

You can reduce your offer if you want but I think you'll be told to fuck off and then some.

If you get the mortgage sorted tomorrow you can go back and ask for the property to be taken off market and the sale to proceed at the agreed price.

But they don’t have to do this, they can still change their mind, reject your offer and keep the house on the market. Whilst it will be £50k less than previously advertised, it’s seems they still want to get more than you have offered. I guess you’ll find out tomorrow if they want to proceed with you or not, but it’s very unlikely they will agree to lower the price again. I’d be concerned that they might accept your offer but pull out before exchange if they think they can still get more for it.

Yea. That little snippet changes everything. It's still odd behaviour from the vendors but the OP isn't being short changed.

The lender doesn’t use the estate agents valuation, they do it themselves so it won’t make any difference what it’s listed for..

The asking price should reflect the amount of updating needed anyway, as that will be the same for whoever buys it.

You are approaching it like you've been cheated out of 50k, that's just nonsense. The house was overpriced, it's now been reduced to reflect it's true price and you are still paying less than that.

You have no reason to be annoyed.

could it have taken a few days to update the system and you came in with the lower offer before it was published?

Did you make a decision OP?

So we've had it the other way - we sold our house for £30k over asking and the estate agent put the asking price up. When we queried his, it was so the valuation wasn't questioned. I can see the same happening in reverse- you paying massively under asking for the property smacks of dodgy dealings and will raise questions with the bank. By updating the asking price to reflect market offers it reduces the risk of questions being asked by the bank.

I think you misunderstood from the beginning, OP. They clearly didn't accept your offer in the normal sense - they still want more and are actively seeking more. They're definitely not going to accept an offer of the sort of discount you seem to want. And, indeed, why should they?

we did, mortgage approved and we are going back for another viewing to see exactly how much work is needed

Changing the offer due to the amount of work required is fine